Approximation and convergence between Israel and the EU has taken place almost by stealth. On the one hand, Israeli customs, habits, norms, standards and culture are very close to those of the EU. On the other hand, Israel’s and the EU’s economic, social and demographic structures have been converging in the last two decades.

This paper analyses the “Europeanisation” of the Israeli state. It argues that the long negotiations to enter the OECD somewhat detracted from the attention the government of Israel devoted to the powerful message initially sent by the EU in 2003-2004 offering Israel a “stake in the Internal Market.” It so happened that later on the process of Israel’s approximation to the EU was marred during the negotiation of the Action Plan for different reasons: first, the inevitable politicization of the process, absent in the case of OECD accession; second, the constant fear of the EU to offer Israel concessions that for equity or political reasons it would have had to offer to other Mediterranean Non-Member Countries, such as Morocco or Tunisia.