Good for Ashton, Europe, and Gaza
Today’s visit to Gaza by the EU’s foreign affairs chief is as important for the EU as it is for Gaza. So far the appointment of the obscure Baroness Ashton has attracted something between deep scepticism and ridicule.
But the decision to send her into Gaza is seen by many as a deft and right decision. The negotiations to give Israel associate trading status with Europe have long been controversial.
There are strong pure trade reasons for allowing such a status. To trumpet a trade deal with Israel at such a moment is hard, but not impossible to imagine.
Only two other European foreign ministers have been to Gaza since the Israeli invasion two years ago.
Many senior foreign officials attempting the visit have been barred by Israel. In today’s circumstance, Cathy Ashton has proved un-barrable.
At the same time the visit allows her, at last, to assert herself as Europe’s voice. It remains to be seen what kind of voice the Baroness will have.
I asked two days ago in Snowblog “where is Europe? Where indeed is Britain in all this?”
The answer, I did not know then, is that Cathy Ashton clearly intends to raise the profile of the EU diplomatic role in it all.
She will travel on to the ongoing Quartet (EU, UN, US and Russia) discussions in Moscow.
Hilary Clinton, looking both ways on Israel-Palestine – as so many American Secretaries of State before her – is already there.
Someone asks in the Snowblog thread this week where is the Middle East envoy, Tony Blair, at such a moment? Answers on a postcard-sized contribution to the thread please.
The EU has long had a huge financial input into the Palestinian territories, but much of what was done by Europe in terms of boosting civic society – building police stations, town halls, electoral infrastructure, has been reduced to rubble.
In trading terms, economically vibrant Israel needs Europe, rather more than Europe needs Israel.
Hence Europe can emerge in the region as something of an honest broker. But to do so will take unprecedented skill.
A tough challenge for Ms Ashton. She has to be prepared to say “boo” to the American goose and talk turkey with the Israeli gander.
Was the “medieval siege” – as UN relief boss John Ging called it – of Gaza happening anywhere else on earth (with the possible exception of the Congo) the perpetrator would be the object of a sanctions movement and more.
The occasional threatened arrest of the odd Israeli functionary at Heathrow hardly represents “pressure”.
A region that has had more than its fair share of “dark days”, is in a deep slough of despond. Rumours of a new Israeli move on Lebanon, fears of a strike on Iran, do not improve the prospects.
Maybe it behoves even the most sceptical to wish Cathy Ashton well.