European Union flag (photo ADS)
Israel is cringing under the European Union’s “guideline” requirement– the demand by the EU to “recognize in writing that the West Bank settlements are not part of Israel.” And Israel is drawing red lines of its own.
This is about a looming deadline for Horizon 2020, an ambitious €80 billion research and innovation project launched by the EU to create job growth and fuel the economy, set to begin January 2014. Israel is the only non-European country offered full partnership in the program, and Israeli officials understand not participating in the project would “cost Israel dearly“.
Talks between the EU and Israel on the technical/professional aspects of the program are set to begin on August 14th and Israeli Ministries are scurrying to formulate a unified response before those talks begin. A lot is riding on Israel convincing the EU to back off. The EU’s adoption of “legislative acts” on Horizon 2020 will take place later this year. Israeli Ministries directly participating in Horizon 2020 are the Economy and Trade Ministry, Education Ministry, and Science and Technology Ministry.
But Israeli meetings about the program have also included the National Security Council/Foreign Ministry and the Justice Ministry. This is because, according to The Jerusalem Post, “Israel cannot sign a clause that contradicts its own policies and laws.” From the Post:
Israel annexed Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and will not sign a clause saying those areas are not part of Israel. Furthermore, it is also not willing to sign an agreement that discriminates against Israeli entities over the Green Line.
One official said that the internal discussions are not over boycotting the Europeans “to get back at them” but over finding a formula both sides can live with.
The ministers are not in agreement. Naftali Bennett, the new Economy Minister from the Jewish Home party, wants to throw in the towel and end co-operation with the EU. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon have gone on the offensive by ordering restrictions on representatives of the EU to access Palestine.
Haaretz reports:
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ordered limitations on the movement of EU representatives in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip several weeks ago. Ya’alon ordered the defense establishment to cease cooperation in the field with EU representatives. This move includes the cessation of assistance in infrastructure projects in Area C, the areas of the West Bank under full Israeli control.
Ya’alon also intends to restrict the movement of EU representatives from the Gaza Strip into Israel and back through the Erez checkpoint. Ya’alon’s actions are apparently coordinated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel stands to lose by not participating in the project:
It’s anticipated the country could lose €1bn in R&D funding if the government decides not pull-out. The Israeli government is set to contribute €600m in support funds to Horizon 2020 if it participates.
And Israeli scientists are alarmed by the prospect, Haaretz says:
Israeli scientists warn that cutting ties with the European Union could cause irreparable harm to Israeli research. The researchers were reacting to Economy Ministry Naftali Bennett‘s call for the Israeli government to end all cooperation with the EU in response to new guidelines banning funding to Israeli entities with ties to West Bank settlements, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.
Drip .. drip .. Israel has been so wrapped up and self convinced in its propaganda it has taken a while to wake it up.
Wake it will though to the nightmarish situation it has created for itself and to the world’s realization that it has been one of the greatest dis-services one could imagine to Judaism and honest Jewish folk.
“Economy Ministry Naftali Bennett’s call for the Israeli government to end all cooperation with the EU ”
Good riddance!
Alas, the EU and Israel (helped by the US) they will find a way to dilute the effects of the EU guideline.
Israel annexed Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and will not sign a clause saying those areas are not part of Israel.
Stolen lands illegally annexed and not one state on the planet recognizes this illegal annexation.Well except the thief, Israel.
They can refuse to sign and then the EU should just cut them off at the legs.It should be fun watching them scurrying around without a leg to stand on.
They are not in Europe so why put up with their arrogance and law breaking.
The Israelis had to defer to the European Commission when the Commission insisted that Israeli products manufactured outside the territorial boundaries of Israel as defined by article 83 of the EC-Israel Association Agreement should not be eligible for the preferential duty arrangements also as defined in protocol 4 of that agreement. It will be interesting to see [thanks to that fool Abbas] whether the Israelis can pursued the EU to hold off on any such arrangement, since it could negatively impact the ongoing “peace process” talks, alternately “finding a formula both sides can live with” has been the raison d’etre of both sides up til now, its not beyond the capabilities of those two experts at cat skinning to come up with some mealy mouthed compromise.
Israeli high tech is based on scientific cooperation , commercialization of foreign sourced open, or not so open, technologies:
“Last week The Financial Times published a feature about Israel’s technology prowess. It was a piece of thinly-veiled propaganda by the paper’s correspondent Tobias Buck, yet it nonetheless underscored how many of the big shots in Israel’s technology sector were trained in Unit 8200, an electronic espionage division of the Israeli military.”
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david/settler-professor-top-attraction-eu-israel-science-show
Unit 8200 and its role: this IDF entity is responsible for Israel’s cyber-warfare capability. It developed Stuxnet and Flame along with its colleagues in the NSA, who also shared “credit.” Unit 8200 veterans have founded numerous start-ups that commercialize their military applications for security use by companies, intelligence agencies, and entire nations:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2013/06/08/idf-unit-8200-cyberwar-veterans-developed-nsa-snooping-technology/
Case study: Zend , an Israeli created company dominant in PHP Web programming, is merely a commercialization of open source software:
http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail991.html