Remember Catherine Ashton, head of foreign policy for the EU? A quick roundup of her greatest hits:
- Demanding that Israel open all Gaza crossings and leave them that way, no matter that Hamas is importing weapons
- Demanding that Israel pay back the EU for damaging structures where Hamas was hiding, storing, and launching rockets and weapons
- Ignoring Hamas war crimes while calling for “restraint” from Israel trying to protect itself
- Her refusal to mention Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day
Pretty hard to top that list, huh? Well, here’s the new head, Federica Mogherini, on what is most important to her.
The EU’s new foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, told European media this week that she would like to see a Palestinian state by the time her five-year term is up.
“The important thing for me is not whether other states, European or not, recognize Palestine,” Mogherini said. “What would make me happy is if a Palestinian state existed at the end of my term.”
Notice that she is not saying that peace between Israel and the Palestinians is most important to her. No, it’s a Palestinian state. And here’s why it’s so important to her:
Establishing rather than recognising a Palestinian state was the point, she said, pointing to the resonance of the issue for the generation of politicians coming to power in Europe.
“There is an entire generation growing up with the Palestinian issue. I mean, I’m 41, I studied politics at 16 and this was the main campaign when I was at school.”
So, she’s admitting she was brainwashed by anti-Israel “activists” when she was a teenager. And now she thinks she can do something about it. Compare the above to what she thinks about the rest of the Middle East issues like Syria, ISIS, Iraq, and Iran.
The scale of the multiple crises in the Middle East meant that “different actors share a certain sense of urgency and common threat”, creating “maybe a unique opportunity of putting around the table different actors that so far have not shared a common interest and see if there are some elements that could shape a different regional approach.”
Right. So the Palestinians should get a state, but everyone else should just negotiate. Because it’s not like the Middle East is a powder keg of death, destruction, torture, kidnapping, and rape. Good luck getting Islamists to sit down to negotiations. Don’t send any representatives, though, they’ll likely be kidnapped and beheaded.
Meet the new boss. Even more of an asshole than the old boss.