The unresolved conflict in the Middle East remains poison for the international relations of the region and the world. It is urgent that the EU should follow up on UN Resolution 1701 and the deployment of member states’ troops to Lebanon with a strategic-diplomatic initiative aimed at the fundamental problem, namely the lack of an agreed resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The reasons for this are a mix of old and new; reasons which are rooted in the international, European and Middle Eastern domains.