Israel would like to join European Union
Israel would like to join European Union
posted: 6 Feb 2008
Avigdor Lieberman: Israel should press to join NATO, EU
01/01/2007
By Haaretz Service
Cabinet minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that Israel should work actively toward joining NATO and the European Union.
"Israel's diplomatic and security goal ... must be clear: joining NATO and entering the European Union."
According to Lieberman, "The war we are waging in the Middle East is not a war of the state of Israel alone, it is a war of the entire free world, and we are situated on the front lines."
Lieberman, minister for strategic threats, is one of the nation's most outspoken hawks, often enraging rightists as well as leftists with such proposals as swapping land with the Palestinian Authority in order to place large numbers of Israeli Arabs outside the borders of the state.
Speaking to Israel Radio, he dismissed suggestions that joining NATO or the EU would compromise Israel's freedom of action in fighting terrorism.
"Today, Palestinian terrorism is part of the worldwide jihad. Palestinian terrorism is fueled by Al Qaida, the Iranians and Hezbollah. It is not [solely] Palestinian terrorism.
"There is no doubt that membership in NATO would still afford us 100 percent freedom in military activity."
http://tinyurl.com/32tzov
Israelis would like to join European Union
posted 24-02-2007
While Israel signed an association agreement with the EU in November 1995—which incorporates specific free trade regulations—the prospect of Israel’s full membership in the EU has never been seriously considered by either Israeli or European leaders.
Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research
Israelis Would Like to Join European Union
February 24, 2007
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) — Many Israelis believe their country should become a member of the European Union (EU), according to a poll by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. 75 per cent of respondents would support a bid by Israel to join the continental group.
Bulgaria and Romania were the latest countries to join the European Union, in January 2007. On Jan. 19, Romanian president Traian Basescu urged all member states to support the continuation of the open-door policy, saying, "There is a new European reality, the fifth post-wave, which must not be neglected. The European neighbourhood policy is already a vehicle for the spread of values and standards in the East and we are decided to contribute to its evolution towards more consistency."
The EU has repeatedly urged the Palestinian government, integrated partly by the political wing of Hamas-an organization accused of staging violent attacks against Israel-to renounce violence and recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli state in exchange for foreign aid and support.
While Israel signed an association agreement with the EU in November 1995—which incorporates specific free trade regulations—the prospect of Israel’s full membership in the EU has never been seriously considered by either Israeli or European leaders.
Polling Data
Would you support or oppose Israel joining the European Union (EU)?
Support 75%
Oppose 18%
Not sure 7%
Source: Konrad Adenauer Foundation
Methodology: Interviews with 511 Israeli adults, conducted in February 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/376qq7
Israel and the EU: A Path to Peace
Michael Shtender-Auerbach, The Century Foundation, 11/3/2005
Israel's inner cabinet voted on November 1st to request the European Union to monitor and secure the Egyptian-Gaza border. Sylvan Shalom, Israel's foreign minister, told Haaretz, "Our objective is for the Europeans to have enforcement capabilities in the field, and not just a symbolic presence".
That Israel would rely on the Europeans to help guarantee any dimension of a developing Israeli-Palestinian peace is a significant shift. It certainly presents a major foreign policy challenge for the EU, which has offered itself in many roles but not as an enforcer. But it also shows Israel's underlying desire for a stronger relationship with Europe.
The new reality is growing interest in the possibility for Israel to become a full member of the EU. Historical, cultural, and most importantly economic elements continue to bind Israel to Europe, and the EU relationship can be critical for the Israeli economy in coming decades. As a result, Europe now has an unprecedented opportunity to step up to the plate, restart the stalled "road map," which is set to expire in December, and act as a peace broker to clear the biggest obstacle to Israel's ascension into the Union-Israelis' unresolved conflict with Palestinians.
