My first post in Civilization's Discontents (I hope everyone gets the Freudian reference) for 2006 is actually a delayed update to a story from December. In an earlier post at the following link, I discussed a report from the European Union criticizing Israel for its policies in East Jerusalem:

http://www.michaelbalter.com/Civilizations05/11_28_2005|Israel_and_East_Jerusalem.php

According to an article in the 29 December 2005 issue of the French daily Le Monde, the British (acting as president of the EU) and EU foreign affairs minister Javier Solana have decided not to publish this report, which was prepared by EU diplomats posted in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

In essence, although Israel's jurisdiction over East Jerusalem is not officially recognized by the international community, Israel has long been making moves to annex this part of the city, largely inhabited by Palestinians. The suppression of this report is nothing less than complicity in the illegal activities of the Israelis by the European Union. Any thoughts that we might have moved beyond the decades long one-sidedness of US and European policy towards this Middle East conflict would seem to be very premature.