Israel To EU - Go Pound Sand

The Israeli government sent an official message to the EU that it does not recognize the new EU guidelines ghettoizing Israel to the 1948 ceasefire lines and that it will sign no new agreements that mandate this, as the new EU diktat require.

Israel will not enter into any new agreements with the EU under the terms of the recently published settlement guidelines, diplomatic sources said Thursday following a meeting on the matter chaired by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Under the guidelines, Israel would have to sign a territorial clause reneging claims to the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan before entering in any future agreement with the EU. The guidelines also forbid any dealings with Israeli entities over the Green Line.

The sources said that Israel would ask for further clarifications about the guidelines. It was not immediately clear whether Israel would take part in negotiations that were set to begin Wednesday with the EU over its participation in the Horizon 2020 program, to begin a week from Wednesday.

The EU's 'guidelines' forbid EU member states from cooperating, transferring funds, giving scholarships or issuing research grants to public or private bodies in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and even the Golan Heights.

The Israelis, thankfully have decided not to accept this nonsense. And in fact, even some of the EU nations, most notably Germany have been pushing back against this idiocy.

Look for the Israelis to spend some time talking about the with German foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle when he's in Jerusalem next week.

The EU was counting on Israeli money (to the tune of some 600 million euros )and cooperation in the Horizon 2020 R&D program, with Israel being the only non-EU nation invited to participate in the program.

The EU just discovered that ghetto-izing Israel has a price tag, and I expect there will be a considerable 'window' created in the sanctions. It's almost certain that Germany, Switzerland, Georgia, Croatia, and several other EU countries will quietly ignore the new 'guidelines' and/or participate in things like re-packaging in order to evade them.

And Israel has discovered, once again, that standing up for itself is the best policy.