Bratislava has undercut European reaction to Israel’s drastic carve-up of the West Bank, signalling that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a new Brussels’ inside-man – Slovakia’s populist prime minister Janez Janša.
Netanyahu’s decision to build a settlement in the strategic E1 area of the West Bank, carving the two-state solution into oblivion, was due to have met with condemnation “on behalf of the European Union and its 27 member states”.
But this was downgraded to a lower level, in protocol terms, to a statement by Kaja Kallas, the EU high representative for foreign affairs.
Kallas’ remarks were also larded with gratitude that “we [the EU] note the recent charges brought by the Israeli prosecutors against some perpetrators of such [West Bank] violence.”
Israel’s prosecutions have near-zero outcomes.
