In late October, as the war in Gaza intensified, all 27 European Union leaders put reiterated their condemnation of Hamas’s attack on Israel and reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself. They also expressed “gravest concern for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza’’ and emphasized the need for aid access, “including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs.”
This was supposed to be the EU’s unified stance on the conflict in the Middle East. Reaching it took five hours and was seen as so sensitive phones were kept out of the room, according to a report in Politico.
That same week, at the United Nations, Europe split on a Gaza ceasefire resolution. Countries like Spain, Ireland, and France voted for it. Germany and Italy, among others, abstained. Austria, Hungary, and Czechia all voted against. Despite Europe’s best efforts, its divisions were on display.
“It is these divisions which make it hard for the EU to take a strong, united common position,” said Martin Konečný, director of the European Middle East Project (EuMEP), an independent, Brussels-based organization. “They can agree on a position on paper, but it’s kind of a minimum common denominator, and it doesn’t allow the EU to very forcefully push for something.”
Europe, as a whole, has been traditionally seen as seeking a balanced approach to Israel and Palestine, in part because it has had to navigate different public debates and different national sensitivities. At times, this has generated more nuanced discourse, but not necessarily cohesion or authority to influence the outcome of the conflict. Europe does not offer Israel the kind of security or military aid the United States does, and so does not have the same kind of leverage as Washington there. It also lacks the full trust of Palestinians in a way that exists in many parts of the Muslim world.
Those realities existed before Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israeli civilians but are…
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