'Look and learn'

On her first tour of the Middle East, European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton visited Israel and the West Bank, as Palestinian rioters took to the streets in protests against Israeli settlement expansion plans. Deutsche Welle Israel correspondent Irris Makler explains what this means for EU-Israel relations and the EU's role in the peace process.

Deutsche Welle: Only very recently US Vice President Joe Biden went to Jerusalem and was embarrassed by the announcement of the expansion of Jerusalem settlements. Does Catherine Ashton stand a chance of coming away with any less egg on her face?

Irris Makler: Catherine Ashton is on her first Middle East tour as EU foreign policy chief, she says, "to look and to learn." I think in the first instance, she is not going to try as hard as Washington, because of the different relationship between the EU and Israel and Washington and Israel.

But even if she wanted to, it would be very difficult. [After all] it's proving to be very difficult for Washington, despite its long relationship with Israel, and its long-time role as mediator here. This particular crisis over the building in Jerusalem really shows the difference between Israel and the rest of the world on Jerusalem, and it really shows why Jerusalem is at the heart of this conflict.

Ashton has already met with her Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman. Obviously, this Jerusalem issue illustrates how far apart the EU and Israel really are on many issues surrounding the Middle East conflict. Are there any signs of convergence between these two foreign policy chiefs?

Israel and the EU have very close cultural and trade ties, but they are much further apart on politics, particularly on the resolution of the conflict here. The EU is very committed to a two-state solution, a return of the West Bank and the division of Jerusalem. The right-wing government that Israel now has doesn't see eye to eye with the EU on that. That was made very plain by Avigdor Lieberman when he stood side by side with Ashton and said the demands not to build were plainly unreasonable. It is his view and the right-wing view that Israel is not to be divided, and that it will remain the capital of the Jewish people.

That's in direct opposition to the Palestinians, who also see east Jerusalem as their capital, and dream of a divided city, with one half being the capital of the Palestinians and one half being the capital of the Jewish state.

We've seen a lot of street fighting over the last few days in east Jerusalem, with Palestinians upset about the planned expansion of Israeli settlements around the city. Do you think those violent protest have the potential to grow into something bigger?

There is a fear here that these two crises - the diplomatic crisis and the one on the street - are exacerbating one another, and that the street fighting could spiral out of control. At the moment, it doesn't seem like it is. But the problem with street fighting is you never know where riots will go. These riots are the worst we've seen here in years. It would be a foolish politician who would say they weren't frightened of that.

I think we can say we are not seeing the third intifada - there isn't that wave that slipped over the West Bank and Gaza as we saw in 2000 or in the 1980s. It's different this time. But it could always change.

Following her whirlwind tour of the Middle East, Ashton will head to Moscow to participate in a Middle East quartet meeting with the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia. What can she and the rest of the quartet really achieve when the two sides in the region won't even sit down with each other?

Perhaps they could bring those two sides together. That's their aim, to actually return these two sides that were - until very recently during the last government - speaking to each other. They were meeting every week to discuss these negotiations, and they had got quite far when the Israeli elections were held, and a different government with a different complexion came in.

Many things have changed since then; there's also a different government in the US, of course. But there were negotiations, face-to-face negotiations that were going quite well according to all people involved.

So it's not an impossible dream that no one can realize; it's just that things have changed, and many of the most important forces are actually the quartet. It's their plan that's being considered the roadmap of negotiations. So if anyone can think through a strategy for returning these two parties to the table, it would be the quartet.

Interview: Matt Hermann
Editor: Nancy Isenson