European elites are ready to sacrifice Jews to appease their increasingly radicalized Muslim populations.

By Joseph Puder, JNS

Caspar Veldkamp, the Dutch foreign minister, scheduled a meeting last week to deal with the Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel. Under the guise of a review of Israel’s human-rights “infractions,” Veldkamp has spearheaded an effort to put pressure on the Jewish state. The Netherlands, not known for its hostility toward Israel, initiated this controversial initiative in response to mounting domestic political pressure.

The E.U. foreign-policy chief, Kaja Kallas of Estonia, has similarly ordered the preparation of a comprehensive report to examine whether Israel has violated its human-rights commitments under the European Union’s agreement.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry responded to Kallas, declaring, “Israel agreed time and again to the American proposals for a ceasefire and to the release of the hostages. Hamas refused each and every one of these proposals.” The Israeli statement further noted, “We call on the E.U. to exert pressure where it belongs—on Hamas.”

The elites of France, which recently announced its support for the re-examination of the Association Agreement as well, along with those in Great Britain, which is not a member of the European Union, are too busy clinging to multiculturalism, their most cherished value. They are reluctant to blame Hamas for the Gaza tragedy for fear of offending their increasingly radicalized Muslim populations, who easily engage in domestic violence. To appease them, they conveniently blame Israel for alleged “crimes” in Gaza. The E.U. bureaucrats are now considering suspending trade with Israel due to alleged Israeli violations of humanitarian law in Gaza.

The E.U. elites have chosen to ignore Hamas’s brutal massacre of Jews and others in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. It was the worst murderous campaign against Jews since the Holocaust. Israel’s war against Hamas is not just legitimate, it is also a moral imperative to protect Israelis from another such massacre promised by Hamas.

Hamas murderers hide behind Palestinian women and children, using them as human shields. Yet British, French and other European governments have chosen to pander to these Hamas killers and appease their sympathizers on the continent rather than deal harshly with them.

A Jewish protester in Britain was arrested recently while demonstrating alone at a Hezbollah gathering. Hamas and Hezbollah in London have held violent demonstrations, and they have the benefit of impunity. The double standard speaks for itself.

The European Union is Israel’s largest trading partner and has required Israeli goods from Judea and Samaria to be marked and excluded. Such actions are reminiscent of the Holocaust, when Jews had to wear an armband with a Star of David.

The European Union is also demanding that Israel cease its campaign in Gaza. And, it bears mentioning, that the European Union is a major supporter of the United Nations, an institution whose anti-Israel bias has been on display for decades.

Four months after Hamas led the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s prime minister, and his Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar, wrote to the European Commission, calling for an urgent review of whether Israel is respecting its obligations, including under the European Union/Israel Association Agreement.

Worth noting is that the most offensively, anti-Israel countries in Europe had strong pro-Nazi proclivities during World War II. The IRA in Ireland collaborated with the Nazis and received funding from Hitler. Spain sent several military divisions to fight alongside the Nazis in Russia, and Spanish units were integrated into the Waffen SS. Norway, under the Fascist Vidkun Quisling regime, fully collaborated with the Nazis during the war.

The media in the Netherlands, much like in the rest of the European Union, has been hostile to Israel for decades. And like much of Europe, the Netherlands is home to more than a million vocal Muslims, and a small Jewish community of between 20,000 to 40,000; 90% of Dutch Jewry was murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, told BBC Radio on May 20, “There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them,” and urged that aid trucks with baby food be sent in immediately. Days later, it was revealed that Fletcher outright lied. However, in the interim, the European media and many others had immediately seized on the false story and began sending warnings to Israel. While the story was wiped off the U.N. website, the damage had spread worldwide.

The fact is that humanitarian aid has been entering Gaza, but Hamas terrorists routinely seize aid shipments by force and then sell the food at exorbitant prices to the Gazan population. They use the revenue to recruit more fighters, pay salaries, repair tunnels, as well as purchase more arms. The E.U. elitists and the U.N. officialdom rarely issue condemnations against Hamas, nor do they ask whether the Israeli hostages in the Gaza dungeons are receiving medical attention and humanitarian aid.

Ordinary people in Gaza are risking their lives to protest against how miserable Hamas has made their lives. Many of them are telling Hamas to release the hostages and end the war. These facts, however, are somehow too inconvenient for the European bureaucrats, who would rather blame Israel for the alleged humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

It is unlikely that the European Union will break its Association Agreement with Israel. Such an action would require all of the 27 E.U. member states to endorse such a move. The Czech Republic, Hungary and nine other states reject the probe against Israel.

The European ground is soaked with the blood of millions of innocent Jews. Jewish contributions to European culture, as well as the arts and sciences, have become overshadowed by multiculturalism and Europe’s guilt over its colonial past. To assuage their guilt, the Europeans have imported millions of Muslims who are now transforming the continent slowly, but surely, into “Dar-al-Islam,” the domain of Islam, complete with Sharia councils that often override local laws.

In most E.U. countries, Israel is not appreciated for serving as Europe’s first line of defense against jihadist Islam. E.U. officials are instead turning latent antisemitic sentiments against the Jewish state,  the collective Jew in the 21st century, as they seek to punish Israel economically for alleged “crimes” in Gaza. The European elites are sorely in need of a moral compass.

Joseph Puder is the founder and director of the Interfaith Taskforce for America and Israel (ITAI).