As far back as 1946, David Ben-Gurion imagined Israel as a part of the British Commonwealth, with a status similar to that of New Zealand and Australia. Politicians as diverse as Simon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu and Sylvan Shalom have all supported the idea of Israeli membership in the EU. Clearly, interest exists in Israel. But while both Spain and Italy have expressed interest, the process has never been taken seriously by the majority of European nations or their citizens.
This latest request of Israel for the EU to play a major role in Israel's security should come as a welcome recognition in Brussels. It hands this 25-nation confederacy an unprecedented opportunity to play a decisive role in brokering peace between Israel and Palestine. The Israeli leadership has demonstrated time and again that it fears a univocal European policy that could hold both sides' feet to the fire of reform. This fear is a potent symbol of the new power that can be wielded by Europe in the interests of international peace.
For Israel, EU membership would not only provide a strong security guarantee, but would afford them all of the economic advantages of the vast EU market. For the security establishment, it could possibly mean even opening the door to membership in NATO. The EU and Israel already have a formal Cooperation Agreement—ratified five years ago by the Knesset, Israel's parliament— and this relationship has influenced economic, political and cultural exchanges. As recently as last week, the Council of European Ministers voted in favor of allowing Israel to join the Euro-Mediterranean cumulation of origin zone, which will have enormous financial benefits for the Israeli textile industry.
The European consensus on what Israelis and Palestinians need to do for peace is well known. To gain entry into the EU, Israel would need to negotiate a peace agreement with the Palestinians largely consistent with Security Council resolution 242-almost certainly similar to the terms proposed in the Geneva Initiative—and to settle its border dispute with Syria in the Golan.
In addition, Israel will, like every other candidate member, have to comply with the majority of the Copenhagen criteria for the EU member candidates. The common legal basis exists: Israeli governing bodies, legal and economic systems are all modeled on the British system. As an EU member at peace with its neighbors, Israel would bolster Europe's status as a world leader and international power broker. This would also provide Israelis with the security and membership in a community of nations that accept and protect them and to give the Palestinians their best hope for statehood in the long battle for sovereignty.
Israel should do all it can to reach toward the stability and economic vitality promised by closer ties with Europe. The EU should seize this opportunity to step fully into its new role as a major power and use that influence to facilitate the long awaited final status resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
http://tinyurl.com/22wxpe
Lieberman: Israel should join NATO, EU
Tuesday, January 02, 2007 by Staff Writer
Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that Israel should set itself a political objective for the next five years to join as a full member of the European Union and NATO.
Lieberman is convinced that Israel’s joining NATO will act as a deterrent for Iran not to attack Israel for fear of a military confrontation with North Atlantic Treaty Organization members. He is also convinced that joining the EU will strengthen Israel’s economy, which trades mostly with Europe anyway.
Lieberman explains his suggestion saying that Israel’s fight against terrorism is not just its private struggle, but a struggle of the entire free world. Israel’s addition to NATO will tighten Israel’s military cooperation with the member nations and will allow Israel better access to weapons which are currently exclusive to NATO members.
Lieberman also said that Israel’s joining NATO will not limit its freedom of military action against the Palestinians. “I have never seen this fact limiting any nation.”
Lieberman said that today there is no such thing as independent Palestinian terror. “Today the Palestinian terror is part of the global Jihad. All of the Palestinian terror is fed by Al Qaeda, Iran, and Hizballah. This is not Palestinian terrorism. There is no doubt that even membership in NATO will allow us 100 percent freedom in military action,” Lieberman said.
http://tinyurl.com/ypj5ur
Lieberman pushes Israel to join EU
Jan 31, 2007
Stumbling blocks to European Union membership such as the possibility that Israel might have to drop its Law of Return or the fact that Israel is physically located on the Asian continent have not deterred Israel Beiteinu head and Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman from pushing to make what many would call a "pipe dream" into reality within the next five years.
While the Israeli has not formally asked for membership in the 27 member body of European states and the EU does not view it as a possibility at this time, Lieberman has still put it high on his agenda for security, economic and cultural reasons.
