Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign and security policy chief, is living up to her reputation for steely resolve in the face of Russia’s war in Ukraine. She must take a similarly strong stance against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
So far, there has been a deafening EU silence as Israeli forces repeatedly violate the recent ceasefire deal and step up the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.
US president Donald Trump’s outrageous plan to “clean out” Gaza by sending Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan has yet to be rejected by the EU although the initiative makes a mockery of the EU’s long-repeated commitment to a two-state solution.
Will Kallas take the decisive action necessary to put her personal stamp on all aspects of EU foreign policy?
Or will her next five years be defined more narrowly by undeterred hostility towards Russia, strong transatlantic instincts and pro-Israel reflexes?
The jury is still out of course. It is very early days. But Kallas should tread with care. Reputations are made fast and lasting impressions are formed early as the world lurches from crisis to crisis.
If the EU is to recover any of its shredded credibility as an aspiring global power, Kallas will have to prove very quickly that she has a real understanding of — and an interest in — a complex world beyond Moscow and Washington.
The threat of ‘total economic war’ looms. And July sees highest civilian deaths since 2022 (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,616)
Shada Islam