As Binyamin Netanyahu tries to impose his will upon the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: the U.S., UK, Russia, China, France plus Germany – will no one rid us of the opinions of this meddlesome, Middle East maverick with his undeclared nuclear arsenal? 

Just over 2 million Israelis voted for Mr Netanyahu in the recent elections for the Knesset – about 25% of an electorate that only totals just over 8 million in its entirety. This compares to a population of over 800 million in the US and EU alone i.e. without counting Russia and China. And this jumped-up, minority leader has the temerity to try to impose his political doctrine of Middle East supremacy upon Europe, America and Asia!

There is only one language that Mr Netanyahu understands, and that is international trade and the money it affords him to rush about Washington and Brussels with his arms, guns and dogma. However, there is virtually nothing that Israel exports that cannot be either sourced or replicated elsewhere.

Those being the facts, it is up to the EU Commission to impose trade sanctions on Israel until such time as it complies with international law and dismantles all illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories; ends the eight year blockade of essential supplies to 1.8 million men, women and children in Gaza and adopts a paradigm shift designed to bring peace, not war, to an unstable region.

In the meantime, Mr Netanyahu’s gratuitous opinions should be confined to the Israeli Knesset and he should leave important foreign policy decisions to those confirmed to have a genuine interest in peace and the ability, and will, to achieve it.