# Lieberman's JPost blog: We need to be part of EU, NATO
On Thursday, Lieberman is set to debate the matter with the European Union's Ambassador to Israel Ramiro Cibrian-Uzal on the Russian television station RTV1.
Lieberman's interest in the issue leaves EU officials in Brussels shaking their heads.
"Accession is not an option now," said Christian Leffler, the outgoing director of the Middle East and Southern Mediterranean Department for the European Commission in Brussels.
Joining the EU as a member state would likely mean that Israel would have to drop one of the key cornerstones of the its identity as a Jewish state, the Law of Return, which grants immediate citizenship to Jews only, said Leffler. As a result, he said, it is unlikely that Israel would even want to join the union.
"I'm not sure the Israeli government or Israeli public opinion would be ready to take on everything that membership means," Leffler told The Jerusalem Post during a recent visit to Israel.
To become a EU member, one has to balance a complex set of rights and obligations that reach quite far into society, said Leffler. Laws that would have to be changed or amended could include those that govern immigration, the free movement of people and services as well as civil liberties, he said.
Israel, for example, he said, would have to open its doors to workers from the EU who would want to come and live here, Leffler said.
There would also be some problematic military issues such as the policy of targeted assassinations, a tactic that Israel has used in Gaza and the Palestinian territories to eliminate terrorists, Leffler said.
Moreover, there is the basic physical reality that Israel is located on a different continent altogether, he noted.
"Geography is a challenge," said Leffler as he stated the obvious. "You are not in Europe."
It's true, he said, that the laws which govern admittance into the EU, including those that relate to citizenship and free movement of people, can be and have been challenged in court. But he warned it could be a long and cumbersome process.
To date, he said, no country has been accepted for membership that has been outside the continent. He added that it was his understanding that there were laws that restricted membership to countries geographically located within the European continent.
The EU, for example, rejected a membership bid by Morocco on the grounds that it was not a European country.
It's also unclear if the European Union wants to become larger at this time, said Leffler. The EU is still working to integrate the 10 new members who joined in 2004 and the additional ones that entered the union this month.
"It is creaking under the weight of its own success," said Leffler.
None of these facts have deterred Lieberman from his pursuit of the matter.
In spite of the high value that he has placed on Israel's identity as a Jewish state, he is not concerned by the potential conflict between EU membership and the Law of Return. Nor is he stopped by the possibility that Israel would have to amend its laws to allow for an influx of Europeans including Muslim citizens of the continent to live and work here.
He and one of his advisers both told the Post they believed that Israel could hold on to the Law of Return and join the EU. His adviser said there were a number of EU countries with citizenship and immigration restrictions that were similar to those of Israel. Legal exceptions, he said, could be made which would allow Israel to hold on to the restrictions that it needs to maintain its character as a Jewish state.
Lieberman told the Post that he was drawn by the cultural and democratic link that exists between Israel and the EU, as well as the economic and security benefits that would be gained from such a union.
Given the strained and hostile relations Israel has with its neighbors, it would do better to position itself as a member of a group of nations with whom it more naturally belongs. That's particularly true in light of the terrorist threat that equally threatens both Israel and Europe, he said.
He also defended his position in a blog entry he wrote for the Post earlier this month.
"Today's world is dividing over values. On the one side is the free, democratic world, and on the other side is the radical, fundamentalist world.
"We might have disagreements with Europe and the international community over foreign policy, but we share the same values system that is the target of the radical, fundamentalist war against the West," Lieberman wrote.
Moreover, Israel is physically very close to Europe, said Lieberman. At its nearest point, "The EU is only half-an-hour away from Israel," Lieberman said.
Still, Israel's former ambassador to the European Union and academic expert on European affairs Avi Primor dismissed the notion with a laugh.
"It's ridiculous," Primor told the Post. Israel has not asked to be a member of the European Union. It would not want to be and the Union would not accept it as a candidate, Primor said.
