New proof that Israel lobby writes EU script

 

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, served a cocktail of dishonesty and farce this week.

“Europe is the biggest supporter of the Palestinian people,” she said on Monday.

The next day, the EU’s governments demonstrated just how big their support is by once again declining to hold Israel accountable for its genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.

One million EU citizens have signed a call to withdraw trade privileges from Israel. Rather than take that basic step, the EU’s governments have imposed more sanctions on Iran, the target of aggression by Israel and the United States.

Diplomats working under Kallas certainly cannot be viewed as the biggest supporters of the Palestinian people.

A document I obtained through a freedom of information request illustrates that more than two years after the Gaza genocide began, the Israel lobby is still writing the script which key Brussels officials follow.

Hélène Le Gal, head of the Middle East division in the EU’s diplomatic service, appears particularly willing to have the script written for her.

The document shows that Le Gal has agreed to be a host of a “strategic dialogue” organized jointly by the diplomatic service and the pro-Israel group called the European Leadership Network (Elnet). Scheduled for 12-13 May, the event will feature “30 high-level policy and opinion makers – 15 from the EU and 15 from Israel,” says the invitation for the event.

Le Gal agreed that the invitation could be issued in her name, just requesting “tiny tweaks,” according to email messages exchanged between Elnet and her colleagues at the diplomatic service.

It is instructive that Le Gal and her entourage sought no more than “tiny tweaks” to the invitation.

The original draft states that the diplomatic service “presents the EU’s positions and interests to the government of Israel, with the overall goal of advancing relations between the EU and Israel.”

While that phrasing doesn’t appear to have encountered any fundamental objections, at least one of Le Gal’s colleagues felt it was too reductive. An edit was proposed so that it would be clear that the service works “across the globe,” including on EU-Israel relations.

Nobody seemed bothered about the stated goal of “advancing relations” with a state carrying out a genocide.  (more...)

New proof that Israel lobby writes EU script