‘We need a wake-up call’: Former Italian FM urges Europe to fight Trump’s one-sided Israel policy

In order to stop Trump’s policy of navigating the Israel-Palestine conflict by making concessions solely to Tel Aviv, former Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini tells RT that Europe must step out of the sidelines.

Frattini is one of 25 former foreign ministers, six former prime ministers, and two former NATO secretary generals wary about the pending secret ‘peace plan’ Trump has promised to reveal in June. These veteran politicians have signed a letter calling on European leaders to oppose the proposal if it doesn’t fairly represent the interests of the Palestinian side.

Like many, he believes that Trump has pursued a ‘unilateral’ approach to the long-standing conflict, making extreme concessions to Tel Aviv like recognizing Jerusalem as the country’s capital, accepting the UN-condemned annexation of the Golan Heights, and making massive cuts in foreign aid to the Palestinians.

According to Frattini, this approach has no chance of succeeding, stressing that a lasting peace can only be achieved by working with both sides, and by including Europe in the peace process… but first, European leaders themselves need to be spurred into taking a stand.

“We need a wake-up call for Europe” he said, and the leadership itself has to fight being “completely sidelined” in the ongoing debate over how to end the 52-year conflict. The two-time FM stressed that Europe needs to be empowered to push its own view that “lasting peace without both sides is impossible.”

The key, he believes, is to “strike a balance between the real need of Israel for its security and the right for Palestinians to have, one day, a sovereign state,” an approach that Europe, along with other international players like Russia, can help find.

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