“Even if we block it alone”: Israel’s new veto in Europe

• The Czech Foreign Minister announced that he will oppose sanctions against Israel in the European Union.
• This is an important statement since most sanctions require consensus among the EU countries.
• In the Czech Republic they made it clear that they will help Israel also against initiatives that require a privileged majority.
• The words were said by the Czech Foreign Minister as part of a diplomatic visit by Foreign Minister Saar

The foreign minister of the Czech Republic announced today (Wednesday) that he will no longer allow sanctions against Israel in the European Union, and will even work to block moves against Israel that require a privileged majority. These things come after the Czech Republic supported the imposition of sanctions on violent settlers last week, and when there are other initiatives against Israel being promoted in Europe.

“We will not allow any more sanctions against Israel in the European Union – even if that means we will have to block them ourselves,” said Czech Foreign Minister Petar Matzinka in a statement alongside Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who arrived on a diplomatic visit to Prague.

Macinka added: “There are ongoing attempts in the European Union to raise new sanctions against Israel. The Czech Republic will stand by Israel from this moment on, we will not allow any further commercial sanctions even if we have to block it as a single country. We will certainly not allow any suspension or freezing of Israel’s Association Agreement with the European Union, either in full or of any parts of it. At this point our position will be clear: ‘No'”.

The king’s way of imposing sanctions in the European Union requires a unanimous majority of the EU countries, so the lone voice of the Czech Republic may be very important in curbing anti-Israeli initiatives. Israeli diplomatic contacts were behind the announcement, and Foreign Minister Sa’ar hosted Matzinka in Israel last month, alongside the current visit.

Until now, Hungary was Israel’s “automatic veto” in the Union, but after the replacement of the Orban government, the veto was lost, and the sanctions that had been stalled for a long time were approved. The Czech Republic has presented a distinctly pro-Israel position for a long time, but now it seems to be taking another significant step forward.

Other weighty measures that the Union can take towards Israel require only a special majority, not unanimous consent. Even against such measures, the Czech Foreign Minister pledged to act politically on Israel’s behalf. “We will look for groups on issues where the vote requires a qualified majority, and this is so that no further aggressive measures on the part of the European Union will harm the State of Israel,” Matsinka said.

Foreign Minister Sa’ar said at the same time that “we are witnessing an attempt by certain left-wing governments in Europe to drag the European Union into a radical anti-Israel approach. These hostile governments are harming the strategic relations with the only democracy in the Middle East – in order to win applause from the most radical countries and terrorist countries in our region.” He made it clear that countries friendly to Jerusalem, such as the Czech Republic, must prevent this deterioration.