{"id":33776,"date":"2026-04-20T02:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/33776\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T02:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:45:13","slug":"orbans-exit-leaves-israel-exposed-in-europe-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/33776\/","title":{"rendered":"Orb\u00e1n\u2019s exit leaves Israel exposed in Europe \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The push to ramp up pressure on Israel is in focus this week as the EU&#8217;s chief diplomat Kaja Kallas presides over a meeting of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eeas.europa.eu\/eeas\/media-advisory-high-representativevice-president-kaja-kallas-open-global-alliance-two-state-solution_en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Global Alliance for a Two-State Solution<\/a> as well as at a gathering of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. Ministers are expected to raise the subject of West Bank sanctions and the Association Agreement \u2014 although one EU diplomat from a mid-sized EU country and the EU official quoted above said that countries might avoid moving ahead in deference to peace talks between Israel and Lebanon.<\/p>\n<p>Tensions ramp up<\/p>\n<p>The push to revisit sanctions comes as EU leaders intensify their criticism of Israel over its actions in Lebanon and over a controversial law, backed by Netanyahu, that authorizes the death penalty for terrorists from the Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n<p>Kallas blasted the bill \u2014 which comes ahead of Israeli elections due later this year \u2014 as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consilium.europa.eu\/en\/press\/press-releases\/2026\/03\/31\/israel-statement-by-the-high-representative-on-behalf-of-the-european-union-on-the-approval-of-the-death-penalty-bill-by-the-israeli-parliament\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u201cgrave regression,\u201d<\/a> in a statement issued on behalf of the bloc on March 31. Germany, France and the United Kingdom also warned that the law would \u201crisk undermining Israel\u2019s commitments with regard to democratic principles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2268681939-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8296970\"  \/>EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas speaks to the press in Bucha, Ukraine on March 31, 2026. | Volodymyr Tarasov\/Ukrinform\/NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Right-wing ministers in Netanyahu\u2019s coalition, though not the prime minister himself, have responded to the criticism by accusing opponents of weakness and urging Israel&#8217;s Supreme Court not to block the law&#8217;s application. A spokesperson for Israel\u2019s embassy to the European Union declined to comment for this article.<\/p>\n<p>The bill is also expected to fuel renewed efforts to impose sanctions on Israel, including reviving debate over the EU-Israel Association Agreement, though the two diplomats said no specific measures had yet been tabled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mood is shifting,\u201d said a second senior EU official who is involved in organizing diplomatic conversations about Israel. \u201cLook at the Merz comments and what\u2019s been happening in Italy,\u201d the official added, saying much would depend on the Lebanon peace process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The push to ramp up pressure on Israel is in focus this week as the EU&#8217;s chief diplomat&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[140],"tags":[466,5816,244,22598,1065,233,6259,421,1104,422,10609,243,13859,22599,442,7790,303,317,934,1434,350,185],"class_list":["post-33776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kaja-kallas","tag-banks","tag-belgium","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-economic-sanctions","tag-elections","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-gaza","tag-hungarian-elections-2026","tag-hungarian-politics","tag-hungary","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-israel-hezbollah-war","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-luxembourg","tag-middle-east","tag-palestine","tag-peter-magyar","tag-sanctions","tag-viktor-orban","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116434745587370835","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}