JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

Political Cooperation
The first aim of the EEC was political although at first it was easier
to build the economic side; in November 1970 the foreign
ministers of the Six discussed for the first time in Munich a
common stand on Middle Eastern problems. Immediately after
the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, an oil boycott was declared
by OAPEC, the Arab Oil Producers Organization, against
the Netherlands and Denmark. This provoked the Declaration
of the Nine of November 6, 1973, a kind of total surrender to
the Arabs in which four principles were established as the basis
for the common European policy: the inadmissibility of acquisition
of territories by force; the necessity for Israel to end the
territorial occupation in place since 1967; the respect for suzerainty,
territorial integrity, and independence of every state
of the region and their rights to live in peace within secure and
recognized borders; the recognition that due account should
be taken of the legitimate rights of the Palestinians.
The beginning of the Euro-Arab dialogue at the end
of December 1973 in Copenhagen and its subsequent evolution
was a factor for a change to a growingly pro-Arab stand.
The Declaration of the Nine in Venice was given on June
13, 1980, after the historic meeting of President Anwar Sadat
with Prime Minister Menachem Begin in Jerusalem and
the subsequent signature of the Peace Treaty between Israel
and Egypt in 1979. In December 1979 the Soviet Union invaded
Afghanistan. Some believe that the strategic aim of Europe
was to use the outraged feelings of Third World countries regarding
the invasion in order to reinforce the European presence
in the Islamic world. To this purpose the price of supporting
the Arab thesis, the PLO, and the right to self-determination
of the Palestinians did not seem too high. According to the
Venice declaration of June 13, 1980, the countries of the European
Community would be ready to participate in “a system
of concrete and obligatory guaranties including in the field”
(Art. 5), the Palestinian people should be able “to exercise fully
its right to self-determination” (Art. 6), the PLO “must be associated
with the negotiations” (Art. 7), the Jewish settlements
in the administered territories are considered to be illegal and
“a grave obstacle to the peace process” (Art. 9), Israel should
put an end to its territorial occupation (Art. 9). Israel did not
agree to the text and the spirit of the Venice declaration which
ignored the Camp David peace treaty between Israel and Egypt
and was considered to be unbalanced and pro-Arab.
The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 brought the relations
with the states of the EEC to their lowest ebb; the Ten at
Luxembourg in their declaration of June 29, 1982, maintained
“their vigorous condemnation of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon,”
demanded “an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces,”
and “a simultaneous withdrawal of the Palestinian forces in
West Beirut” and admonished that:
Israel will not obtain the security to which it has a right by
using force and creating “faits accomplis” but it can find this
security by satisfying the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian
people, who should have the opportunity to exercise their
right to self-determination with all that this implies.
european community, the
The Council of Ministers also decided to suspend the signature
of the second Financial Protocol already initialed. Israel was
even accused by Mr. Pisani, member of the EC Commission, to
have blocked European humanitarian aid to Lebanon – which
had never been sent in the first place.
At the beginning of September 1982 the massacre at Sabra
and Shatila provoked the “profound shock and revulsion”
of the Ten; they also welcomed the American initiative contained
in President Reagan’s speech of September 1, 1982, and
underlined “the importance of the statement adopted by Arab
heads of state and governments at Fez on September 9” calling
“for a similar expression of a will of peace on the part of Israel”
(Declaration of the Ten of September 20, 1982).
At the European Council of Stuttgart (June 17–19, 1983)
the Ten, under the presidency of Germany, took a positive
view of the Israeli-Lebanese Peace Treaty and decided to resume
normal relations with Israel allowing for the signature
of the second financial protocol and the meeting of the Council
of Cooperation. In the Dublin summit of December 3–4,
1984, the Ten reiterated that the PLO must be associated with
negotiations but refrained from any new Middle Eastern initiative.
Bettino Craxi was the first European prime minister
to go and meet Yasser Arafat, in Tunisia on December 7, 1984.
The Ten had mixed feelings about American initiatives; they
considered Arafat as a moderate who could be convinced to
state publicly the abandonment of terror; they felt that if Arafat
disappeared any successor might be much more radical.
The huge economic interest of many European companies in
the Arab countries seemed best assured by intimate contact
with Arafat.
In the year 1985 two events showed how wide the gap between
the Europeans and Israel had remained: the Israeli raid
on the PLO headquarters near Tunis on October 1, and the hijacking
of the Italian boat Achille Lauro some days later. The
first was compared by an Italian minister to the Nazi killing
of innocent hostages, among them Jews, by the Nazis in Fosse
Ardeatine near Rome in March 1944; the second gave rise in
the Italian media to the idea that Israel could avoid Palestinian
terrorism if it only agreed to make concessions to the PLO.
The Israeli prime minister, Shimon Peres, launched a
peace plan at the General Assembly of the United Nations in
New York in October 1985, with the idea of an international
conference that would accompany direct negotiations among
the parties. Peres presented an Israeli scheme for peace at the
Council of Cooperation in Brussels in January 1987. The declaration
of the Twelve of February 23, 1987, reasserted that a
negotiated solution in the Middle East should be based on
the Venice Declaration; the Twelve were in favor of an international
conference under the auspices of the United Nations
and they expressed the wish “to see an improvement in the
living conditions of the inhabitants of the occupied territories.”
The entrance of Spain and Portugal into the European
Community on January 1, 1986, worried Israeli farmers because
70% of their total production is exported and about
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 565