The notion gets revived once in a while but only by Israeli politicians, "to make themselves sound interesting."
"We are not ready for it and we are not ripe for it," said Primor.
http://tinyurl.com/yszllz
Iraq and Israel in the EU: Peace through Accession?
posted: 6 Feb 2008
Leon Hadar
Now that the Anglo-American coalition has demonstrated its military might in Mesopotamia, the European Union (EU) seems to have only two policy options. The Europeans can continue pursuing the French-oriented approach of challenging U.S. preeminence in the Middle East, including its military presence in Iraq and its pro-Israeli agenda. The EU could, also, wait for the American hegemon to throw it a few diplomatic and economic crumbs, in the form of oil deals in Iraq and a role in drawing the "road map" to Israeli-Palestinian peace.
However, the EU might opt for a "third way." It could follow the dramatic U.S.-led military victory, by striking a diplomatic coup that could put the Europeans in the Middle East's driver's seat. To achieve that, the Europeans should remove the obstacles to the prompt entry of Turkey into the EU. They should also announce their readiness to open negotiations with a free and democratic Iraq, as well as with Israel and an independent Palestinian state that could lead to latter’s gradual accession into the EU--albeit a goal that would take many years to achieve.
By adopting such a strategy of constructive engagement in the Middle East, the EU could try, through the use of diplomatic and economic resources, to achieve the kind of goals that the Bush Administration is trying to advance through the usage of its military power: challenging the status quo in the Middle East and pursuing peace and political/economic reform there.
Indeed, it's time for the Europeans to conclude that they cannot continue to secure their interests in a region, with which they maintain strategic, business, and demographic ties, by burnishing their "pro-Arab" credentials and by propping-up bankrupted corrupt political elites. That policy may have helped to produce short-term economic interests and re-direct the hostility of the “Arab street" against the United States.
However, perpetuating the rule of Arab autocrats has only helped to turn the strategic and economic periphery of Europe into one of the least advanced and most unstable parts of the global economy. The Middle East not only exports oil to the EU, but also hundreds of thousands of poor and angry immigrants that have become a demographic time bomb.
While both the Israelis and the Palestinians regard Washington as central to any resolution of their conflict, the EU remains marginalized in the process. It is both the largest provider of aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel's most important trade partner. However, the EU has failed to translate that economic leverage into diplomatic influence.
Signaling to the Israelis and the Palestinians that a peaceful resolution to their conflict could be a ticket for admission into the EU, would be more than just enticing them with economic rewards. Conditioning Israel's entry into the EU on its agreement to withdraw from the occupied territories and dismantle the Jewish settlements there, would strengthen the hands of those Israelis who envision their state not as a militarized Jewish ghetto but as a Westernized liberal community.
The tragic fate of the European Jewry served as the driving force for the creation of Israel, and welcoming the Jewish state into the European community makes historical and moral sense.
The prospect of joining the EU could help launch a process of economic and political liberalization in an independent Palestine and an Iraqi federation. In the same way that the establishment of NAFTA produced pressure for democratic reform in Mexico, the evolution of trade and institutional ties between the EU, Palestine and Iraq, and eventually Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, could lay the foundations for a movement towards democracy in the entire Levant.
Indeed, the hopes for EU membership have already played a critical role in accelerating democratic change in Turkey, leading to the collapse of the old political order and the election of a reform-minded Islamic-democratic party. Putting Turkey's EU membership on hold only gives a boost to those in the military and the nationalist and Islamic groups that want to reorient Ankara's foreign policy from the West towards Iran, Russia and China. If anything, the recent tensions between Washington and Ankara over Iraq and the Kurds only demonstrates that anchoring Turkey in the EU is both in the interest of the Americans and the Europeans and could help also stabilize post-Saddam Iraq.
