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Europe’s decades-long holiday from history has come to an abrupt end. London, Paris, Berlin and the rest of the continent now have to contemplate the sobering reality of detering and, failing that, fighting Russia – possibly without full US support.
In this precarious new landscape, no ally offers more strategic value than Israel (as former Defence Secretary Grant Shapps explains).
The Jewish state’s dominance in key weapons systems critical to our national security as well as its invaluable battlefield experience and intelligence prowess could mean the difference between life and death for British and European soldiers, as Andrew Fox explains opposite.
But forging this alliance requires a reset of our relationship with Jerusalem, one where we first become better allies to the embattled Jewish state.
Following the October 7 massacres, the West pledged full support for Israel’s right – indeed obligation – to defeat the terrorists who invaded the country. The European Parliament, hardly known for martial rhetoric, twice demanded Hamas must be “eliminated”. But this understanding quickly melted away under the pressure of Hamas-sourced casualty figures, hostile media coverage, wild accusations by NGOs and the biases of politicised international organisations.
The Labour government, citing its commitment to international law, reversed its predecessor’s legitimate objections to the International Criminal Court’s investigation of Israel and suspended arms licenses based on unsubstantiated human rights claims. This reflects a peculiar contradiction: while scrutiny of domestic institutions is considered essential for our democratic order, questioning international bodies is treated as an intolerable threat to the global order.
Thus, just last month, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer felt comfortable to robustly denounce a decision by a British judge as “wrong”, yet accepted the ICC’s arrest warrants against Israeli leaders without question. Despite serious legal concerns about jurisdiction and substance, Downing Street’s response was merely that “we respect the independence of the ICC”.
Likewise, Britain and other European nations routinely vote in favor of or meekly abstain from the UN’s obsessive, one-sided condemnations of Israel –undermining not only the Jewish state but also the credibility of the UN itself. The organisation’s own charter commits it to “the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members,” yet Israel remains a second-class participant in an institution ostensibly dedicated to impartiality.
Upholding the international order does not mean blindly accepting judgments from bodies that have proven themselves politicised or morally compromised. When the West helped establish these institutions and granted them tremendous power, it also assumed an equally tremendous responsibility to scrutinize them. Failing to do so is the opposite of upholding the international order. These organisations must not be treated as infallible; rather, we must ensure they apply their rules universally – not selectively against the world’s only Jewish state.
Standing up to the false accusations against Israel is not only an act of diplomatic justice. It is also essential in the fight against the dramatic rise of violent antisemitism in this country and across the West, which is often linked to the demonisation of the Jewish state.
The reset ought to also extend to a more evidence-based assessment of Israel’s national security. Just as Britain and Europe have, at long last, abandoned their naivety regarding the Russian threat, they must apply this newfound realism also to Israel’s even more dangerous security situation. It is time to end the reflexive and frankly embarrassing calls for “de-escalation” whenever Israel defends itself against unprovoked attacks or takes necessary preemptive action to forestall greater threats.
This reassessment is most urgent regarding Iran – a regime that brutalises its own people while fueling every conflict in the region. Sworn to Israel’s destruction, Iran also poses a growing threat to Europe. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) not only supplies critical arms and training for Putin’s war on Ukraine but also plots terror attacks on our streets. Though placing the Iranian state into the enhanced tier of a new registration scheme is a step forward, it’s not enough. As Michael Rubin details, the IRGC must be formally designated as the terrorist organisation it is – a step Labour promised during the campaign. This designation is not only a strategic necessity but vital for protecting Britain’s Jewish community and Iranian dissidents, both prime targets of Tehran’s terror.
As Iran races toward nuclear weapons capability, Britain, France, and Germany must finally trigger the “snap back” of UN sanctions lifted in 2015 – a mechanism designed for violations far less severe than those that have brought this openly genocidal regime within weeks of possessing material for multiple atomic bombs.
Europe has relearned over the past three years that weakness invites aggression. Though Israel stands on the front lines against forces that threaten the entire West, we demand its restraint while applying double standards on how the Jewish state defends itself in a seven-front war. Neither history nor our enemies will judge this contradiction kindly. Resetting our relationship with Israel would enhance the security of us all.