This must be a war on terrorism, not Palestinians

By Georgi Gotev | @GeorgiGotev

The attack launched by Hamas against Israel on 7 October cannot be the beginning of another full-scale conflict between Israel and Palestinians. It must be the start of a war on terrorism.

Many commentators compared Hamas’ surprise onslaught with 9/11 in the United States or the Bataclan attack in Paris on 13 November 2015, so similar to this weekend’s rave party massacre in the Negev desert.

Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist militant group designated as a terrorist organisation by the EU and the US, whose aim is to put an end to Israel. Hamas has been the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip since 2007. 

For the last 15 years, Gaza has been under a land, sea and air blockade from Israel. Unemployment levels in the strip are amongst the highest in the world, with 62% of the population requiring food assistance, according to the UN.

A decades-long back and forth of violent conflict, steeped in centuries of dispute, finally led to boiling point. But how did Hamas take control of the region?

Its rise happened in part due to the weakness of traditional organisations representing the Palestinian people, buoyed by recent events such as Israeli military raids in the Palestinian city of Jenin, strikes in both Israel and Palestine, and the raid of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem by Israeli soldiers.

In this situation, Hamas has grown stronger, and its rival Palestinian force – the Fatah of Mahmoud Abbas – has lost all credibility.

The European Commission said on Monday it has put all of its development financing for Palestine under review following the weekend’s Hamas attack on Israel that drew general condemnation from the West.

The EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said an emergency meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers will be convened on Tuesday afternoon on the situation in the Middle East after the Hamas attack on Israel.

With China’s and Russia’s influence rising on NATO’s southern flank, the alliance is considering new and improved security relations with countries in Africa and the Middle East, but it faces an uphill task as well as its own internal divisions.

A “Europe of Power” is needed to respond to international developments, along with a European approach to industrial policy to counteract fragmentation risks and completion of the EU’s Capital Markets Union (CMU), former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta told Euractiv.

Bulgaria is facing heavy fines from the European Commission as it ignored a 2019 infringement procedure initiated over a lack of an obligation for private hospitals to conduct public procurement for medicines.

The Czech Health Ministry would like to start penicillin production, which has long been in short supply, but plans face many challenges and criticisms, as there are insufficient financial resources in the country or Europe.

In less than 50 years, Ireland has become the largest net exporter of pharmaceuticals in the EU and a strong international player, thanks to a consistent government strategy that made it attractive for investment.

Look out for…

• Informal meeting of Foreign Affairs ministers on Tuesday.
• Third European Defence and Security Conference in Brussels Tuesday.
• Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi receives former President of Ukraine, Mr Petro Poroshenko Tuesday.  

Views are the author’s

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Nathalie Weatherald/Alice Taylor]