BICOM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with visiting Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov yesterday. In the meeting, Netanyahu said that there were individuals in the EU who never hesitated in telling Israel what they expected it to do, but were very reticent to take the same liberties with the Palestinians. Netanyahu was referring to the EU reluctance to call on the Palestinians to give up “the right of return” and to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, even though European governments have called clearly for Israel to agree to a Palestinian state on 1967 borders and to the re-division of Jerusalem. Netanyahu said that by talking in these double standards, the EU ministers were “doing a disservice to those individual Palestinian leaders who are ready for compromise and deserve their support.”

Meanwhile, Netanyahu plans to travel to Bulgaria and Romania in early July. These two countries, along with Poland and the Czech Republic, are considered strong supporters of Israel in the EU. During these visits Israel is expected to lobby these countries to vote against the recognition of Palestinian statehood in the UN General Assembly in September.

In related news, Netanyahu also met on Sunday with EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton and Quartet Envoy Tony Blair. At the meeting, Netanyahu asked the two leaders to come out with a strong statement calling for the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in Gaza – just as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have done – to put pressure on the Hamas leadership in the Strip.