If Israel gets a new government, should Europe expect its West Bank policies to change? 🇪🇺

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With Israel heading into an election on Tuesday, we've published an opinion piece by Shaqued Morag, a former director of Peace Now and former Knesset adviser.

She makes an important distinction between changing a government and changing the policies that government leaves behind.

Her argument is that settlement expansion and the administrative structures enabling greater Israeli control over the West Bank could continue even under a coalition that presents itself as more moderate.

She also examines Europe's role, arguing that European governments shouldn't assume a change of leadership will automatically mean a change in policy.

How should the EU assess its relationship with a new Israeli government — through its political commitments, or through concrete changes on the ground?

For example, Audi is now building a factory in the US because the economic environment there is so much more favorable. This will probably also mean shifting some production capacity away from European plants.

https://www.autonews.com/volkswagen/audi/an-audi-us-plant-1024/

The engineering job market is particularly bad in entire Europe Things are still better in Germany, but even there, the market is a shadow of its former self. Wage freezes are becoming increasingly common there as well.

In my opinion, much of this comes down to the EU's misguided energy and industrial policies.

After all, apart from avoiding tariffs, why on earth would a company spend billions building a factory in the US, where wages aren't any lower than in Germany?

Because of better energy and industrial policies and a more favorable economic environment. Businesses go where they can thrive, and Europe increasingly doesn't seem to be that place anymore.

The problem is that EU leaders still don't seem to recognize just how damaging their policies have become.

Europe could spend billions on AI independence—and still rent its future.

Jensen Huang told Germany: “There’s nothing to regulate if the industry doesn’t thrive.”

Fair point. But the company urging Europe to build also sells the infrastructure it could become dependent on.

A European flag on a data center tells you where the servers are.

It tells you much less about who controls the technology, sets the prices, or holds the keys.

Nvidia can help Europe become more capable—and harder to untangle from Nvidia.

Before celebrating “AI sovereignty,” Europe should ask one uncomfortable question:

Can we change suppliers without breaking the businesses we just modernized?

Clashes erupted in Paris as a mass march drew to a close Saturday, with more than 400,000 people rallying across France over school funding and soaring living costs in a fresh challenge to President Emmanuel Macron. Police made nearly 1,000 arrests, the government said.

The Paris march began peacefully, a week after widespread rioting and looting during protests across the country. But near the demonstration’s endpoint in eastern Paris, masked protesters hurled objects and fireworks at police, who answered with clouds of tear gas, deafening sound grenades and jets of water cannons.

Officers with megaphones urged protesters to disperse. Some demonstrators panicked as tear-gas canisters landed in their midst, scattering with screams. Veteran protesters shouted after them: “Don’t run!”

The Interior Ministry put nationwide turnout at 410,000 — fewer than the 550,000 it said protested last weekend — while the CGT union that helped organize some of Saturday’s protests estimated nearly 800,000. The ministry’s estimate included 110,000 in Paris, where authorities confined the march to the city’s southeastern edge, away from the center. The CGT put the number of protesters in Paris at 250,000.

More than a month of unrest that started with protests in high schools for more funding and teachers is testing Macron’s authority in the final months of his presidency before voters choose his successor in May.

See also:

• Almost 1,000 arrested as clashes follow another day of mass protests across France (BBC)
• Major protests in Paris and other French cities in challenge to Macron – in pictures (The Guardian)