EU foreign policy chief responds after Gideon Sa'ar boycott threat

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas quickly replied on Thursday after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar announced he would stop speaking with her until she retracts harsh remarks he said she made against Israel. In her message, Kallas addressed him as “Dear Gideon” and said the EU and Israel share many ties, adding that she values their dialogue and cooperation and remains open to continuing “in a respectful and constructive spirit.”

Kallas also said that dialogue is the basis of diplomacy, especially when disagreements arise. She wrote that the European Union is committed to building constructive relations with Israel, but argued that a two-state solution remains the only path that still has a chance of bringing peace to the Middle East. She said the EU has condemned what it calls illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank because they increasingly make that goal harder to reach.

Sa'ar then responded that Kallas still had not denied or condemned reports that she had called Israel an “apartheid regime” during one of her visits. He wrote that if she had indeed said “those vile and defamatory remarks,” she should stand by them, and if not, she should deny them. Until the matter is clarified, he said, his decision not to speak with her will remain in force.