Friends and Allies

Is Jerusalem’s rapprochement with Brussels the calm before the anti-Semitic storm?

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi arrived in Israel on June 13 to meet Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. The main purpose of the visit was energy talks. This was Draghi’s first trip to the Middle East.

Russia is by far Europe’s largest source of fossil fuels. But the war in Ukraine is causing Europe to look for alternative sources. On the other side of the Mediterranean, the Middle East with its energy stocks is an obvious candidate. Most of the countries in the region are unstable and prone to unrest, but Israel is a prosperous, stable democracy. And Israel has significant natural gas deposits off its coast. Jerusalem then seems like a natural partner for Brussels.

Read more at “Are Europe and Israel Bound to Be Friends and Allies?”