EU flag. Photo: S. Solberg J.

Jerusalem Post – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu hopes to convince the EU not to formally publicize on Friday the new EU guidelines on settlements – widely seen here as an initiative taken by EU bureaucrats — because it will have significant ramifications on both the peace process and Israel’s ties with the EU.

One senior Israeli diplomatic official quoted highly-placed colleagues in some European capitals he contacted on Tuesday as saying, when the story first broke, that they did not know what was being discussed. “We need to understand who is behind this,” the official said. “If it is a process set forth at the diplomatic level, or whether it was over-eager bureaucrats who took a statement made after the EU foreign ministers meeting in December and took it way too far.”

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