Israel will not face any EU sanctions despite creating famine in Gaza, massacring over 63,000 people, and announcing a new West Bank settlement that would end the two-state solution.
That was the message from an informal EU foreign ministers' meeting in Copenhagen on Saturday (30 August).
There was a "growing majority" for Israel sanctions, EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said after the talks, but "it's clear member states disagree on how to pressure the Israeli government to change course," she added.
Two of Israel's main EU allies - Germany and the Czech Republic - said they were against any kind of sanctions.
Kallas had earlier proposed suspending Israel's participation in Horizon Europe, a science programme, in what she herself called "a lenient step" on Saturday.
But German foreign minister Johann Wadepuhl said "we're not convinced of this proposal", seeing as Horizon was a programme in the "civil sphere", unrelated to Israel's military actions.
Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavský parroted Israel by denigrating the factuality of UN reports on Gaza starvation, saying: "Kaja Kallas was very successful … with opening humanitarian corridors" in her pre-summer talks with Israel.
The Austrian and Italian foreign ministers said the only action they'd support was blacklisting some extremist settlers in the West Bank.
Latvian foreign minister Baiba Braze also said Israel's actions were covered by its "legitimate right to self-defence" against Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The foreign ministers of Estonia and Lithuania spoke only of Russia in Saturday's press briefings, indicating apathy on Gaza suffering.
Most Israel sanctions options - such as blacklisting settlers, banning settler imports, or imposing an arms embargo - required EU consensus, meaning the Czechs and Israel's other top EU ally, Hungary, would veto them.
Some options - such as freezing Horizon or Israel's EU free-trade perks - could be done by a qualified majority in the EU Council, but there was no majority without Germany and Italy on board.
For his part, Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, whose country did back sanctions, said the EU could impose crippling trade tariffs on Israeli settler imports by a majority vote, bypassing Czech or Hungarian vetoes on a trade ban.
But without German or Italian backing there would be no majority for tariffs either and settler imports to the EU were only worth about €200m a year anyway, compared to the €47bn a year in wider EU-Israel trade.
The last time EU foreign ministers met was on 15 July.
Since then, the UN said Israel had caused "famine" in Gaza, the Gaza death toll has passed 63,000 people, Israel launched a ground assault on Gaza City, and announced it would build a new colony, called E1, that would cut the occupied West Bank in two, ending once and for all the UN and EU-backed two-state solution to the 77-year-old Arab-Israeli conflict.
The push for anti-Israel sanctions has been led by Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Nordic countries, Slovenia, and Spain.
But all they could do on Saturday was vent frustration and make tear-jerking remarks.
The Israeli-created famine was "simply unacceptable" said French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot.
Sweden's Maria Malmer Stenegard said: "What we see now [in Gaza] is absolutely devastating and it breaks my heart".
Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares spoke of civilians starving to death "due to an induced famine by Israel".
Ireland's Simon Harris accused Israel of "genocidal activity".
The next EU foreign ministers' meeting is on 20 October, but Harris voiced doubt that further Israeli war crimes in the meantime would change EU inertia.
"If the EU didn't take collective action against Israel by now, when will it ever - what more will it take? Children are starving - in fact, we now have reports of children who cannot even cry because they don't have the strength", he said.
The EU ministers also discussed new sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but Norway's foreign minister, Barth Eide, who attended the Copenhagen meeting, said: "If we want to have any credibility in our critique of Russia ... we also have to stand up against the massive atrocities committed by Israel".
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.
Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.