EUROPEAN UNION AND MIDDLE EAST CRISIS 2023: BETWEEN VALUES AND PRAGMATISM

The article examines the features of the Middle East policy of the European Union regarding the confrontation between Israel and the extremist organization Hamas in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. It is emphasized that such a large-scale and bloody confrontation between the mentioned antagonists is happening for the first time: until now, the clashes have been limited and shortlived. Due to the traditionally high sensitivity of the Palestinian problem for European societies (primarily as a stigmatization of the thesis about the «historical injustice of Europeans towards the Palestinian Arabs»), Brussels’ position in situations of aggravation of relations between Israel and Hamas was almost always formulated as equidistant from the conflicting parties, limited to calls for reconciliation. This time, much is different: after the brutal Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, the EU leadership condemned the Islamist atrocities and reaffirmed Israel’s right to defense. Later, however, this position began to undergo a transformation towards traditional balance. The article examines the reasons and parameters of disagreements between the political elites of a number of EU countries on this issue, as well as conflict situations within the leading institutions of the European Union.