Europe Wants Central Role in Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations

The European Union wants a more active role in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on the eve of her first visit to the region.

Six months into her tenure, the 41-year-old former Italian foreign minister is eager to leverage Europe’s position as Israel’s biggest trade partner and as the Palestinians’ main aid donor after last year’s failure by the United States to bring the Palestinians and Israelis to negotiations.

“My very early visit has a political meaning,” Mogherini told a news conference following an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels where she discussed the Middle East.

“The European Union is ready and willing to play a major role in a relaunching of this process on the basis of the two-state solution.”

Some EU diplomats believe Mogherini, who meets Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday and Thursday, sees a chance for EU diplomacy in the absence of a major new push from Washington as President Barack Obama approaches his final 18 months in office.

However, the 28-nation bloc faces deep internal divisions over the Middle East. Many Palestinians see the United States as too close to Israel, while Yerushalayim is wary of EU governments it views as too tolerant of Palestinian terrorists.

Criticized in Israel for past contacts with Palestinian leaders, Mogherini said on Monday she wanted to listen to both sides, especially following Netanyahu’s formation of a new coalition government.

This article appeared in print on page 42 of the May 20th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.