HJS Friends of Israel Report FINAL_HJS Friends of Israel Report FINAL.qxd 06/02/2014 09:55 Page 18 ADDED VALUE: ISRAEL’S STRATEGIC WORTH TO THE EU AND ITS MEMBER STATES Conclusions and EU-Israel pharmaceutical agreement, he said, represented a “decoupling” of bilateral ties from ‘the Recommendations conflict’, and that a similar approach ought to be taken for other Israeli industries which serve Europe’s interests. “It’s about what benefits Europeans,” Freudenstein said. “It’s that simple.”132 Given the benefits that accrue to Europe, from its relationship with Israel, the question becomes how to Dr Avineri, who also holds a visiting professorship at further deepen those ties. The 2012 upgrade in Budapest’s Central European University, lamented relations was an essential step; but, a full upgrade in that EU Mideast policy often has more to do with relations would grant an official, symbolic imprimatur posturing than practicality: to the growing Europe-Israel relationship. The EU has not been very powerful in affecting At the moment, the EU’s business community would Israeli-Palestinian relations: first, because it support a full upgrade, as would many f its member o lacks the clout of the United States; and, states’ top officials. The European Parliament has a second because there isn’t one EU Mideast history of inflammatory, but ultimately non-substantive, policy, but many […] So it’s easy for [the] EU anti-Israel resolutions;130 but, it too could be swayed, to make symbolic gestures or declarations if the evidence of benefits to the EU is sufficiently which don’t really change facts on the ground, compelling (as it was surrounding the pharmaceutical but do change atmospherics. The EU hasn’t agreement of 2012). been able to solve conflicts on its perimeter, It is also essential to push back against attempts – still such as Cyprus; Kosovo; or Bosnia. I’ve often small, but determined and growing – to boycott Israel told them, “Once you’ve solved Nicosia in certain fields of European commerce, academia, [contested by Greek and Turkish Cypriots] and and culture. The hypocrisy and double-standards of Srebrenica [contested by Bosnians and Serbs], such boycott calls must be highlighted; after all, no come tell us how to solve Jerusalem”.133 similar demands exist to boycott Turkey over its It’s precisely these atmospherics – questions of tactics occupation of northern Cyprus, or of Morocco over rather than strategy – on which the EU and Israel Western Sahara, and the EU conducts business as tend to differ. However, when considering the full usual with both.131 picture of the strategic relationship (including not just Roland Freudenstein, deputy director of Brussels’ diplomacy, but the equally critical realms of security; Centre for European Studies, said that European economy; and science) the close nature of the policymakers realise that the Israeli-Palestinian issue EU-Israel relationship becomes clear. Not only is is but one of many conflicts in the Middle East: Sunni Israel’s relationship with the EU and its member states vs. Shia, Islamist vs. liberal, Arab vs. Persian, and closer than commonly portrayed, but, in the final innumerable local enmities. Debunking the false analysis, it represents a strategic asset to the European notion that resolving ‘the conflict’ would usher in a bloc and its constituent states. new era of peace and prosperity for a troubled region At this critical juncture in its history, the European would go far towards a more realistic assessment of Union will be unable to emerge safe; prosperous; the Middle East’s present and future. The 2012 innovative; and influential without strong state-to-state relations at home, and healthy alliances with strategic 130 For example, a European Parliament resolution accused Israel of “creating an partners in its neighbourhood. It should start by institutional and leadership vacuum in the local Palestinian population”; see: “European Parliament resolution of 5 July 2012 on EU policy on the West further recognising and enhancing its critical strategic Bank and East Jerusalem”, European Parliament, 5 July 2012, available at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP// with the State of Israel. relationship TEXT+TA+P7-TA XML+V0//EN&language=EN -2012-0298+0+DOC+ (accessed 16 December 2013). 131 Raphael Ahren, “Why is this occupation different from all other occupations?,” The Times of Israel, 25 December 2013, available at: 132 Author interview, 8 December 2013. http://www.timesofisrael.com/why-is-this-occupation-different-from-all- other-occupations/ (accessed 8 January 2014). 133 Author interview, 20 November 2013. 16