The much-maligned Old Europe could end up providing the needed economic and diplomatic resources and helping to create a New Middle East. Even a unilateralist Washington should welcome such a role.
http://tinyurl.com/36qv9
posted: 6 Feb 2008
Avigdor Lieberman: Israel should press to join NATO, EU
01/01/2007
By Haaretz Service
Cabinet minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that Israel should work actively toward joining NATO and the European Union.
"Israel's diplomatic and security goal ... must be clear: joining NATO and entering the European Union."
According to Lieberman, "The war we are waging in the Middle East is not a war of the state of Israel alone, it is a war of the entire free world, and we are situated on the front lines."
Lieberman, minister for strategic threats, is one of the nation's most outspoken hawks, often enraging rightists as well as leftists with such proposals as swapping land with the Palestinian Authority in order to place large numbers of Israeli Arabs outside the borders of the state.
Speaking to Israel Radio, he dismissed suggestions that joining NATO or the EU would compromise Israel's freedom of action in fighting terrorism.
"Today, Palestinian terrorism is part of the worldwide jihad. Palestinian terrorism is fueled by Al Qaida, the Iranians and Hezbollah. It is not [solely] Palestinian terrorism.
"There is no doubt that membership in NATO would still afford us 100 percent freedom in military activity."
http://tinyurl.com/32tzov
Israelis would like to join European Union
posted 24-02-2007
While Israel signed an association agreement with the EU in November 1995—which incorporates specific free trade regulations—the prospect of Israel’s full membership in the EU has never been seriously considered by either Israeli or European leaders.
Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research
Israelis Would Like to Join European Union
February 24, 2007
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) — Many Israelis believe their country should become a member of the European Union (EU), according to a poll by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. 75 per cent of respondents would support a bid by Israel to join the continental group.
Bulgaria and Romania were the latest countries to join the European Union, in January 2007. On Jan. 19, Romanian president Traian Basescu urged all member states to support the continuation of the open-door policy, saying, "There is a new European reality, the fifth post-wave, which must not be neglected. The European neighbourhood policy is already a vehicle for the spread of values and standards in the East and we are decided to contribute to its evolution towards more consistency."
The EU has repeatedly urged the Palestinian government, integrated partly by the political wing of Hamas-an organization accused of staging violent attacks against Israel-to renounce violence and recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli state in exchange for foreign aid and support.
While Israel signed an association agreement with the EU in November 1995—which incorporates specific free trade regulations—the prospect of Israel’s full membership in the EU has never been seriously considered by either Israeli or European leaders.
Polling Data
Would you support or oppose Israel joining the European Union (EU)?
Support 75%
Oppose 18%
Not sure 7%
Source: Konrad Adenauer Foundation
Methodology: Interviews with 511 Israeli adults, conducted in February 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/376qq7
Israel and the EU: A Path to Peace
Michael Shtender-Auerbach, The Century Foundation, 11/3/2005
Israel's inner cabinet voted on November 1st to request the European Union to monitor and secure the Egyptian-Gaza border. Sylvan Shalom, Israel's foreign minister, told Haaretz, "Our objective is for the Europeans to have enforcement capabilities in the field, and not just a symbolic presence".
That Israel would rely on the Europeans to help guarantee any dimension of a developing Israeli-Palestinian peace is a significant shift. It certainly presents a major foreign policy challenge for the EU, which has offered itself in many roles but not as an enforcer. But it also shows Israel's underlying desire for a stronger relationship with Europe.
The new reality is growing interest in the possibility for Israel to become a full member of the EU. Historical, cultural, and most importantly economic elements continue to bind Israel to Europe, and the EU relationship can be critical for the Israeli economy in coming decades. As a result, Europe now has an unprecedented opportunity to step up to the plate, restart the stalled "road map," which is set to expire in December, and act as a peace broker to clear the biggest obstacle to Israel's ascension into the Union-Israelis' unresolved conflict with Palestinians.
