JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

dictatorship and coldly organized the massacre of six million
Jews.
Winston Churchill, who had been British prime minister
during the war, launched an appeal for European unity on
September 19, 1946, in Zurich. The first concrete example of
European economic integration was the customs union among
Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, called “Benelux”
which started on January 1, 1948.
U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall was ready to
promise American aid for the reconstruction of Europe, on
condition that European countries would pool their efforts
and would agree among themselves on the distribution of
American aid. Thus in 1948 was established the first post-war
European organization, the OEEC (Organization for European
Economic Cooperation). Many other organizations were created,
and like NATO, the Atlantic Alliance, in 1949, the Council
of Europe in 1949, an instrument of inter-governmental cooperation
with no transfer of national sovereignty.
Robert Schuman, the French minister for foreign affairs,
declared on May 9, 1950:
The contribution which an organized and active Europe can
make to civilization is indispensable for the maintenance of
peaceful relations. Because Europe was not united, we have
had war. The uniting of the European nations requires that the
age-old opposition between France and Germany be eliminated.
The action to be taken must first of all concern France
and Germany.
On April 19, 1951, six countries (Belgium, the Federal Republic
of Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands)
signed the Treaty establishing the European Coal and
Steel Community (ECSC). It was thought that by pooling coal
and steel, two of the most important raw materials for heavy
industry, new military conflicts could be avoided and industrialization
could be promoted. This sectorial approach very
soon proved itself too narrow, and it was decided to make a
bold step forward to full economic integration; on March 25,
1957, the six countries signed the Rome Treaty establishing the
European Economic Community (EEC), which entered into
force on January 1, 1958.
The creation of a vast common market was the first objective
with the aim of reaching higher living standards, full
employment, and economic expansion. After some years of
a transitional period goods were to flow freely among the six
member states thanks to the gradual disappearance of tariffs; a
common agricultural policy was established as well. The Commission
in Brussels was to coordinate the work and prepare
specific proposals to be submitted to the Council of Ministers
which alone had the power of decision, thus keeping it in the
hands of the member countries; the Commission would then
have to implement the decisions taken by the Council.
Israel and the EEC
The French scholar Dominique Moisy divides the relations between
Israel and Western Europe into three periods: the first
20 years, in the 1950s and 1960s when “Israel was perceived
european community, the
by Europeans as a courageous and small pioneer state symbolized
by the kibbutz”; “the virtual ostracism of the 1970s
and the turn of the decade, when Israel was seen mainly as an
ambitious imperialist power bent on expansion”; and the new
third phase “characterized by a more neutral and less emotional
approach to Israel.”
The ink of the signatures on the Treaty of Rome was not
yet dry when the Israeli government tried to establish contacts
with the Community. It submitted a memorandum to
the Commission of the EEC in Brussels on October 30, 1958,
and a year later Israel was the third country to seek the accreditation
of an ambassador as Chief of the Israeli Mission
to the EEC, the ECSC, and Euratom. On June 20, 1960, David
Ben-Gurion, the Israeli prime minister, met at Val Duchesse
in Brussels with Prof. Hallstein, president of the Commission,
and with Mr. Rey, member of the Commission in charge of external
relations. Ben-Gurion expressed the wish of the Israeli
government to sign an association agreement with the EEC.
The Commission submitted a detailed questionnaire to
Israel and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs answered in
a memorandum of September 27, 1960, explaining that it was
seeking an Association Agreement with the EEC according to
Article 238 of the Treaty of Rome; this would entail the creation
of a customs union and would lead to the establishment
of the clauses for Israeli participation in the framework of the
Common Agricultural Policy envisaged by the EEC, as well as
the harmonization of the economic and social policies.
During the following years the Israeli Ministry of Foreign
Affairs developed extensive diplomatic activity at the
Commission in Brussels and in each of the six capitals of
the member states as well as in the European Parliament in
Strasbourg.
On July 7, 1961, the diplomatic representatives of Israel
brought to the attention of the governments in each of the
six member countries an identical Note Verbale in which it
asked for the opening of negotiations with the EEC on all the
outstanding problems without defining beforehand their possible
solution.
The Council of Ministers of the EEC decided on July 28,
1961, to invite the Commission to start a study of the relations
between Israel and the EEC. Again the Israeli government, in a
memorandum of November 24, 1961 to the Commission, expressed
its wish to reach a global and preferential agreement,
reiterating the same point of view in a note of February 1962
to the six governments. The first parliamentary delegation of
the political groups of the European Parliament, headed by
Alain Poher, arrived in Israel in February 1962.
In April 1962 the Council of Ministers of the EEC decided
to open exploratory talks with Israel, which started in Brussels
in May 1962; following these talks the Council of Ministers
decided on September 24, 1962, to open negotiations between
the EEC and Israel “in order to seek solutions to problems of
commercial relations between Israel and the Community.”
These negotiations started in Brussels on September 26, 1962;
the head of the Israel delegation was Mr. Levi Eshkol, then
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