Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1509678
of both Ukraine, and the EU's response so far. I very much doubt, however, that the same could be said for the Israel- Hamas conflict. But first, let's look at Roberta Met- sola's reaction to that one, too: "They [Hamas] do not offer solutions. They offer blood- shed. This is not the time for 'whataboutism'. This is terror in its worst form […]" Metsola said during a solemn vigil in Brussels last week; adding that: "This is Europe. We stand with you [Is- rael]." A few days later, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted the same line: "We are friends of Israel. When friends are under attack, we stand by them…." (See? What did I tell you earlier, about Metsola not being the only one?) And… well, do I really need to explain why all this is just another case of 'deja-vu' (from the same two people who have already botched Europe's re- sponse to one other major cri- sis, over the past year alone)? Oh, well: I guess I probably do. So here goes: Once again, we have a case where the Presidents of both the European parliament, and the Commission, have between them decided to: a) Unreservedly (and in- explicably, if you ask me) 'take sides', in a millennial conflict that is BY NO MEANS as 'clear- cut', as they themselves evident- ly seems to think; b) They have committed - or tried to commit, anyway - the entire EU to policy of 'total, un- wavering support', for only one of those two sides… (despite their existing commitments to also provide Palestinians with aid, in the form of EU funding); c) They have tried - and failed - to change the European Union's existing policy on 'ex- ternal aid', so that it suddenly reflects their own, new, arbi- trarily-chosen position on the entire Israeli-Palestinian ques- tion… to the extent that one EU Commissioner even threatened to 'cut all EU aid to Palestine' (before being promptly contra- dicted by another). And they did all the above, without bothering to so much as even 'consult' any of the oth- er institutions that supposed- ly make up the rest of the EU: including, in this instance, Eu- rope's Commissioner for Ex- ternal Aid, Josep Borrel (who is imparting a decidedly 'different' – if not 'contrasting' - view of the situation, than either Met- sola or von der Leyen). Even worse, however: they ev- idently didn't bother to check whether any form of 'consensus' exists, for this new-found policy of theirs, among the wider pop- ulation of the 'Europe' they are supposed to actually be repre- senting… To put that another way: Rob- erta Metsola and Ursula von der Leyen have (without any form of 'popular mandate', of any kind whatsoever) unilaterally committed the European Union to actively supporting Israel, in its ongoing hostilities with Ha- mas [Note: and as with Ukraine, the question of HOW they in- tend to provide all this support, remains unanswered]… … at a time when surveys (and all sorts of other indicators) consistently show that the over- whelming population of Europe does NOT support that kind of foreign policy, with regard to the Middle East; and nor, for that matter, do most of the 27 countries that actually consti- tute the 'European Union', to begin with. I'm running out of space, so I'll keep this part brief… but in July this year, a 'YouGov' poll conducted in six EU members states – Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, and Spain (and, separately, the UK and USA) – asked respondents two specific questions: 1) Which side of the Isra- el-Palestine do you sympathise with, more? 2) Which side of the Isra- el-Palestine do you think your government sympathises with, more? With only one exception – Germany (where a slender ma- jority supported Israel) - all the other five countries were more or less unequivocal, in express- ing more sympathy with the Palestinians, than Israel. (And also, in declaring that they do not feel represented by their own governments, on this is- sue). Now: I'm the first to admit that this does not add up to fool- proof evidence, that the EU's position is going to be unpop- ular, with huge segments of the European population. After all, the poll was conducted months before Hamas' latest attacks… which, in turn, were certainly heinous enough to have altered popular perceptions, since then (perhaps quite drastically, too.) All the same, however: it does add another teeny-weenie little question, to all the others that remain thus far 'unanswered'. Who do people like Roberta Metsola and Ursula von der Leyen think they're actually 'representing', when they speak (so unilaterally) 'on Europe's behalf'? Because in this particular in- stance: it doesn't look, to me, as though they're representing either 'the citizens of Europe'… nor even, for that matter, the rest of the EU, that they them- selves are supposed to be 'lead- ing'. No. To me, it looks a lot more like one of two other possibili- ties. They have either decided to simply represent the USA's position, in the Israeli-Palestin- ian question (in which case, we may as well just demote the EU to the status of 'American satel- lite state', and get it over with)… … or else, they are concerned only with how they themselves 'look', and 'sound', as they 'strut and fret their hour on the [in- ternational] stage' (and to hell with the possible consequences: which, incidentally, could also extend to a whole new wave of future terrorism, targeting Eu- ropeans…] One thing, however, is certain. They are NOT talking on my behalf; and in all likelihood, not on behalf on any 'European ma- jority', either… maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 OCTOBER 2023 OPINION 11 At a vigil in Brussels, Roberta Metsola (centre), president of the European Parliament, condemned the Hamas attacks on Israel as "terror in its worst form" Roberta Metsola and Ursula von der Leyen have (without any form of 'popular mandate', of any kind whatsoever) unilaterally committed the European Union to actively supporting Israel, in its ongoing hostilities with Hamas