As far back as 1946, David Ben-Gurion imagined Israel as a part of the British Commonwealth, with a status similar to that of New Zealand and Australia. Politicians as diverse as Simon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu and Sylvan Shalom have all supported the idea of Israeli membership in the EU. Clearly, interest exists in Israel. But while both Spain and Italy have expressed interest, the process has never been taken seriously by the majority of European nations or their citizens.
This latest request of Israel for the EU to play a major role in Israel's security should come as a welcome recognition in Brussels. It hands this 25-nation confederacy an unprecedented opportunity to play a decisive role in brokering peace between Israel and Palestine. The Israeli leadership has demonstrated time and again that it fears a univocal European policy that could hold both sides' feet to the fire of reform. This fear is a potent symbol of the new power that can be wielded by Europe in the interests of international peace.
For Israel, EU membership would not only provide a strong security guarantee, but would afford them all of the economic advantages of the vast EU market. For the security establishment, it could possibly mean even opening the door to membership in NATO. The EU and Israel already have a formal Cooperation Agreement—ratified five years ago by the Knesset, Israel's parliament— and this relationship has influenced economic, political and cultural exchanges. As recently as last week, the Council of European Ministers voted in favor of allowing Israel to join the Euro-Mediterranean cumulation of origin zone, which will have enormous financial benefits for the Israeli textile industry.
The European consensus on what Israelis and Palestinians need to do for peace is well known. To gain entry into the EU, Israel would need to negotiate a peace agreement with the Palestinians largely consistent with Security Council resolution 242-almost certainly similar to the terms proposed in the Geneva Initiative—and to settle its border dispute with Syria in the Golan.
In addition, Israel will, like every other candidate member, have to comply with the majority of the Copenhagen criteria for the EU member candidates. The common legal basis exists: Israeli governing bodies, legal and economic systems are all modeled on the British system. As an EU member at peace with its neighbors, Israel would bolster Europe's status as a world leader and international power broker. This would also provide Israelis with the security and membership in a community of nations that accept and protect them and to give the Palestinians their best hope for statehood in the long battle for sovereignty.
Israel should do all it can to reach toward the stability and economic vitality promised by closer ties with Europe. The EU should seize this opportunity to step fully into its new role as a major power and use that influence to facilitate the long awaited final status resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
http://tinyurl.com/22wxpe
Lieberman: Israel should join NATO, EU
Tuesday, January 02, 2007 by Staff Writer
Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that Israel should set itself a political objective for the next five years to join as a full member of the European Union and NATO.
Lieberman is convinced that Israel’s joining NATO will act as a deterrent for Iran not to attack Israel for fear of a military confrontation with North Atlantic Treaty Organization members. He is also convinced that joining the EU will strengthen Israel’s economy, which trades mostly with Europe anyway.
Lieberman explains his suggestion saying that Israel’s fight against terrorism is not just its private struggle, but a struggle of the entire free world. Israel’s addition to NATO will tighten Israel’s military cooperation with the member nations and will allow Israel better access to weapons which are currently exclusive to NATO members.
Lieberman also said that Israel’s joining NATO will not limit its freedom of military action against the Palestinians. “I have never seen this fact limiting any nation.”
Lieberman said that today there is no such thing as independent Palestinian terror. “Today the Palestinian terror is part of the global Jihad. All of the Palestinian terror is fed by Al Qaeda, Iran, and Hizballah. This is not Palestinian terrorism. There is no doubt that even membership in NATO will allow us 100 percent freedom in military action,” Lieberman said.
http://tinyurl.com/ypj5ur
Lieberman pushes Israel to join EU
Jan 31, 2007
Stumbling blocks to European Union membership such as the possibility that Israel might have to drop its Law of Return or the fact that Israel is physically located on the Asian continent have not deterred Israel Beiteinu head and Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman from pushing to make what many would call a "pipe dream" into reality within the next five years.
While the Israeli has not formally asked for membership in the 27 member body of European states and the EU does not view it as a possibility at this time, Lieberman has still put it high on his agenda for security, economic and cultural reasons.
