Why Europe needs a distinct Mideast policy - By CHRISTIAN KOCH
he current crisis has exposed that there are substantive differences between the US and Europe regarding the Middle East. While there is broad consensus between the two sides that the need now is a two-stage solution involving both an end to the violence, followed up by a process of addressing the root causes that have led to this explosive situation, there is no agreement on the need for an immediate halt to hostilities or whether the root causes to be addressed lie primarily on the Arab or Israeli side. In this context, and as long as the initiatives remain too close to the US, European policy impact will remain negligible. Europe thus needs to ask itself whether it can afford to maintain the preeminence of the transatlantic partnership when it comes to the Middle East or if a more independent – and probably separate – path would ultimately prove more successful.
On Palestine, it has been the EU that has kept the Palestinian administration alive through all the turmoil and prevented a more serious humanitarian disaster from developing. Since 1994, the EU and its individual members’ assistance to Palestine has totaled more than four billion euros. But a decade later, there is little to showcase that contribution, thanks in large part to continued Israeli bombardment of Palestinian infrastructure and an American unwillingness to put the peace process back on track.
In all these instances, European reluctance to take a more independent path from Washington has reinforced the status quo in the region. Arab governments have repeatedly tried to tell Washington what needs to be done to calm the situation but they have been constantly rebuffed. The result of the current crisis is further anti-American and anti-Western sentiment throughout the region. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called for “a new Middle East”. Yet current US policies point towards further destruction and human suffering.
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