EU to ensure settlement guidelines will not harm ties with Israel, says Ashton

[azurnoir]

Source: Ha'aretz

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton said on Saturday that the EU will make sure the new settlement guidelines do not harm relations with Israel.

Speaking in Vilnius after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Ashton said that the guidelines - which state that any private Israeli entity that wants to receive funding from the EU must demonstrate that it has no links to the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or the Golan Heights – will be implemented "sensitively, and we of course want to continue to have a strong relationship with Israel."

Ashton's comments came after Kerry met in Vilnius with the EU's 28 foreign ministers, urging them to postpone the new guidelines.

A senior U.S. official said Kerry asked the foreign ministers to support ongoing Israeli-Palestinian talks and postpone the implementation of the guidelines so as not to hinder the negotiations. The official said that the foreign ministers showed "willingness and openness to consider Kerry's request."


Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-and-defense/1.545659

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

1. The screwy thing is that the USA is ready to bomb Syria for human rights violations,

but it won't consider for one moment that Israel fucks the Palestinians over and won't condemn them outright or let others do so.

What a joke.

[karynnj]

2. I assure you the US would react if Israel gassed 1000 Palestinians!

The goal of the peace talks is a 2 state solution where Palestine will have a far better situation than now,

[iamthebandfanman]

4. +1

not that its any excuse for their in-action without chemical weapons.

[John2]

6. You sure they

want cover it up? Israel should already be on sanctions and demanded, they open up their nuclear facilities. The same as the U.S. can threaten the Iranians, they can threaten Netanyahu and his Likud rightwing Government. If the U.S. has no right to demand anything on Israel, then what makes the Government in Washington think they can make demands on any other Government against their National Security? If there is no two state solution and Israel does not come to an agreement with her neighbors, just how do you think it will be good for Israel?

If there is a regional War, that is Netanyahu's and the U.S. Government's miscaculations. It will draw the Iranian Armed Forces into it, along with probably the backing of Russia and China. You see that little country of Israel. Lady, let me bring you to reality, it want take long for an all out assault to overrun it. Sure they can use nuclear weapons or what ever they have secretly stashed, but that is the same as acusing the Iranians and Assad of suicide. So why all sides just come clean and go back to the Peace Table? Israel became a powerful military force because she had some strong backers, mainly in the U.S. providing her with the resources. Israel is a country of only 6-7 million Jews and the rest are Arabs. They have an immigration Policy based on religion and race, which invites Jews from all over the World to settle in Israel. An open immigration Policy is just as much a threat to Israel. They have a lot in common with a certain American Political Party too. It is a racist Policy.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

7. Israel used white phosphorous, but hey I guess that is not a chemical weapon.

And the goal of the peace talks should not be a Palestine where 60% of the West Bank is in Israel's pocket.

[iamthebandfanman]

3. Screw the government of Israel. n/t

[lsewpershad]

5. WHY

does the US seem so beholden to Israel that it [US] has to accept all the crap Israel is doing. US should stop being blind to what other nations see as injustice to the Palestinians.

[Alamuti Lotus]

8. Keeping up appearances while taking no tangible action