# Lieberman's JPost blog: We need to be part of EU, NATO
On Thursday, Lieberman is set to debate the matter with the European Union's Ambassador to Israel Ramiro Cibrian-Uzal on the Russian television station RTV1.
Lieberman's interest in the issue leaves EU officials in Brussels shaking their heads.
"Accession is not an option now," said Christian Leffler, the outgoing director of the Middle East and Southern Mediterranean Department for the European Commission in Brussels.
Joining the EU as a member state would likely mean that Israel would have to drop one of the key cornerstones of the its identity as a Jewish state, the Law of Return, which grants immediate citizenship to Jews only, said Leffler. As a result, he said, it is unlikely that Israel would even want to join the union.
"I'm not sure the Israeli government or Israeli public opinion would be ready to take on everything that membership means," Leffler told The Jerusalem Post during a recent visit to Israel.
To become a EU member, one has to balance a complex set of rights and obligations that reach quite far into society, said Leffler. Laws that would have to be changed or amended could include those that govern immigration, the free movement of people and services as well as civil liberties, he said.
Israel, for example, he said, would have to open its doors to workers from the EU who would want to come and live here, Leffler said.
There would also be some problematic military issues such as the policy of targeted assassinations, a tactic that Israel has used in Gaza and the Palestinian territories to eliminate terrorists, Leffler said.
Moreover, there is the basic physical reality that Israel is located on a different continent altogether, he noted.
"Geography is a challenge," said Leffler as he stated the obvious. "You are not in Europe."
It's true, he said, that the laws which govern admittance into the EU, including those that relate to citizenship and free movement of people, can be and have been challenged in court. But he warned it could be a long and cumbersome process.
To date, he said, no country has been accepted for membership that has been outside the continent. He added that it was his understanding that there were laws that restricted membership to countries geographically located within the European continent.
The EU, for example, rejected a membership bid by Morocco on the grounds that it was not a European country.
It's also unclear if the European Union wants to become larger at this time, said Leffler. The EU is still working to integrate the 10 new members who joined in 2004 and the additional ones that entered the union this month.
"It is creaking under the weight of its own success," said Leffler.
None of these facts have deterred Lieberman from his pursuit of the matter.
In spite of the high value that he has placed on Israel's identity as a Jewish state, he is not concerned by the potential conflict between EU membership and the Law of Return. Nor is he stopped by the possibility that Israel would have to amend its laws to allow for an influx of Europeans including Muslim citizens of the continent to live and work here.
He and one of his advisers both told the Post they believed that Israel could hold on to the Law of Return and join the EU. His adviser said there were a number of EU countries with citizenship and immigration restrictions that were similar to those of Israel. Legal exceptions, he said, could be made which would allow Israel to hold on to the restrictions that it needs to maintain its character as a Jewish state.
Lieberman told the Post that he was drawn by the cultural and democratic link that exists between Israel and the EU, as well as the economic and security benefits that would be gained from such a union.
Given the strained and hostile relations Israel has with its neighbors, it would do better to position itself as a member of a group of nations with whom it more naturally belongs. That's particularly true in light of the terrorist threat that equally threatens both Israel and Europe, he said.
He also defended his position in a blog entry he wrote for the Post earlier this month.
"Today's world is dividing over values. On the one side is the free, democratic world, and on the other side is the radical, fundamentalist world.
"We might have disagreements with Europe and the international community over foreign policy, but we share the same values system that is the target of the radical, fundamentalist war against the West," Lieberman wrote.
Moreover, Israel is physically very close to Europe, said Lieberman. At its nearest point, "The EU is only half-an-hour away from Israel," Lieberman said.
Still, Israel's former ambassador to the European Union and academic expert on European affairs Avi Primor dismissed the notion with a laugh.
"It's ridiculous," Primor told the Post. Israel has not asked to be a member of the European Union. It would not want to be and the Union would not accept it as a candidate, Primor said.
The notion gets revived once in a while but only by Israeli politicians, "to make themselves sound interesting."
