Israeli arms firms, such as Rafael, and the Israeli defence ministry remain eligible for the EU’s ‘Horizon’ science-programme grant
Von der Leyen’s proposed trade sanctions could be adopted by a qualified majority of EU countries, but Germany and Italy were among those who blocked them, even at the height of the Gaza war.
Is trade not one end receiving money? Is it not leverage that we could stop that trade?
The thing of trade is that it goes both ways, and no, we don’t have easy replacement for many pharmaceutical products from Israel. Also, having zero leverage over Hamas (despite millions wasted in Gaza) doesn’t help any possible leverage over Israel. Peace, like trade, needs 2 to tango.
Having leverage doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come at a cost to yourself. Heck, if it didn’t come at a cost, it would probably have happened already. The reason people are focusing so much on Israel’s actions in Gaza, is that they think we should be making that sacrifice now that we have that option, which we don’t have in many other conflicts.
Note also that the call isn’t to use the leverage to pressure Israel into unconditional surrender, but it can be used to pressure them into not committing war crimes, or to stop suppressing Palestinians on the West Bank.