This report by the American ADL is a catalog of all the glib, over-the-top, and false pronouncements made by European governments, media, and others about Israeli conduct in the Jenin battle.

This Jpost weekend article describes the small group of officials supporting Israel within the European Parliament. They number about 50 (out of 626), are mostly non-Jewish, and include Belgian Olivier Dupuis, Italians Marco Panella and Emma Bonino, and Frenchman Francois Zimeray.

The most interesting points of the article: The profiled pro-Israel MEPs are mostly left-of-center activists who view Israel as a nation committed to democracy and human rights. But their support of Israel is still quite EU-centric:

"Israel cannot both continue to make hazardous concessions, and guarantee the life, liberty and prosperity of its citizens, without the comfort of entering a wide international bloc such as Europe, to which it is already attached through historical heritage and trauma. The EU should offer Israel the political prospect of becoming a full member of the European Union."

Several indicate that a major motivation for the EU's perplexing attitudes against Israel is its desire to be in the driver's seat:

"The secret to unlocking the EU's foreign policy is that there is no EU foreign policy," [Dupuis] insists. "Rather, many in Europe don't understand how it is a small country like Israel won't stand to attention when the EU issues instructions. The EU wants Israel to recognize its superpower status, but Israel won't oblige by letting the Europeans act as mediators in the peace process. This unsettles the pride of European policy bigwigs who long for the days when Europe ruled the world."

They also say that Israel appear to have little interest in trying to get its message across at the EU. (Hmmm ... why could that be?)