EU Foreign Policy Chief: Arab-Israeli Normalization Process Has Failed

11/6/2023 7:14:34 PM

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) BRUSSELS, Nov 6 (KUNA) -- European Union High Representative Josep Borrell said on Monday that the normalization process between some Arab states and Israel has failed to materialize.
"It was believed by many that the normalization, the desirable normalization of relations between the Arab States and Israel, would bring peace between Palestinians and Israelis. That has not happened. It has not happened," he told an annual conference of EU ambassadors in Brussels.
"In recent years, we believed that the Israeli-Palestinian problem was to be circumvented even if the situation on the ground was continuing to deteriorate because of the Abraham Accords. This illusion was shared by everyone, not just by us, by the West," he said.
"For me, the crux of the matter is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is no longer an Israeli-Arab conflict. Now, it is becoming a religious or civilization fight," he said.
Borrell said, "In Israel, the colonization of the West Bank has been progressing with impunity and violence against the Palestinians, and this has become even more brutal after the 7th of October.
Thirty years ago, there were 270,000 settlers in the West Bank. Now there are 700, 000, almost three four times more."
"In Palestine, the total lack of perspective and diabolic calculations aiming at favoring extremist forces have led to the marginalization of moderate forces to the benefit of radical forces," said the EU's foreign policy chief.
He noted that last year, in the West Bank, there were 154 Palestinians killed and 20 Israelis. This year, to date the number is almost 400.
Borrell said that the overreaction of the Israelis (in Gaza), in the end, makes them lose the support of international community, and it comes once and again. 2011, 2023, we are in the same place.
He stressed that in the short term, the first priority is to bring peace to violence. And this is not going to be easy because the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza is unprecedented.
"But one thing has to be clear. We will not go back to the situation of the 6th of October 2023.
This has to be an opportunity for peace. This is the core issue that we have to address. There is no military solution to the conflict," he said.
Borrell warned "even if Hamas is uprooted in Gaza, this will not solve the problem of Gaza, not let alone the West Bank problem. So, overreactions are always understandable, but never effective."
He said that US President Joe Biden "has been asking Israel not to be blinded by rage, and I think this is the message that the best friends of Israel have to send to them: not to be blinded by rage." (end)
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