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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The writer is an FT contributing editor
It fell to Joe Biden to articulate publicly the private fears of many European leaders. National rage, the US president remarked after talks in Tel Aviv with Benjamin Netanyahu, is fully justified, but Israel should not repeat the mistake of the Americans after 9/11 by allowing emotions to rule the response.
The horror among Europeans at Hamas’s atrocities in southern Israel on October 7 is unvarnished. Germany’s Olaf Scholz and Britain’s Rishi Sunak also made the trip to Israel to show solidarity with Netanyahu. Yet the mounting toll on Palestinian civilians — many, like the victims of Hamas, children — wrought by Israeli bombing has seen public condemnation joined by private consternation.
Israel, all are agreed, has the right to defend itself. Hamas must release the hostages it has taken into Gaza. But the force and breadth of Israel’s retaliation? When does a determination to “destroy” Hamas bleed into indiscriminate violence against the trapped Palestinians?
When European leaders add a codicil to their declarations of steadfast support for Israel by saying it must do its best to avoid civilian casualties, they offer little clue as to where the line is drawn between vital self-defence and unconscionable vengeance. When Russia shuts energy supplies to Ukrainian towns and cities, Moscow is accused of war crimes. Israel has cut water, fuel and power connections with Gaza.
Solidarity with Israel jostles with a kaleidoscope of fears rooted in more selfish impulses. One big worry is that the war will be the spark for a wider regional conflagration — with inevitable spillover effects in Europe. Iran, as paymaster for Hamas and for Hizbollah in Lebanon, is weighing its options. Netanyahu has made little secret he wants to pull the US into a military confrontation to destroy Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
The head of Britain’s security service MI5, Ken McCallum, warns that the conflict could be a catalyst for Islamist terrorism. Others among the spooks worry that the war is stirring antisemitism and Islamophobia simultaneously.
Large street demonstrations in European cities calling for restraint from Israel point to growing disaffection among the continent’s Muslim populations.
A new wave of refugees would be a gift to far-right populists. And — at this point it is the diplomats fretting — what of Europe’s efforts to garner support against Russian aggression in Ukraine from the so-called global south if support for Israel translates into indifference to the fate of Palestinians? The longer Gaza is under siege and bombardment, the harder it becomes to counter charges of double standards.
Nowhere are these stresses and tension felt more acutely than in Germany, where support for the state of Israel is cemented by the Holocaust. Germany, you forever hear local politicians say, can never forget the facts of history. In Berlin, the angst is etched in the expressions of policymakers asked if German guilt has written a blank cheque for Netanyahu’s pursuit of revenge.
There are also competing political strands. The second world war bequeathed to Germany another impulse — the pursuit of humanitarianism and conflict resolution. It will be hard to discard as casualties in Gaza grow. A sizeable number of German citizens claim Muslim heritage. Hundreds of thousands arrived from Syria only eight years ago. On the other side of the fence the far-right Alternative for Germany is on the rise, looking for chances to fan the flames of xenophobia.
The deep truth underlying these colliding anxieties is that Europe is powerless. European governments could once claim to be players in the Middle East. The Venice Declaration of 1980 forced the pace on recognition of the Palestinian right to statehood. If the US took the lead thereafter, Europe had a voice and influence in the shaping of events.
The failure of the Oslo Accords and the 2003 “road map” for a Palestine state marked a turning point. And since 2009, Netanyahu has sought to kill off all prospects of a two-state solution by expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank. American and Arab acquiescence in his wrecking tactics have seen Europe retreat to the sidelines. Europe’s governments signed up to the delusion that Palestinians could be pushed by settlers into corners in the West Bank, and contained in Gaza just as long as aid continued to flow.
As it has turned out, Netanyahu’s complacency left Israel vulnerable. The walls and fences provided only the illusion of security. And for all his present rhetoric about destroying Hamas, there is still no military route to peace. Unlike the buildings of Gaza, the Palestinian aspiration to statehood cannot be bombed to dust. Israel’s long-term security demands it sets off again on the path to a political settlement. About that, the Europeans were right. The pity is they did not have the courage of their convictions.
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