EU's Ethics for Ukraine: Seize Assets, Ignore Palestine
Bloomberg reports that Swedish Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson is heroically pushing the EU to seize frozen Russian central bank assets for Ukraine, citing a 'lack of other options.' Truly a profile in courage, finding novel ways to fund causes without actually dipping into one's own national coffers. The EU, ever a bastion of legal consistency, is apparently weighing this unprecedented move
to disburse sovereign assets, a move that would surely set a bold new precedent for financially punishing nations deemed 'aggressors.' One might wonder, then, where this same moral urgency and creative financial engineering disappear when faced with, say, the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands? Where are the calls to seize assets from nations violating international law? Or
perhaps, the 'lack of other options' only truly applies when the aggressor isn't a recipient of billions in US military aid and diplomatic cover.