Must Listen

Must Read

What Art Thinks

Pre-Millennialism

Today's Headlines

  • Sorry... Not Available
Man blowing a shofar

Administrative Area





Locally Contributed...

Audio

Video

Special Interest

Daily News
8824
“EU Warns Israel not to Divide Bloc Over Jerusalem”
by AP - SLOBODAN LEKIC   
December 10th, 2009

BRUSSELS – The European Union warned Israel on Thursday not to play "divide and rule" with the 27-nation bloc over the EU's new position that Jerusalem should be the shared capital of Israel and a future Palestinian state.

The EU's adoption Tuesday of the new resolution on Jerusalem sparked an angry reaction from Israel, which captured the eastern half of the city in the 1967. It considers Jerusalem its eternal undivided capital. Palestinians want east Jerusalem as part of a future independent state.

"We have been very concerned by developments in Jerusalem," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, told the European Parliament.

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that Sweden wanted to present the EU declaration as its achievement before that country's six-month term as the EU president ended.

"Sweden, which is completing its term as holder of the EU rotating presidency without any achievements or any significant returns, tried toward the end of its term to steal the show and steal the vote. That didn't succeed," Lieberman told Israel Radio.

Bildt shot back Thursday, saying that Israel should not "think that a relationship with Europe is divide and rule."

"You consider some (EU members) good and some bad and then you try to maneuver from that position," Bildt said. Tuesday's decision demonstrated that the EU was a "cohesive and clear force" on global issues, including the Middle East, he said.

Bildt told lawmakers that the EU would meet on Friday with representatives of the Palestinian Authority, but that Israel has been unwilling to schedule a similar meeting.

Although the EU has long opposed the annexation of east Jerusalem, Tuesday's statement was sure to deepen Israel's sense that the Europeans favor Palestinian positions.

go back button