It is evident that "identity protection" is much more important for Europeans than killing terrorists. Not quite "we will fight them on the beaches". Although, of course, the rest of Europe were actually welcoming them on their beaches.
And once again, I ask.... "If you killed Osama Bin Laden would you now be arrested in Europe for "an extrajudicial killing"?"
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=170151
European anger over supposed Israeli misuse of passports to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on January 19 played a “certain role” in shifting EU votes on the Goldstone Report in the UN General Assembly last week, visiting Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
The Slovak Republic, considered in Jerusalem one of Israel’s best friends in the EU, originally voted – along with six other EU countries – alongside Israel against endorsing the Goldstone Commission report at the General Assembly in November.
Lajcak – who was present in the debate in Brussels last Monday following which the EU issued a statement condemning the killing, but stopped short of blaming Israel – said, “I would be hypocritical if I said this [the passport issue] had no impact whatsoever” on the vote in the UN.
No country “is immune to its public opinion,” he said.
Asked how much this issue was hurting Israel in European public opinion, Lajcak said the issue was “quite big.” Stolen identities, he said, were “something that Europe is very sensitive to.”Also, he said, “Europe is based on respect of values and principles of rule of law, and extrajudicial killings is something we show no tolerance for, regardless of where they come from.”
Reminded that Mabhouh had been an arch-terrorist with Israeli blood on his hands and had been behind smuggling weapons into Gaza designed to kill even more Israelis, Lajcak said it was necessary to view the issue from a European perspective.
“You are [an] innocent, ordinary European citizen, and you travel as a tourist, and all of a sudden you are arrested because someone has stolen your identity and used it for something bad, something unlawful – this is how Europeans look at it,” he explained. “They [European citizens] want to make sure their identities and passports are protected, and they will not be in a position where they will have to bear responsibility for someone else’s actions.”