Destroying 50 years of ties in 50 days


Apr. 26, 2009
david newman , THE JERUSALEM POST
It is customary to give new governments and administrations a 100-day  
buffer zone before analyzing, or criticizing, their policies. But  
this assumes that those same governments will use the 100 days to  
take advice, learn the ropes and reach a fuller understanding of the  
issues at stake. After all, having been on the outside it is always  
easy to criticize and suggest new policies. Once the outsider becomes  
an insider and he/she takes time out to become acquainted with the  
realities and all those details which are often not known to the  
public, he may decide to move ahead in a more balanced, less emotive  
and less political, fashion while attempting to implement new policies.


Our new foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has decided that he  
doesn't need 100 days. He obviously didn't even require 100 hours  
before he came out with statements about Annapolis, the road map or  
our sensitive relations with our neighbor Egypt. Like a bull in a  
china shop and, we would assume, with the implicit knowledge of the  
prime minister, Lieberman has managed to anger just about everyone  
with his hasty statements. Our diplomats around the world, who have a  
difficult task to fill even at the best of times, are facing a  
barrage of criticism and are no longer sure what message they should  
be disseminating in the name of the state.


Nowhere is this more apparent than in our relationship with the  
European Union, a relationship which began exactly 50 years ago,  
which has known ups and downs over the years, but which had recently  
experienced an upgrading and a mutual warmth which had rarely been  
achieved in the previous five decades. Over the past five years both  
the EU and the government had brought this relationship from an all- time low to a situation where the mutual trade, cultural and even  
political ties are stronger than ever before.


Just last week, a poll sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation  
and the Center for the study of Politics and Society at Ben-Gurion  
University showed that the average Israeli is very positive toward  
Europe, would like to see Israel as a future member of the EU  
(something which is unrealistic in practical terms and is unlikely to  
ever happen), and that almost 40 percent of Israelis were eligible  
for EU passports based on their parents' or grandparents' citizenship  
in one of these countries.


And yet on the very next day, we are told that the EU has sent a  
strong message to their Israeli counterparts informing them that the  
continued warming of relations would not be taking place, given  
Israel's backtrack from its support of a two-state solution.  
Positions to this effect on the part of our new government reflect a  
major deviation from the stance taken by all governments during the  
past decade, as well as the international consensus position agreed  
by our strongest allies in both the US and Europe.


THIS POTENTIAL worsening of relations with the EU is perhaps not  
surprising. Our new prime minister is as American as apple pie and  
has never demonstrated any serious interest in, or understanding of,  
Europe, despite the fact that one of his faithful team of advisers,  
Uzi Arad, was formerly the head of one of the major Israel-EU forums.  
Binyamin Netanyahu's comments last weekend to the effect that Europe  
should not try to dictate any form of peace settlement were uttered  
in a disdainful way which was totally unnecessary.


For his part, Lieberman represents a strong Russian constituency in  
this country, a constituency which promotes Russian interests which  
are by no means the same as the rest of Europe. Russia is not part of  
the expanding EU, has made it clear that it does not see itself as a  
future member of the European club, and has gone to great efforts to  
make it even more difficult to cross into Russia from Europe than in  
the past. The meetings between Lieberman and his Russian counterparts  
shortly after taking up office must have sent the alarm bells ringing  
in Brussels, over and above his statements on the peace process.


This is even more surprising given the fact that traditionally  
Lieberman has been very supportive of the relations between Israel  
and Europe, as reflected in his party's manifesto for the recent  
elections. In it, he suggested that he would use his links with  
Russia to act as a mediator or a bridge between Russia and the EU,  
but so far all he has succeeded in doing by partially opening one  
door with Russia is to even more partially close another door with  
the EU. And if you were to ask the average Israeli, the same Israeli  
who answered the survey concerning attitudes toward Europe, who we  
trust in the longer term, it is clear that Western Europe takes  
precedence way above that of Russia, a country whose foreign policy  
continues to support states and leaders who display great animosity  
towards Israel.


Next week, Israel and the EU will be discussing 50 years of formal  
relations in a conference to be held at Mishkenot Sha'ananim in  
Jerusalem, at which Lieberman was expected to take part along with  
his European counterparts, but will not now attend. It will cover a  
wide range of topics, from the overtly political to the cultural and  
to the economic and trade relations between the two. Lieberman could  
have used this as an opportunity to clarify his, and the new  
administration's formal, position toward the EU. While the EU may not  
be as blindly supportive as our friends in the US (and this too  
appears to be changing in a way which even Netanyahu and his American  
allies may find difficult to deal with), Europe remains our ally in  
democracy and will continue to defend our right to exist and to  
defense in a hostile regional environment.


Much to their parents' and grandparents' dissatisfaction, young  
Israelis are returning to Europe in droves and are demonstrating  
their preferences for European lifestyles and culture just two short  
generations after the Holocaust. Many of them are taking up their  
rights to European passports, even through the problematic adoption  
of Polish and German citizenship. The young adult generation of this  
country sees Europe through very different eyes to those of its  
government and its new leaders. This is becoming far more deep rooted  
than any of us could ever have expected just 20 years ago, and it  
would ill behoove our new government to drive a wedge into this  
important relationship.