“In private conversations in recent days with visiting European statesmen, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said that the Palestinians are being treated by some EU member-states as a “spoiled child.” He first used this phrase on Sunday in a meeting with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov and he repeated it during a meeting on Wednesday with Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez. Netanyahu’s intention was to point out that many European countries are habituating the Palestinians to believe that they can gain concessions without giving anything in return.

This was precisely the message coming out of Europe this week as Mideast Quartet – US, EU, Russia and UN – envoys prepared to meet in Brussels. As one senior Israeli official put it, the EU hopes to avert a Palestinian statehood bid at the UN in September by “giving something” significant to the Palestinians. And the party expected to appease the “spoiled child” is Israel.”

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