European Union
The European Union aims to remove its dependency on Russian gas, oil and coal by 2027.
A report by Israel’s Intelligence Ministry was prepared in June 2021 but declassified and made public this year.
Prior to the war in Ukraine, energy issues were judged by a single yardstick: their environmental impact. What the West is coming to realize is that energy is also about national security and deterrence, said Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
“The conclusions demonstrate that France and the entire leadership of the European Union recognize the danger that anti-Semitism poses to the Jewish people and society at large,” said World Jewish Congress president Ronald S. Lauder.
The letter sent to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is based on a January report by IMPACT-se, which revealed thousands of pages of new material produced by the Palestinian Authority that promotes hate and anti-Semitism.
Professor Avi Bell: “The accusation that Israel is committing war crimes with plans to build an Arabic-language special-needs school for Israeli and Palestinian Arab residents of the neighborhood shows that European officials harbor equal contempt for common sense, international law and the Jewish state.”
“Instead of focusing on all the obstacles and identifying the most important ones, they are singling out the settlement issue and defining it as the most critical,” says Professor Eytan Gilboa of Bar-Ilan University and a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.
The MEPs said that on Nov. 9, which was also the anniversary of Kristallnacht, they tested Facebook’s “reactivity” to flagged anti-Semitic content by reporting posts that contained blood libels, conspiracy theories tying Jews to the COVID-19 pandemic and Holocaust denial.
Efrat Duvdevani, director-general of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, said “our role is threefold: to raise awareness, especially among youth; to join hands with regional and international partners; and to encourage innovation and startups to tackle these challenges.”
The designation has “far-reaching consequences for the organizations in political, legal and financial terms,” say Estonia, France, Ireland, Norway and Albania in a joint statement.
“Settlements are illegal under international law and constitute a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution,” says a spokesman for the European Commission.
“We gather in Brussels with Jewish leaders from Europe and watch, in front of our eyes, how anti-Semitism continues to grow year after year,” said Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association, who placed blame on politicians “who are content with declarations but ignore the real problems of the Jews of Europe.”
