Spoke to @euronews.com podcast on Gaza and Trump's Board of Peace, alongside @lisamusiol.bsky.social www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...
06.02.2026 15:14
👍 2
🔁 2
💬 0
📌 0
Spoke to @euronews.com podcast on Gaza and Trump's Board of Peace, alongside @lisamusiol.bsky.social www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...
Here in more detail. Heaping praise vs. warnings and alarm.
politico.eu/article/euro...
politico.eu/article/euro...
Europe's response to a flawed, lopsided, deceitful US plan for Gaza
vs.
Europe's response to a flawed, lopsided, deceitful US plan for Ukraine
Should the EU Seek a Seat on Trump's Gaza Board of Peace?
With my two cents alongside others
Journalist: You've said Russia should repay for reconstruction of Ukraine. Do you believe Israel should repay for reconstruction of Gaza, since they destroyed almost the entire strip & civilian infrastructure?
EU chief spox: It’s an interesting question, on which I have no comment at this stage.
Suspending preferential trade with Israel in its pre-'67 borders should logically be coupled with banning trade with settlements outside those borders. Not doing the latter would actually equalise the tariffs for both, i.e. de-differentiate them. And it's a legal oligation per ICJ.
Important move by the Commission & VDL. But one measure missing in the package is to ban trade with Israel's illegal settlements. While 5 member states are already moving to do so at national level. And while the EU could also do so as a trade measure by qualified majority.
I talked to @martinkonecny.bsky.social about the Israel- EU Association Agreement and the divided EU, which is unable to pressure the Israeli government via its trade and research connections.
nepszava.hu/3292930_mego...
7. So at the 15 July meeting of EU foreign ministers, even if the deal does lead to some improvement (let's hope it does), it's critical to continue & step up pressure - through max support for the options presented by Kallas👇- and for states like 🇩🇪 & co to play along www.reuters.com/world/middle...
6. This goes back to member state dynamics.
If a clear majority of states was united behind need to pressure Israel w/ tangible measures, Kallas would be in stronger position & could demand more than just aid improvement.
But countries like 🇩🇪 🇮🇹 🇦🇹 🇨🇿 🇬🇷 oppose that, undercutting EU leverage.
5. Even if aid is improved, the deal does nothing to stop killing & displacement in Gaza and awful, escalating West Bank developments
Although the review covered many Israeli breaches across OPT, the EU then lowered its bar to negotiating Gaza aid only,leaving Israel off the hook on everything else
4. Imagine the EU did so last year - when 🇮🇪&🇪🇸 launched the idea - but other member states didn't want to hear about it.
Imagine the EU did so 10 or 20 years ago when Israel was expanding settlements & killing possibility of peace with no internationa consequences.
3. Yes, this could be (potentially) the first little EU win on Gaza. And it only happened because of pressure. The EU review that found Israel in breach of Association Agreement put the threat of consequences on the table. Only then did Israel start paying attention to EU & @kajakallas.bsky.social.
2. Let's see in next few days how much of it really happens. Israel has a strong record of stalling such deals in implementation phase.
The risk is it will deliver little in Gaza but serve as an excuse to avoid any EU measures of pressure on Israel at the 15 July meeting of EU foreign ministers.
This is an overly positive take on the EU-Israel Gaza aid deal👇
Several points to make here:🧵
1. If this brings more aid to the starving Gazans through UN mechanisms - and I strongly hope it will - then it's a win that will save lives. But:
Comment Bart De Wever compte-t-il "améliorer la situation humanitaire" à #Gaza sans suspension de l'Accord d'association ou sanctions contre #Israël?
Les condamnations 🇪🇺 n'ont jamais rien donné.
Le Conseil d'association UE-Israël n'a rien donné.
On attend sa recette miracle.
#SuspendtheDeal
EU foreign ministers & @kajakallas.bsky.social this Monday: Let's park the discussion on any EU measures of pressure on Israel despite its breach of the Association Agreement, our first focus should be on dialogue with Israel to help get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Israel:
Coalition of NGOs challenging @ec.europa.eu and @michaelmcgratheu.bsky.social for continuing to treat Israel as an "adequate" country for unrestricted transfers of EU personal data despite escalating human rights violations and disregard for international law
"You took a sustained, prominent stand against the Russian invasion of Ukraine on which you have continued to speak out, uncompromisingly, on every occasion afforded to you. Yet you have chosen to remain almost entirely silent as Israel pounded a people under occupation."
"You rightly demand justice for [the murdered Maltese journalist] Daphne Caruana Galizia ... but you had nothing to say about the targeted assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh and the hundreds more journalists shot, maimed and blown up by Israel over the past 20 months."
"When Hamas launched its despicable attack on 7 Oct you were quick to condemn it and stand in solidarity with Israel. That was the right thing to do. ... Dr Metsola, why no official gathering for the many thousands of innocents dead at the hands of Israel? Why the double standards?"
“Dr Metsola, you have failed utterly at this critical moment to speak out for what is right as a man-made catastrophe unfolded in our neighbourhood, enabled by European policies and European weapons.” timesofmalta.com/article/we-a...
"We are ashamed of you" - powerful open letter by 200 Maltese writers, academics, artists and activists calling out @president.europarl.europa.eu Roberta Metsola's silence on Gaza. openlettertorobertametsola.wordpress.com/2025/06/05/5/
NEW STATEMENT | Europe on Gaza: Words Are Not Enough
A rising chorus of European states have condemned #Israel’s military campaign in the #Gaza Strip. While much depends on Washington, European leaders have levers at their disposal to press for the war’s end.
www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-...
Europe's dynamics on Gaza finally begin to shift, a human rights review of EU-Israel ties is under way. This is an opportunity to step out of Europe's self-imposed irrelevance and press Israel to reverse its devastating course. My piece @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Europe's pressure-free dialogue with #Israel has completely failed
To step out from self-imposed irrelevance and try to prevent ethnic cleansing and annexation, the #EU must impose real costs on Israel's crimes, suspend the bilateral deal
@martinkonecny.bsky.social: theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner – and that gives it leverage to finally change the course of this brutal war - superb piece by @nathalietocci.bsky.social related to the ongoing EU review www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
“It’s like standing in front of a burning building and asking for a review of whether there’s a fire” - @conoraon on EU’s review of Israel’s compliance with the human rights clause of the Association Agreement👌 www.newarab.com/analysis/eur...
Finally - after decades of toothless EU statements calling the settlements illegal and destructive for peace, a first member state says hey, maybe we shouldn’t be trading with them. Where are the others?
On the preciousness of life: Some reflections on the murder of Jews in Washington and the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza peterbeinart.substack.com/p/on-the-pre...
