If Israel does not plan its moves wisely, the dramatic erosion in support for Israel among the leaderships and large segments of the population in European Union states will continue.
As expected, the government of Israel’s decision to issue a tender for construction of 1,000 housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem elicited a response from Catherine Ashton, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The response by the German government, however, and a statement by the four EU Security Council members – Germany, France, Britain, and Portugal – were less expected. These criticisms roughly coincided with both a document written by EU ambassadors in Israel stating that some of the representatives propose placing the issue of Israeli Arabs on the EU agenda, and a protest to the Israeli Foreign Ministry by the EU ambassador to Israel following the destruction of Palestinian homes in the E-1 area. This protest came on the heels of a protest that the European commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid, and crisis response lodged several weeks earlier regarding the evacuation of Bedouins from E-1.
