Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom yesterday asked the European Union to adopt “a more balanced attitude” toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, calling for an end to the previously unrestrained backing of PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
Shalom, meeting in Prague with some of the ten new members to the EU, said he hoped the countries who joined the bloc in May would take a more evenhanded approach to Mideast policy than veteran EU nations.
“The newcomers, especially the Czech Republic, don’t have those complicated relations that others had for many years with Arafat and his colleagues,” Shalom told reporters after meeting Czech’s foreign minister, Cyril Svoboda.
“We are not asking for a pro-Israeli attitude, we are asking for a more balanced attitude of the European Union,” Shalom said.
Svoboda said he understood Israel’s need to build a security fence, and supported Sharon’s plan to unilaterally withdraw troops and all settlements from the Gaza Strip.
New EU members are Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Many EU nations, particularly France and the UK, have until recently maintained close relations with Arafat despite Israel’s calls to isolate him.
Observers attribute the EU’s traditional pro-Palestinian stance to its close economic ties to Arab countries and growing Muslim populations throughout Europe.
An Israeli minister told WND the EU’s past blind allegiance to Arafat was once made very clear during a phone call to one of Israel’s highest officials after the “Passover Massacre” – the March, 2002 suicide bombing of a hotel Passover seder that killed 19 Israelis – and Israel’s retaliation, the bombing of empty buildings in Arafat’s compound.
“A call came from the head of an EU country – I won’t say which one because I don’t want to cause a diplomatic incident – and the call was put through to his Israeli counterpart, who doesn’t take many phone calls,” said the official.
“It was assumed this was the obligatory phone call to express condolences for the suicide bombing. And this bombing was particularly painful because it took place on one of Judaism’s holiest days.
“Turns out, when Israel bombed Arafat’s compound, we temporarily knocked out the electricity and phone lines, and Arafat and his people were running low on batteries. After our devastating suicide bombing, this head of state was only calling to facilitate the transfer of cellular phone batteries to Arafat because heaven forbid they shouldn’t be able to contact him for a few hours. The unmitigated gall!”
But there are signs the EU’s old members now perceive Arafat as an obstacle to peace and are acting accordingly.
France has cooled relations, and at last week’s G8 summit in Atlanta, several European nations expressed strong support for Sharon’s disengagement plan and joined in Egypt’s recent demands that Arafat give up power and reform his security forces.
In response, Arafat this week sent a private delegation to Syria to establish a Syrian-Palestinian front to defeat Sharon’s withdrawal plan and keep the Egyptians from assuming security responsibility in the Gaza Strip. Assad, under intense U.S. and international pressure because of his support for the Iraq insurgency and Hezbollah, has thus far refused to receive the delegation, which is reportedly still waiting in Damascus.
