HJS Friends of Israel Report FINAL_HJS Friends of Israel Report FINAL.qxd 06/02/2014 09:55 Page 5 ADDED VALUE: ISRAEL’S STRATEGIC WORTH TO THE EU AND ITS MEMBER STATES settlements and the status of Jerusalem, as well as the Introduction proportionality of Israeli military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.4 The relationship between the European Union and According to Shlomo Avineri, the former head of the State of Israel is often said to be based on common both Israel’s Foreign Ministry and of European values. Israelis often describe their country as a vibrant Studies at Hebrew University: democracy that treasures the core Western values of Some Europeans have started looking at ties human rights and rule of law, and, in public with Israel through the lens of disagreement, pronouncements, European policymakers tend to rather than the broad areas of co-operation. agree.1 The weight of history – centuries of European Likewise, many Israelis today feel Europe is anti-Semitism, culminating in the Holocaust – is never anti-Israel, because they read in newspapers entirely absent from the discussion.2 about disagreement over settlement policy. Yet, the Israel of today is far more than a Western Most have no idea about the very sensitive the island surrounded by Middle Eastern dysfunction. security bilateral relations, [or] the scope of The diminutive Jewish state leads the world in economic relationship and of scientific and start-ups, patents, and rate of scientists per capita; it scholarly exchange.5 has more companies on the NASDAQ than any The range of those ties was underscored by the EU’s country outside of North America; it has the 2012 upgrade of relations with Israel in 60 specific third-highest rate of entrepreneurship (and the highest activities: from energy to agriculture, and from ng women and people over 55); and it is the amo policing to space exploration. The move, though, fell world’s sixth-largest producer of military technology, short of the full upgrade that Israel had sought, and and 17th-largest of Nobel laureates.3 which the EU had withheld after Jerusalem’s 2008-09 This report, then, seeks to go beyond questions of campaign against Hamas rocket fire from Gaza. 6 values and history, to assess the strategic benefit that the However, even if that symbolic gesture was refused, EU derives from its ties to Israel. It does so in three key the effect has been nearly the same: links between the arenas – security, economy, and science and technology EU and Israel are now more extensive than at any ean and time in either’s history – a fact not lost on the Jewish – bolstered by interviews with leading Europ state’s most committed detractors.7 Israeli opinion-shapers and policymakers. However, the report does not elide over disagreements Today, the European bloc’s future hangs in the ilateral relationship. In recent years, the two balance. Euroscepticism is on the rise across the in the b Continent; the Eurozone crisis is battering its sides have clashed over the question of West Bank members’ economies; and the Union’s role on the 1 For example: “The EU and Israel share the common values of democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law and basic freedoms”, in 4 Costanza Musu, “The state of EU-Israel Relations: An appraisal from a “EU/Israel Action Plan,” Commission of the European Communities (2004), pean perspective,” 1957-2009: Israeli-European Cooperation – Stocktaking, Euro available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri= Israeli European Policy Network (2009), available at: http://www.iepn.org/ COM:2004:0790:FIN:EN:PDF; see also: Barroso’s words, “Europe is also part images/stories/papers/israeli-european%20cooperation%20stocktaking.pdf; of you, of your values and of your culture”, in “S peech on the occasion of see also: Tsilla Hershco, “Israel – EU Security and Defense Relations – President Barroso’s honorary doctorate at the University of Haifa,” European Divergences and Convergences,” Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs, available at: ael-eu-security-and-defense- om/isr Commission, 10 July 2012, available at: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_ http://diplomacyandforeignaffairs.c SPEECH-12-543_en.htm?locale=en (accessed 23 December 2013); see also: relations-divergences-and-convergences/ (accessed 4 November 2013). Author interview with Francesca Traldi, secretary-general of the Magna Carta 5 Author interview, 20 November 2013. Foundation, 11 December 2013: “I am convinced Israel is part of the West; it 6 Phoebe Greenwood, “EU move to upgrade relations with Israel,” The Guardian, wa s in the past and present, and will be in the future.” 23 July 2012, available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/ 2 ‘Nir Hasson, “European Union project aims to establish network of Holocaust 23/israel-eu?newsfeed=true, (accessed 14 December 2013). archives,” Haaretz, 8 November 2010, available at: http://www.haaretz.com/ rother in Arms,” Al print-edition/news/european-union-project-aims-to-establish-network-of- 7 See, for example: Bruno Jäntti, “The EU: Israel’s Faithful B holocaust-archives-1.323468; see also: Angelika Stricker, “Merkel tells Israeli Akhbar, 13 May 2013, available at: http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/15791; parliament of Holocaust shame,” Reuters, 18 Ma see also: Arjan El Fassed, “In bed with Israel: EU’s close relationship with Israel rch 2008, available at: supports abuse,” The Electronic Intifada, 11 March 2005, available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/03/18/us-israel-germany-id http://electronicintifada.net/content/bed-israel-eus-close- USL1885127220080318 (both accessed 23 December 2013). relationship-israel-supports-abuse/5459; see also: Ben White, “EU-Israel: One 3 Aaron David Miller, “Is Israel Doomed?,” Foreign Policy, 7 November 2013, the other,” Al Jazeera, 8 August 2012, available at: hand whitewashes available at: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/11/07/ http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/08/20128719414439 is_israel_doomed?page=full (accessed 10 November 2013). 3945.html (all accessed 23 December 2013). 3