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Source: https://jiss.org.il/en/inbar-the-gaza-war-and-europe/
How Can Europe Play a More Positive Role in the Middle East?
(Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security) Professor Efraim Inbar - Outsiders have very little influence over Middle East outcomes. The ambitious project conducted by the EU to create a "civil society" in the Palestinian territories has only enriched academics and cunning civilian entrepreneurs with little influence over Palestinian political culture. Nevertheless, Europe can do more to support the pro-stability forces and weaken sources of instability. First, it should adopt a realpolitik lens and throw away its rose-tinted view of human nature. Mideasterners often muse over European naivete. Similarly, the discourse about creating trust is simply nonsense in the region's political parlance. Trust is not a currency used in Middle East politics. The employment of force and fear are more useful. Some of the actors in the Middle East are evil and engaging them diplomatically is rarely productive in limiting their mischief. Similarly, applying economic sanctions often has only meager results. Europeans must overcome their reluctance to see military force as a useful tool in punishing and deterring the destabilizing actors. Calling for restraint and fearing escalation when a bad guy is being beaten is counterproductive. This means accepting Israel's objective of destroying Hamas military capabilities in order to give its citizens a respite from missile attacks. Moreover, trying to save an Islamist mini-state that serves Iranian interests on the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean is a strategic folly. Europeans should appreciate efforts to minimize the presence of Islamic radicals. Europe should announce its full support for Israel if the Jewish state is attacked by a terrorist organization. Such a statement amounts to strategic and moral clarity. Europe's human rights nitpicking for violations during warfare in Gaza are a result of ignorance of what a modern battlefield looks like and the unprecedented efforts by the Israel Defense Forces to limit the loss of civilian lives. The writer, professor emeritus of political studies at Bar-Ilan University, is president of JISS.