The “For Sale” sign isn’t up, but Europe is aggressively bidding for ownership of the Middle East peace process.

On September 1, at an informal meeting in Finland, EU foreign ministers discussed the latest Middle East difficulties, coming to unanimously agree that the peace process must be revived. Officials said the EU seeks to breathe new life into the long-stalled peace negotiations based on the principle of Israel returning to its 1967 borders.

Reuters reported that EU nations are aiming to “leverage their increased military presence in southern Lebanon to gain more political clout in future peacemaking” (August 31).

With the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas still fragile and a standoff between the Jewish state and Palestinian militants over an abducted Israeli soldier unresolved, the Europeans argue the situation can only be stabilized by starting processes to seek political solutions.EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana wants to create momentum for fresh talks based on the goals of a two-state solution and a return to 1967 borders ….

Europe has long craved a more muscular role in the Middle East—casting a shadow independent of the United States. And timing is everything: It views its toe-hold in Lebanon as an opportunity to gain ground as peace broker between Israel and the Palestinians. Clearly, Europe is on the hunt for gains in the Middle East. Reuters continued,

The EU has played second fiddle to the United States in the Quartet of international mediators that has been working, mostly unsuccessfully, to broker Israeli-Palestinian agreements.But the Europeans came to the fore in the Lebanon crisis by offering to provide more than half of the proposed 15,000 peacekeepers for a buffer force between Israel and Hezbollah, while Washington, Israel’s superpower ally, will provide none.

All trends point to Europe seeking to drive its wedge of influence further into the Middle East. And as the European wedge gets bigger, look for America’s presence to shrink.