Time to welcome — and assist — the Europeans

The European Union’s desire to play a more active role in promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace, its foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday as she set out on her first visit to the region, is one of the few areas where one could imagine some positive movement in this moribund arena.

Europe probably will not use its immense power — as Israel's biggest trade partner and the main financial donor to Palestine — to pressure or threaten either side. If it is correct that, "The European Union is ready and willing to play a major role in a relaunching of this process on the basis of the two-state solution,” as she said Monday, she must find a practical way to put those good thoughts into action. Presumably she will use this visit to explore how to move ahead in a manner that is more effective than the United States’ serial failures during the past 20 years of its exclusive control of direct negotiations between the two sides. Several arenas for European mediation and policy interventions come to mind.

If Europe genuinely supports a two-state solution — and I believe it does — then Europe can individually and collectively affirm that by recognizing the “state of Palestine,” even though the Palestinians do not enjoy full control of the territory of their anticipated state in the Israeli-occupied or -besieged West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Highlighting formal recognition of a Palestinian state and then activating that status through issues like recognizing passports, trade accords and other means will hasten the day when a majority of Israelis comes to its senses and lives peacefully with the Palestinians in contiguous states.

Seventeen of the 28 EU states voted last year to admit Palestine into the United Nations as a non-member observer state, which allows Palestine to use existing UN-related political mechanisms to adjudicate disputes with Israel and ultimately achieve statehood. A handful of European states have bilaterally recognized the state of Palestine, on the basis of that state living peacefully with Israel, which is the Palestinian intent. Getting all 28 European states to do this would be a powerful first step to Europe playing a dynamic role in promoting Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy for peace and justice. Last week’s Vatican recognition of the state of Palestine in a treaty gives added impetus to this track of action.

Another arena where Europe has already started to move is to clarify through law and administrative measures that Europe supports Israel in its pre-June 1967 borders, but opposes Israel’s colonization, annexation, subjugation, siege, mass arrests, collective punishments, and other such harsh activities in the occupied Palestinian lands. Cutting out European engagement or trade with, or support for, Israeli actions in the occupied territories is a logical step that would highlight the legitimacy of pre-1967 Israel and the criminality of post-1967 Israel.

At the same time, Europe could join forces with Arab powers to prod the Palestinians to play their diplomatic role more effectively in two areas: bridging the internal Fateh-Hamas divide and reconstituting a single, unified Palestinian national leadership under the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that represents Palestinians everywhere; and, reviving and clarifying the 2002 Arab Peace Plan that remains the most promising outline for a potential permanent peace agreement that addresses the key demands of both sides. The Palestinians cannot expect anyone to step in and hand them their rights simply because they feel that they deserve their rights. Dysfunctional and often amateurish Palestinian leadership has been a problem for years, and must be overcome for meaningful peace-making progress to occur.

None of this will be easy or speedy, but breakthroughs will require movement towards meeting the bottom line needs of both sides, simultaneously. Prioritizing Israeli concerns and relegating the Palestinians’ rights to picking diplomatic crumbs off the floor, as the United States has done, has been a catastrophe for all concerned. Mogherini should review all American mediating efforts during the past 20 years, and focus on not repeating any of Washington’s pro-Israel structural biases or logistical mediating mistakes.

Another important area for her to probe would be to speak directly to Arab and Israeli public opinion, offering honorable, equitable peace proposals that reasonable majorities of Arabs and Israelis would support, despite the dysfunctional or extreme nature of their governments. This is the moment to break the decades-long miserable diplomatic cycle that has been defined by American bias, Israeli colonial aggression, European disengagement, and Arab lassitude.

We need to do our part on the Arab side to help Mogherini succeed, rather than demand justice and passively watch television to see how no progress occurs on this front. A strong Palestinian statement supporting the EU initiative and offering constructive breakthrough proposals, with explicit Arab backing, would be a welcomed first move this week.