BRUSSELS: The European Commission pledged yesterday to support the new Israeli government as long as it accepts certain benchmarks, including the principle of an autonomous Palestinian state.
“The European Commission is looking forward to working with the new Israeli government in pursuit of a common agenda,” the EU executive’s head Jose Manuel Barroso said in a message to Israeli premier-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It stands ready to assist and support you in your search for peace, prosperity and security for the people in Israel and the region, based on the vision of two states living side by side in peace and prosperity,” he said.
The US has warned that peace efforts, which have barely budged in recent years, will not be any easier under the hard-line Netanyahu, who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.
Barroso’s spokesman noted: “There are certain benchmarks that we would like to see followed in this relationship.” Another commission spokesman, Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, said that EU foreign ministers would be discussing developments in Israel, and the fallout of its war on the militant Palestinian Hamas movement holding the Gaza Strip.
“There is a new administration, there is a new prime minister, and this has to be considered. Let’s see what the intentions of the future government are going to be on a number of issues,” he said.
“One of them is (humanitarian aid) access to Gaza. Restrictions are still there, and we will have to see what is the policy of the new administration.” The Europeans are the biggest donors of aid to the Palestinians but they hold little sway over Israel, which is backed firmly by the United States.
Meanwhile, the Netanyahu Cabinet will only focus on domestic issues rather than political ones including peace with Palestinians in its first 100 days, the platform for the new government shows. The daily Jerusalem Post yesterday said that Netanyahu’s team, headed by Likud Knesset Member Yuval Steinitz, convened in the Knesset and presented plans it had formulated for the new government to follow during its first few months.
The team presented to Netanyahu a comprehensive report on the issues that need to be addressed and ways to tackle them mainly handling the economic crisis and its implications, stabilize the governing system, and to institute reforms for the Israel Lands Administration.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Office yesterday said that no progress had been achieved in Egyptian-mediated negotiations with Hamas movement to secure the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange with Palestinian prisoners.
In another development, the Israeli military court sentenced several top Hamas official for six month administrative detention, Palestinian sources said yesterday.
The six officials were among 12 Israeli forces arrested two weeks ago in a pre-dawn raid in the West Bank.
— With input from Mohammed Mar’i
