There is no longer any point in denying reality. All the attempts to paint the situation in the best light, to ignore it, to continue on as if nothing has happened, have been ineffective. The opposite: they only made the European Union's negative attitude toward Israel worse. Therefore, we need to say it plainly: the European Union's blatant and ongoing hostility toward Israel, which is now expressed as an ultimatum to Serbia and Kosovo about their decision to relocate their embassies to Jerusalem, has made it into an enemy, and it should be treated as such.
While the US administration is creating a historic precedent by linking a peace process that is not happening in the Middle East to the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and finally allowing Israel to normalize with Kosovo, the EU shows up and makes it clear to Kosovo and Serbia – which are still not member nations – that if they want to be, they must give up their plans to open embassies in Jerusalem, immediately.
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This gives Belgade and Pristina a taste of what EU membership is like: giving up national sovereignty and bowing to the whims of the arrogant and boastful bureaucracy of the EU system in Brussels. The European threat is gross intervention in the affairs of Serbia and Kosovo. The Europeans know that the economic carrots they are holding out to both nations allow them to wave the stick of anti-Israeli sentiment, and beat them with it. It's doubtful the US will be able to offer an alternative.
Serbia and Kosovo now have a golden opportunity to change the way the EU conducts itself. They can simply refused to cave in to the mafia-like behavior of Brussels and announce that they are unwilling to continue the process of EU membership under a condition like that. It's important to underscore that the EU's position has no basis in international law, which recognizes the Jewish state's full right to Jerusalem.
The EU is sticking to an "alternate" international law that was invested over the years to pacify the Arabs and the Palestinians as Europe gave into terrorism and the use of oil as a weapon. Now is the time for Israel's other good friends in Europe: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, and maybe even Poland, to stand up and make it clear to the functionaries in Brussels that they are no longer willing to cooperate with the traditional anti-Israel approach. I should add Germany to that list, but the gap between Berlin's declarations of friendship and its actions is still very, very wide.
A sovereign government in Israel has no choice other than to start treating the European Union the way it treats us. A good first response could be closing all the channels through which funds are sent to left-wing "civil society" groups that work to create a different reality that is more convenient for European interests, in Israel. More responses could follow. After all, we cannot demand that Serbia and Kosovo shrug off European intervention in their sovereign affairs if we ourselves don't. And we, luckily, don't even want to be part of the EU.
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