"We are not ready for it and we are not ripe for it," said Primor.
http://tinyurl.com/yszllz
Iraq and Israel in the EU: Peace through Accession?
posted: 6 Feb 2008
Leon Hadar
Now that the Anglo-American coalition has demonstrated its military might in Mesopotamia, the European Union (EU) seems to have only two policy options. The Europeans can continue pursuing the French-oriented approach of challenging U.S. preeminence in the Middle East, including its military presence in Iraq and its pro-Israeli agenda. The EU could, also, wait for the American hegemon to throw it a few diplomatic and economic crumbs, in the form of oil deals in Iraq and a role in drawing the "road map" to Israeli-Palestinian peace.
However, the EU might opt for a "third way." It could follow the dramatic U.S.-led military victory, by striking a diplomatic coup that could put the Europeans in the Middle East's driver's seat. To achieve that, the Europeans should remove the obstacles to the prompt entry of Turkey into the EU. They should also announce their readiness to open negotiations with a free and democratic Iraq, as well as with Israel and an independent Palestinian state that could lead to latter’s gradual accession into the EU--albeit a goal that would take many years to achieve.
By adopting such a strategy of constructive engagement in the Middle East, the EU could try, through the use of diplomatic and economic resources, to achieve the kind of goals that the Bush Administration is trying to advance through the usage of its military power: challenging the status quo in the Middle East and pursuing peace and political/economic reform there.
Indeed, it's time for the Europeans to conclude that they cannot continue to secure their interests in a region, with which they maintain strategic, business, and demographic ties, by burnishing their "pro-Arab" credentials and by propping-up bankrupted corrupt political elites. That policy may have helped to produce short-term economic interests and re-direct the hostility of the “Arab street" against the United States.
However, perpetuating the rule of Arab autocrats has only helped to turn the strategic and economic periphery of Europe into one of the least advanced and most unstable parts of the global economy. The Middle East not only exports oil to the EU, but also hundreds of thousands of poor and angry immigrants that have become a demographic time bomb.
While both the Israelis and the Palestinians regard Washington as central to any resolution of their conflict, the EU remains marginalized in the process. It is both the largest provider of aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel's most important trade partner. However, the EU has failed to translate that economic leverage into diplomatic influence.
Signaling to the Israelis and the Palestinians that a peaceful resolution to their conflict could be a ticket for admission into the EU, would be more than just enticing them with economic rewards. Conditioning Israel's entry into the EU on its agreement to withdraw from the occupied territories and dismantle the Jewish settlements there, would strengthen the hands of those Israelis who envision their state not as a militarized Jewish ghetto but as a Westernized liberal community.
The tragic fate of the European Jewry served as the driving force for the creation of Israel, and welcoming the Jewish state into the European community makes historical and moral sense.
The prospect of joining the EU could help launch a process of economic and political liberalization in an independent Palestine and an Iraqi federation. In the same way that the establishment of NAFTA produced pressure for democratic reform in Mexico, the evolution of trade and institutional ties between the EU, Palestine and Iraq, and eventually Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, could lay the foundations for a movement towards democracy in the entire Levant.
Indeed, the hopes for EU membership have already played a critical role in accelerating democratic change in Turkey, leading to the collapse of the old political order and the election of a reform-minded Islamic-democratic party. Putting Turkey's EU membership on hold only gives a boost to those in the military and the nationalist and Islamic groups that want to reorient Ankara's foreign policy from the West towards Iran, Russia and China. If anything, the recent tensions between Washington and Ankara over Iraq and the Kurds only demonstrates that anchoring Turkey in the EU is both in the interest of the Americans and the Europeans and could help also stabilize post-Saddam Iraq.
The much-maligned Old Europe could end up providing the needed economic and diplomatic resources and helping to create a New Middle East. Even a unilateralist Washington should welcome such a role.
http://tinyurl.com/36qv9
bin66 - 7. Feb, 00:52
