Since Donald Trump abruptly changed US policy toward Ukraine, there has been a lot of talk about European countries needing to step up to the plate and defend the liberal international order. Politicians like France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz have used this line of argument to justify a massive increase in military spending by the states of Europe.
However, when it comes to Israel’s renewed onslaught against the people of Gaza, you couldn’t fit a blue-and-yellow handkerchief between the positions of the US and the European Union (EU).
Thursday’s meeting of the European Council, which brings together the prime ministers of all the EU member states, issued the following statement:
The European Council deplores the breakdown of the ceasefire in Gaza, which has caused a large number of civilian casualties in recent air strikes. It deplores the refusal of Hamas to hand over the remaining hostages. The European Council calls for an immediate return to the full implementation of the ceasefire-hostage release agreement.
Eve Geddie of Amnesty International described this communique as “another shameful attempt to justify Israel’s genocide and war crimes against Palestinians.” As Geddie pointed out, the statement did not even name Israel, let alone condemn it for killing hundreds of people with air strikes that were designed to target civilians during their predawn Ramadan meal.
According to the European Council, it was “the breakdown of the ceasefire in Gaza” that killed those people, not the Israeli bombs and missiles…
Auteur: Daniel Finn
