The EU-Israel Association Agreement is a trading concession that allows free access to the European single market from Israeli exporters and arms manufacturers notwithstanding that the Israeli state is not in Europe but in the Middle East: is not a member of the NATO alliance nor a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), nor the Chemical or Biological Weapons Conventions (CWC/BWC), and is not subject to European law.

The EU has similar Association Agreements with a number of other countries none of which, however, seek to infiltrate European defence systems by the sale of propriety weaponry that impose on Europe a dangerous and vulnerable reliance upon a third party that happens to be an undeclared nuclear weapons state. Such a reliance upon this non-member state, poses a potentially serious risk to both EU and NATO in the event of future conflict.

The state of Israel is geographically, politically, economically, militarily and ethnically quite distinct from Europe and European values of democracy and human rights. It is, arguably, the last colonial power – and the most dangerous, for apart from it being the only undeclared nuclear-weapons state in the world, it is estimated to conceal an arsenal of up to 400 nuclear warheads, all of which are outside IAEA inspection.

Somewhat belatedly, the EU has now recognised the danger inherent in the status quo and is expected to take appropriate action to ensure that its defence capabilities are not further compromised, by reviewing its bilateral trading links and its arms purchases from a state whose new, extreme right-wing government is now expected to become increasingly belligerent towards not only a non-nuclear Iran but also the GCC, and the UN, in its hegemonic drive for regional supremacy.