Article by Federico Guerrieri
Photo bt Harry_NL/flickr

During his recent (1st of February 2010) visit to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi expressed his hope to include Israel among the EU countries: "my greatest desire, as long as I am a protagonist in politics, is to bring Israel into membership of the European Union".

The State of Israel has its religious roots in the Biblical Land of Israel. After the birth of Zionism and the Balfour Declaration, the League of Nations granted the UK the Mandate of Palestine with the responsibility of establishing a Jewish national home. After the end of the Second World War and the horrible genocide of over 6 million Jews perpetuated by Nazi Germany, the Zionist movement pressed the public opinion in order to obtain the immediate creation of the State of Israel.

The Zionist found an important ally in the United States, where the Jewish community is very influent. In the 1947 the United Nations decided to partition Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish State. The Arabs rejected the plan. On May 14, 1948 the State of Israel was created and the following day the Arabs (Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan in particular) attacked the new-born Jewish State. After a year of fighting a ceasefire was called and Palestine was divided between Jordan and Israel. This was the beginning of the tragedy for the Palestinian refugees that, still today, do not possess their own State and freedom.

Israel has always received both economical and military support by the United States, which was the first country to recognize the State of Israel pushed by its own influent Jewish community and by the fact that the Zionist State has seen as a strategic ally in the Middle East. For this reason the military actions and war crimes perpetuated by Israel have always been justified and accepted by the United States. As often underlined by Chomsky, the crimes committed by the United States and their allies do not exist, while the crimes committed by the other nations or entities are the absolute evil. Israel does not share with Europe the same history, the same respect for human rights and the principle of rejection of war as a means to solve conflicts.

In my opinion the admission of Israel in the EU will slow down the already weak process of European integration. Moreover Berlusconi justified his European dream for Israel with “the fact that we are part of a Judeo-Christian culture that is the basis for European culture”. This is a fundamental point. I believe that all religions must be respected, but the future Europe should be based on secular beliefs. This is absolutely necessary in order not to repeat the same mistakes already made by Europe in the past. I find the clash of civilization predicted by Samuel Huntington an absurd theory, but if our policymakers will build the future Europe on religious beliefs, then the Huntington’s prediction could become true. Another country that has been linked with the EU is Turkey.

Also Turkey has been supported by the United States, in this case for strategic military and economic reasons only.  If Turkey and Israel will become EU members, this fact could put at risk the entire process of European integration, because it would be impossible to achieve a truly unified foreign policy and a political Union with countries so influenced by the United States and with a different historical background. It is true that in the US, Europe is seen as an ally, but more than that, the American administration sees Europe as a dangerous competitor to their global hegemony. Some pro-Americans European political parties (such as Berlusconi’s party) are supporting the American objective of weakening the EU.

If Europe wants to create not only an economical, but also a political union and possibly a Federation of European Nations we should be ready to accept the creation of two different levels of integration. The first and the lowest level of integration (“Social-Economic”) would have similar competences and the same country members as the actual European Union. In this Union could also be included States such as Turkey and Russia. As I have already stated in a previous article, the alliance with Russia is absolutely fundamental for the EU both for economical (interdependence in the energy market) and political (to counterbalance the hegemonic power of the United States) reasons. The second level of European integration (“Federal”) would be deeper than the first one and should led to a more integrated and unified foreign policy in the short term, and to the creation of a Federation of European Nations in the long term. This second level cannot be open to every single State. In my opinion, only a small number of countries are culturally and economically ready for a deeper level of European integration and these countries are essentially those that started the European Community more than 60 years ago (Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg) with the addition of a few other States (Spain, Portugal and the Scandinavians ones).

This process will not leave behind the weakest European countries, because the promotion of other States to the “Federal” level will always be open and possible, moreover, as explained above, the current EU functions will persist within the “Social Economic” Union. If Europe wants to play an important role in the international scenario must start questioning its own future and credibility.
The acceptation of whatever countries in the EU, without differentiations, is certainly not the way to create a truly political and not only economical Union.