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Netanyahu Blesses and Curses Europe's Role in the Middle East

Decisions by the European Union have the Netanyahu government criticizing it for intervening with sanctions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while praising it for blacklisting Hezbollah.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem June 30, 2013. Netanyahu, in public remarks at the weekly cabinet meeting after his session with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, gave no indication Israel and the Palestinians were any closer to resuming peace talks frozen since 2010 by a dispute over Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. REUTERS/Menahem Kahana/Pool (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS HEADSHOT) - RTX116RF
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International politics and diplomacy can sometimes appear to be misleading, even paradoxical. Such was the case last week with the relationship between Israel and the European Union (EU). Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu found himself in a bizarre, even embarrassing, situation. At the beginning of the week, on July 16, he attacked the EU for its decision to impose sanctions on the settlements in Judea and Samaria and on Israeli communities in the Golan Heights. Within a few days, on July 22, Netanyahu was praising the EU for its decision to include Hezbollah’s military wing on its list of terrorist organizations.

After the EU announcement on the settlements, Netanyahu said, on July 16, “I would expect those who concern themselves with peace and stability in the region to only debate such an issue after resolving problems which are slightly more urgent, such as the Syrian civil war or Iran's race to obtain nuclear weapons.” Six days later, the prime minister played a different tune: “Israel has for years made huge efforts to explain to the EU countries that Hezbollah is an Iranian terrorist proxy operating throughout the world. … I hope that the decision will lead to tangible steps against the organization.”

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