Ze'ev Elkin and Lars Andersen
Ze'ev Elkin and Lars AndersenNoa Arad, Foreign Ministry

Deputy Foreign Minister Ze'ev Elkin (Likud Beytenu) met with EU Ambassador Lars Andersen on Wednesday, to discuss the summoning of Israeli ambassadors by EU states last Thursday after plans to build roughly 1,800 new homes in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem were announced. EU envoys were summoned by Israel in response, to explain their countries' "hypocrisy" in attacking Israeli building plans whilst ignoring Palestinian incitement.

Elkin expressed his disappointed with the EU's one-sided policy against Israel in the meeting. It is worth noting that a building freeze was not stipulated as a precondition for the ongoing peace talks.

"At the same time that they're criticizing us on every building announced, there's no declared criticism on the (rocket) firing from Gaza and the barrage in the region," said Elkin, referring to the outburst of at least 6 rockets last Wednesday that has security officials saying that for all intents and purposes the Gaza ceasefire is dead.

"The source of the conflict does not lie in the settlements of Judea and Samaria," emphasized Elkin. "After all, the conflict started well before 1967. The conflict started because the Arabs didn't agree to accept the fact that the Jews have the right to a country in any borders."

Elkin also gave Andersen a document detailing the Palestinian Authority's (PA) institutionalized incitement dehumanizing Jews and idolizing Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The documents also showed how the PA funds terrorists in Israeli prisons and awards them massive stipends.

The minister showed another documented detailing the difference in the EU's policy on Israel with it's policy on different conflict regions, such as their support of the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus, which Elkin himself called out last Friday.

In an even more blatant double-standard, the document also notes how the EU voted in favor of allowing its members to fish in the waters of occupied Western Sahara. That police stands in sharp contrast to the recently-issued European Union "guidelines" which boycott Jewish businesses in Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights and parts of Jerusalem, on the grounds that the EU considers those areas to be "occupied territories".

Last Thursday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu similarly criticized the EU for its "hypocrisy" in opposing Jewish housing in Judea and Samaria.

"This is hypocrisy. The EU calls our ambassadors in because of the construction of a few houses? When did the EU call in the Palestinian ambassadors about incitement that calls for Israel's destruction?" Netanyahu asked foreign correspondents at his annual new year reception. "It's time to stop this hypocrisy. This imbalance... doesn't advance peace, I think it pushes peace further away."