The European Union's Blind Eye

ON 1 SEPTEMBER 2008, the EU decided that meetings with Russia about a new partnership agreement would be postponed "until [Russian] troops have withdrawn to the positions held prior to 7 August", that is, until the Russian military occupation of Georgia (outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia, at least) had ended.

On 28 November 1995, the EU allowed Israel to become a partner, under Euro-Mediterranean Partnership arrangements with states bordering on the Mediterranean. At the time, Israeli troops were occupying parts of Lebanon and Syria and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (the West Bank and Gaza) and had been for many years – Lebanon since 1978, the rest since 1967.

Clearly, the EU has applied very different standards in its relations with Israel and Russia. Had the conditions applied to Russia in September 2008 been applied to Israel in November 1995, the EU would have refused to enter into negotiation with Israel about becoming a partner until all Israeli troops had been withdrawn from Lebanon, Syria and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

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