The EU’s response to the war between Israel and Gaza has been badly muddled. While Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden have been making their view crystal clear on Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas’s attacks, Josep Borrell, the top EU diplomat, has toed a different line. Borrell this week called for what was effectively an Israeli ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Israel’s more ardent European allies are furious. ‘We cannot contain the humanitarian catastrophe if Gaza’s terrorism continues. There will be no security and no peace for either Israel or the Palestinians if this terrorism continues,’ Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister, said.
Her Austrian counterpart, Alexander Schallenberg, echoed that view: ‘Of course everyone would wish that the violence comes to an end. But Israel has the right to self-defence.’
Theodore Roosevelt described the cardinal rules of foreign policy: ‘Walk softly, but carry a big stick.’ The EU obeys neither
Obviously any decent person wants to get humanitarian aid in, at least assuming it is not immediately annexed by Hamas.
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