For Once, Josep Borrell Gets It Right

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell suggested Feb. 12 that if Joe Biden really thinks that Israel’s response to the Hamas Oct. 7 attack is “over the top,” as the U.S. President reportedly said last week, then he should stop the flow of weapons to Israel. “But let’s be logical”, Borrell asked media in Brussels, “how many times have you heard the most prominent leaders and the foreign ministers around the world saying, ‘Too many people are being killed’? … Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people [from] being killed. Isn’t it logical?”

At the Munich Security Conference, Borrell then warned that if the UN is forced to give up its operations in the West Bank, “we could be on the eve of an even greater explosion”. He went on to point out that there can be no military solution to the conflict. “Hamas is an idea and you don’t kill an idea,” he said. “You have to provide an alternative which is better.”

With such blunt remarks, perhaps Josep Borrell does not expect to receive a second mandate as foreign policy chief of the EU once a new Commission is appointed following the parliamentary elections in June.