Europa muss im Nahen Osten von der Seitenlinie aussteigen: Die EU braucht einen durchsetzungsvolleren Plan für den israelisch-palästinensischen Konflikt

[SS from essay by Josep Borrell Fontelles, former Vice President and High Representative of the European Union Commission and the former Foreign Minister of Spain; and Kalypso Nicolaidis, Professorial Chair in International Affairs at the Florence School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute. Formerly at Harvard, Oxford, and the École National d’Aministration, she has advised EU bodies and is a coauthor of [*A Citizen’s Guide to the Rule of Law*](https://www.amazon.com/Citizens-Guide-Rule-Law-Invention/dp/3838215419).]

The European Union has rarely played more than an auxiliary role in helping resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in spite of its multifaceted presence in the region. Over the past two decades, European governments came to believe that achieving a two-state solution was more or less impossible and not worth the investment of time and energy. And to many Europeans, supporting the status quo in Israel while rhetorically condemning some of the country’s actions seemed manageable.

It was not. As Europe and the rest of the world looked away, the costs of failing to secure a durable peace in which both Israelis and Palestinians enjoy the right to self-determination became exorbitant.

Why? What does the EU get from being more directly involved? They spent decades pourings hundreds of billions of dollars into countless NGO’s and UN agencies that achieved absolutely nothing and in some cases made things worse.

This silly article is filled with the same old empty platitudes about „supporting the UN“ and trying to guilt Europeans into pouring even more resources into a cause that has little effect on them. My favorite part was saying that Europeans should pay to rebuild Gaza.