On his visit to Israel one month ago, Nicos Anastasiades, the President of Cyprus, discussed with Prime Minister Netanyahu that he would like the Israeli politician to address the 28 European Union nations at one of their upcoming meetings in Brussels. The Cypriot President also spoke to PA President Mahmoud Abbas and asked him to do the same at a separate event. The two leaders discussed the idea again when Netanyahu visited Cyprus on Tuesday.
This would be the first time an Israeli Prime Minister has addressed that body in 20 years. Yitrzchak Rabin did so in 1995 and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres visited Brussels in 1995, but did not formally address the entire organization.
Attempts to jumpstart the peace process have been made recently. Last week, Interior Minister Silvan Shalom, who is in charge of Israel’s peace talks, met with PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat in Amman, which marked the first such meeting in several years. No results were reported from that meeting.
“I would welcome the opportunity to present Israel’s position to the EU,” Netanyahu said. “I think this is a very worthwhile initiative that you, Nicos, have brought up. We’re pursuing this [and will] continue to discuss this with the visit of [EU Council President Donald] Tusk in Israel in a few weeks,” Netanyahu said.
Relations between Israel and the PA have been even more difficult recently than usual. Mahmoud Abbas has been the leader of the PA for almost 11 years, six years longer than his mandated term. He has recently announced his intention to retire due to “exhaustion”. It would seem that his term in office will not end without internal strife. Recently, Abbas fired Yasser Abed Rabbo, former secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and arrested 250 Hamas officials in the West Bank.
Jamil Shehadeh, member of the PLO Executive Committee, did not receive the news well, saying, “The Executive Committee will demand answers concerning the meetings with the Israelis. The next meeting of the PLO Executive Committee will be an important one,” he said. “We will discuss a number of issues, including the latest developments in the Palestinian arena, reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas and international efforts to revive the peace process.”
He pointed out that the Palestinian leadership had decided to refrain from holding such meetings, especially in the aftermath of the “increased Israeli aggression against the Palestinians.”
It should also be noted that Israel and other countries recently suffered a harsh wave of Ramadan inspired violence.