"Both sides need a perspective, a military presence," Robbe

BERLIN, November 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) –  NATO troops should be deployed to occupied Palestinian territories to keep peace in the Middle East, a senior German lawmaker said on November 19.

"The situation in the Middle East is so messed up that the two sides can't manage to agree on their own any more," chairman of the German parliament's defense committee Reinhold Robbe told the online edition of the news magazine Der Spiegel.

"Both sides need a perspective, a military presence," Robbe, a member of the ruling Social Democrats, was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.

As U.S.-led occupation troops were already heavily engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, the only military option left was NATO, the German lawmaker pointed to the success of the alliance's past mission in Macedonia.

"NATO must go to Israel. It will happen, whether certain people in Germany like it or not," he said.

Robbe also confirmed that a German participation could not be ruled out from such action.

"Considering our history, we would have to examine very carefully what role the Germany army would play in an allied mission," he said.

Earlier this year, the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called for the dispatch of an international peacekeeping force to stem the spiraling violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

‘Not Normal’

Meanwhile, the Israeli ambassador to Germany said in an interview published Wednesday that relations between the European Union and Israel are "not normal".

"If Israel goes along with Europe we are rewarded. If there are differences of opinion we are threatened with sanctions or something of the kind," Shimon Stein told the German newspaper Die Welt newspaper.

The comments followed calls by the European Union for Israel to halt the building of its separation wall along the West Bank.

Stein said Germany stood out from its other E.U. partners because of its more moderate stance.

Robbe said Israeli criticism of E.U. policy in the Middle East was justified in part.

"There is a phalanx of people in the E.U. who still think (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat is a great man. These people must think again,” he said.

E.U. officials, including the bloc’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana and foreign relations commissioner Chris Patten, insisted in a Monday press conference on dealing with Arafat as the democratically-elected leader of the Palestinians.

But Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, also attending the press conference, said Arafat is an obstacle to securing a settlement to the long-standing Middle East conflict.

Relations also witnessed a deterioration after an E.U. poll unveiled that Europeans believe Israel poses the biggest threat to world peace, just ahead of North Korea, Iran and the United States.

Israel slammed the results, saying the E.U. "would do well to stop the rampant brainwashing against and demonizing of Israel before Europe deteriorates once again to dark sections of its past".