Israel and the European Union have begun quiet negotiations aimed at ending the crisis that was created by the EU decision to label products from Judea and Samaria Jewish businesses sold in European marketing chains, Ha’aretz reported Wednesday. Last week, the political director-general of the of the EU foreign service, Helga Schmid, who is also the senior political advisor for EU Minister of Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini, arrived on a secret visit to Israel for a round of talks with a team led by director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry Dore Gold and other cabinet representatives.
The message to Schmid, according to a senior source in Jerusalem, was that the condition to restarting the dialogue with the EU on the Palestinian issue was a more respectful and balanced approach toward Israel. “We told her that the decisions of the Foreign Ministers Council of the European Union and their decision regarding product labeling were one-sided and, in effect, embraced the Palestinian narrative,” the senior official said.
Last November, following the EU’s decision to issue instructions regarding labeling “settlements products” in chains across the continent, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed his Foreign Ministry to “reevaluate” the level of involvement it would afford the EU foreign service, the European Commission and the rest of the EU institutions in Brussels in areas related to the political process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
As a result of the “reevaluation,” the activities of several work groups and EU-Israel dialogues have been suspended, including a round of consultations on international NGOs and human rights. In addition, all the meetings between Israeli government officials and Fernando Gentilini, the Special Representative for the Middle East peace process, have been suspended, save for contact with him as member of the quartet that also involves representatives from the US, Russia and the UN. The move has effectively turned Gentilini irrelevant and unemployed.
Finally, the make the message even more explicit, Israel started demolishing EU projects in Area C of Judea and Samaria which Israel considers illegal. And that, it appears, finally did the job and the EU is now prepared to give up its boycott in exchange for a seat at the Israeli-Palestinian table.
Because, let’s face it, in this part of the global living room, Israel owns all the chairs.