Here in more detail. Heaping praise vs. warnings and alarm.
politico.eu/article/euro...
politico.eu/article/euro...

Suspending preferential trade with Israel in its pre-'67 borders should logically be coupled with banning trade with settlements outside those borders. Not doing the latter would actually equalise the tariffs for both, i.e. de-differentiate them. And it's a legal oligation per ICJ.

7. So at the 15 July meeting of EU foreign ministers, even if the deal does lead to some improvement (let's hope it does), it's critical to continue & step up pressure - through max support for the options presented by Kallas👇- and for states like 🇩🇪 & co to play along www.reuters.com/world/middle...

6. This goes back to member state dynamics.

If a clear majority of states was united behind need to pressure Israel w/ tangible measures, Kallas would be in stronger position & could demand more than just aid improvement.

But countries like 🇩🇪 🇮🇹 🇦🇹 🇨🇿 🇬🇷 oppose that, undercutting EU leverage.

5. Even if aid is improved, the deal does nothing to stop killing & displacement in Gaza and awful, escalating West Bank developments

Although the review covered many Israeli breaches across OPT, the EU then lowered its bar to negotiating Gaza aid only,leaving Israel off the hook on everything else

4. Imagine the EU did so last year - when 🇮🇪&🇪🇸 launched the idea - but other member states didn't want to hear about it.

Imagine the EU did so 10 or 20 years ago when Israel was expanding settlements & killing possibility of peace with no internationa consequences.

3. Yes, this could be (potentially) the first little EU win on Gaza. And it only happened because of pressure. The EU review that found Israel in breach of Association Agreement put the threat of consequences on the table. Only then did Israel start paying attention to EU & @kajakallas.bsky.social.

2. Let's see in next few days how much of it really happens. Israel has a strong record of stalling such deals in implementation phase.

The risk is it will deliver little in Gaza but serve as an excuse to avoid any EU measures of pressure on Israel at the 15 July meeting of EU foreign ministers.

"You took a sustained, prominent stand against the Russian invasion of Ukraine on which you have continued to speak out, uncompromisingly, on every occasion afforded to you. Yet you have chosen to remain almost entirely silent as Israel pounded a people under occupation."

"You rightly demand justice for [the murdered Maltese journalist] Daphne Caruana Galizia ... but you had nothing to say about the targeted assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh and the hundreds more journalists shot, maimed and blown up by Israel over the past 20 months."

"When Hamas launched its despicable attack on 7 Oct you were quick to condemn it and stand in solidarity with Israel. That was the right thing to do. ... Dr Metsola, why no official gathering for the many thousands of innocents dead at the hands of Israel? Why the double standards?"

“Dr Metsola, you have failed utterly at this critical moment to speak out for what is right as a man-made catastrophe unfolded in our neighbourhood, enabled by European policies and European weapons.” timesofmalta.com/article/we-a...