World News and Trends: EU pressures Israel for two-state solution
by Jerold Aust, John Ross Schroeder
Estimated reading time: 1 minutes.
Posted on 31-May-2009
The European Union resorted to ambiguous, vague threats against Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, even before he took office, "to pressure him to support the 'two-state solution,' which calls for the creation of an Arab state of Palestine inside the current borders of the Jewish State" ("EU: Accept 'Two-States' or Else," Arutz Sheva Israel National News, March 30, 2009).
The European Union resorted to ambiguous, vague threats against Israel’s new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, even before he took office, “to pressure him to support the ‘two-state solution,’ which calls for the creation of an Arab state of Palestine inside the current borders of the Jewish State” (“EU: Accept ‘Two-States’ or Else,” Arutz Sheva Israel National News, March 30, 2009).
The foreign ministers of the Czech Republic, Germany and Luxembourg—Karel Swarzenberg, Franz-Walter Steinmeier and Jean Asselborn, respectively—all trumpeted the two-state solution. Earlier, “EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana warned that the EU would ‘reevaluate its ties with Israel’ if the new government does not continue down the road to the creation of a state of Palestine.”
In yet another broadside earlier in March he stated, “Let me say very clearly that the way the European Union will relate to an Israeli government that is not committed to a two-state solution will be very, very different.”
Although Netanyahu has spelled out several constructive ways in which he plans to assist Palestinians, he has not acceded to a two-state solution. (Source: Arutz Sheva Israel National News.)
