Despite the recent United Nations Human Rights Council’s report, France and many other European countries are against attempts to revive the peace process, end the occupation and remove settlements. They prefer a “long-term stalemate” (which sounds like Boogie Yaalon’s “long term conflict management plan“). Outside pressure to push peace could backfire and benefit hardliners on both sides, according to European journalists interviewed recently by Reuters.
Of course, I am not talking about Israel’s occupation of parts of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine previously occupied by Jordan, but rather about Turkey’s occupation of a full-fledged EU member state.
In other European contortions, while France bombs terrorists “on the footsteps of Europe” in Mali, thousands of Hezbollah members operate openly in Europe. Their activities are now known to include bus bombing. France and other European powers have long been reluctant to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization – apparently because they only kill Jews, and most elsewhere, according to an astounding analysis in the New York Times:
There’s the overall fear if we’re too noisy about this, Hezbollah might strike again, and it might not be Israeli tourists this time,” said Sylke Tempel, editor in chief of the German foreign affairs magazine Internationale Politik.
Europe has recently been indicating that it will be pressuring Israel to take so-called risks for peace. But Europe is not unbiased, nor is its attitude towards Israel driven principally by Israel’s actions. European actors are driven by political agendas, fear, and a variety of factors. And given their fear of taking on Turkey, or even Hezbollah, they are ill placed to talk about risks for peace.