An article by David Frankfurter in The Sprout magazine (subscription required) offers an acute, if chilling, analaysis of the role Europe is really playing in the Israel/Palestinian impasse. Its ostensible position is to push for its own plan (excuse me, what about the Road Map?) which would confirm a two-state solution, supported by elections and overseas policing in the Palestinian territories. But Frankfurter suggests its real agenda has to be deduced from the game the Palestinians are now playing. The EU regards the Palestinian Authority as the instrument to lead the Palestinians into statehood. But the PA, he suggests, is simply the old PLO, still intending to terrorise or otherwise dispatch Israel into oblivion. And it's the otherwise that we should note, as much as the terror. Frankfurter observes:

'In a recent editorial in the New York Times, Michael Tarazi, who draws his salary from the PLO Negotiation Support Unit, explained that the Palestinians are discarding the public acceptance of the European vision of a two-state solution. He ingeniously calls on Europeans to work towards equal citizenship, a euphemism for a one-state solution and the annihilation of Israel. And here's the catch: Taraziâ's Unit is funded by Britain, Sweden and others. Seemingly, they are innocently financing a group working in contradiction to their own policy of a two-state solution. Innocently? Given these contradictions and financial fiascos, should Israel trust the EU? It is easy to see why not. European complacency to the public statements by UNRWA Commissioner General, Peter Hansen, that his organisation employs members of Hamas did not surprise the Israeli public. While Hamas is catgorised as a terror group by Europe, the EU and member states are UNRWA's leading donors. And then compare the public outrage by senior Europeans, like Swedish Prime Minister Persson and Dutch Foreign Minister Bot, at the senseless slaughter of women and children at Beslan with the relative equanimity of the daily targeting of innocents by Palestinian terrorists. And the EU is starting to wave the weapon of economic sanctions in the direction of Israel. Put bluntly, if Israel does not play ball, the EU will pull the plug on trade concessions. This matches recent assessments by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Leaks of a confidential report showed fears that Europe is willing to sacrifice Israel and turn it into a pariah state, if she does not capitulate to European demands.

'Rewarding the proponents of terror at the expense of a democracy is consistent with the EU's new commercial policy, having signed a new trade deal with Syria last month, on the very same day the UN endorsed a French led demand that Syria cease its occupation of Lebanon, where it is supporting Hizbollah terrorists. In the summer of 2000, Chairman Arafat realised that the heavy compromises of Prime Minister at Barak at Camp David demanded a full recognition of Israel. The Palestinian leadership could not accept this. It ran to Europe, specifically President Chirac, for a soothing cuddle. Europe obliged its charge. Two months later, war was declared on Israel and terrorists, arrested under the Oslo accords, were released from their cells in Ramallah and Gaza.'

In other words, Europe is trapping Israel in a pincer movement, between Palestinian terror on one side and the opporobrium of the EU, with escalating economic pressure, on the other. And just what is it that it is pressuring Israel to do? Why, nothing other than sign its own death warrant. One way or another, Europe wants Israel gone. it would prefer not to have its own fingerprints on the corpse, and so it is placing the gun in Israel's own hand while pointing another at its head.