The place and day have great significance: Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem, the day dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust in Israel; giving a highly political speech targeting Europe.
The Israeli Prime Minister, engaged on several simultaneous war fronts and pursued by international justice for his actions in Gaza, hits hard. “Europe, which has forgotten so much since the Holocaust,” he said, “has a lot to learn from us, especially the distinction between good and evil, which, in the face of adversity, forces us to fight for good, for life.”
“Europe,” he continued, “which had sworn after World War II to defend good, is now consumed by a deep moral weakness. It is losing control of its identity, its values, and its commitment to protecting civilization from barbarism.”
Pronounced in the context of the Holocaust, these words also recall the speech of American Vice-President JD Vance in Munich last year, which provoked shock. They reveal the rift between Israel and Europe, paradoxically deeper today than during the war in Gaza.
The origin of this rift is twofold. On one hand, it is conjunctural, linked to the fact that Netanyahu and his far-right coalition clearly align themselves with the camp of nationalist-populists on a global scale, ranging from Donald Trump and his MAGA – Make America Great Again – to Viktor Orban who was recently defeated in Hungary. During the electoral campaign, Netanyahu had strongly supported Orban, his main ally in Europe.
The other reason is more profound, linked to the rejection of Israeli methods in Gaza or the violence of settlers in the West Bank. This feeling is now widely entrenched in European public opinion, even more so than within governments.
The list of contentious issues is long, from the recognition of the state of Palestine by Spain, then France; to the debate around the EU-Israel Association Agreement that some would like to see suspended; to the latest decision by Italy’s Giorgia Meloni not to renew a defense agreement with the Hebrew state and to acrimonious exchanges with Germany. Israel sees a continent drifting away after having long turned a blind eye.
As a result, Europeans are increasingly sidelined in the Middle East. France, protector of Lebanon, is powerless to play a role in preventing its descent into chaos and has even, at Israel’s request, been kept out of the negotiations that started yesterday in Washington between Israel and Lebanon, under the auspices of the United States.
Netanyahu’s attacks echo those of Trump, who is not pleased with Europeans after their refusal to intervene in the Strait of Hormuz. Yesterday, he sharply criticized Giorgia Meloni in the Italian press, saying he was “shocked” and “disappointed” by her “lack of courage” – even though she was his preferred partner in Europe.
There is obviously an Israeli specificity in this crisis, due to the weight of history, the rise of anti-Semitism, and the European origin of some Israelis; but one must not ignore the global ideological divide in which Netanyahu is situated in this polarized world.
