European Educational Programmes as a Bridge over Troubled European-Israeli Water

EU-Israeli trade relations appear to be comprehensive and close. Yet these developed relations should not conceal the true colours of European-Israeli socio-political relations, relations that are characterized too often by ignorance, stereotyping, mistrust, and tension. This state of affairs adversely affects the ability of both the European Union (EU) and the State of Israel to fully realize the enormous potential of their relations. This article focuses, in abstracto and in concreto, on the means by which higher educational cooperation can alleviate that state of affairs to a certain extent, analysed through an International Relations (IR) perspective, drawing on the experience gained in intra-Community and inter-Community contexts. This article, however, also places emphasis on the limitations inherent in such cooperation in terms of forging regional, European-Israel affinity, limitations that are derived, inter alia, from the somewhat heterogeneous nature of the European higher education space.