Europe and the Middle East

Paper Summary:

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has always been of major concern to Europe because of the importance of this festering issue and because of Europe's proximity to the Middle East. Prior to 1973, the E.U. member countries had differing policies, with the Gaullist France displaying a pro-Arab bias and countries like Germany and Netherlands having very close relations with Israel. Since that time and especially since the Oslo accord of 1993, the European Union has tried to follow a unified and consistent policy with regard to the Middle East conflict. This paper reviews the background and general development of the policy, the problems that the policy has faced and its current status. The paper also includes a general assessment of the E.U.'s Middle East policy (its achievements and failures), as well as a comparison of the policy with that of the United States?.

From the Paper:

"Although the US and the EU are both joint partners and promoters of the recently released "Road Map" for peace in the Middle East, their recent policies on the Middle East have been perceived as being different. This is mainly because of the light in which "terrorism" is viewed by the United States after 9/11. While the EU, as part of its policy, condemns the suicide bombings and terror attacks by the Palestinians on Israeli citizens, it also calls on Israel to stop its extra-judicial killings, to lift the closures and restrictions imposed on the Palestinian people, to freeze settlement activities, and to withdraw its military from the Palestinian areas. On the other hand, president Bush and his administration consider the Israeli actions as justified self-defense (pre-emptive strikes) and the US President calls Sharon "a man of peace.""

More papers on Europe and the Middle East:

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• Research Paper # 98798 : "Turkey and the European Union (EU)"

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