Israeli arms firms, such as Rafael, and the Israeli defence ministry remain eligible for the EU’s ‘Horizon’ science-programme grant
Von der Leyen’s proposed trade sanctions could be adopted by a qualified majority of EU countries, but Germany and Italy were among those who blocked them, even at the height of the Gaza war.
I guess Europe’s leverage is over the Arab territories, as the main sponsor of all infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank. The leverage over Israel is minimal as relations are only getting worse. But do we really have any leverage over Hamas? The same Hamas who executed dozens of Europeans on the October 7th? I doubt it, millions of euros in subsidies and zero diplomatic gains, the infrastructure is also ruble.
Heh, are you saying relations with Israel are worse than those with Hamas? And which of those two (note: that’s Israel and Hamas, not “Arab territories”) is at the receiving end of most European money?
Unfortunately I have to say Hamas. As the biggest contributer to Garza’s basic infrastructure, the EU releases Hamas from that responsibility and they use all their cash in terrorism instead.
There’s no free EU money to Israel, there’s trade, it’s an exchange, buying and selling.