Pour l'eurodéputé allemand Elmar Brok l'Europe a besoin d'Israël

On l'habitude d'entendre des politiciens américains exprimer leur admiration et surtout respect pour Israël. Plus rares sont les politiciens européens. Il faut donc rapporter les propos d'Elmar Brok, connu pour ses positions pro-Israël.

JPost: Diplomacy: Top EU official says Europe needs Israel

Elmar Brok, head of influential EU Parliament committee, says in a ‘Post’ interview that limiting cooperation with Israel is not in European interests and the EU is not married to the pre-1967 lines.

With the outbreak of the Six Day War in June 1967, a 21-year-old German student named Elmar Brok wrote to the IDF volunteering his service to protect the Jewish state. Fortunately, as Brok has related the story a number of times over the years to Israeli officials, the war ended quickly, before the IDF could deal with this request. Forty-six years later, Brok is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the European Parliament, a notoriously difficult forum for Israel in Brussels.

Brok, a German Christian Democrat politician who has served in the European Parliament since 1980, is considered one of the most important figures in the European Parliament, and also one of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s top foreign policy advisers. He is also considered a friend of Israel. [...]

“I am not quite sure that it is only an Israeli advantage to have Horizon cooperation,” he said, bluntly. “I think it is a European interest. It would be stupid of us if we do not continue this cooperation. Because it is very much to our advantage.” Brok acknowledged that “the quality of Israeli research” is among the best in the world, “and it would be stupid from our side to boycott that.” This sentiment, he said, was shared by many EU foreign ministers with whom he met last week.  Lire l'article en entier ICI.