Trump and EU to Israel: Stop the Genocide

European governments may have reached the end of the road as far their support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Earlier this week, three close Israeli allies (France, Britain and Canada) announced that they had had enough.  They warned that the genocide must end now and if it didn’t they would take “concrete measures” in response.  Of course the devil is in the details.  The Europeans have mounted platitudes in the past decrying the suffering without offering any concrete steps to end it.  But this time their statements were backed the following day with concrete measures signalling not only their displeasure, but their willingness to take decisive action.

The steps weren’t huge, but they were important as initial measures in what will be a longer term process involving increasing levels of sanctions over time.  European Union members voted by a substantial majority to “review” a trade and economic cooperation agreement between the EU and Israel. It also covers academic and scientific exchanges. It’s difficult to parse what this means, as it doesn’t specify any concrete actions (yet)

Other European states levied their own punishments:

Sweden said it would press the EU to level sanctions against Israeli ministers. Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel, summoned the Israeli ambassador and said it was imposing sanctions on settlers in the occupied West Bank, in its toughest actions so far against Israel’s conduct of the war.

Many respond to this with: “what took you so long?”  It took 53,000 genocide victims, the prospect of 14,000 children dying of starvation, and implementation of Israel’s Final Solution to the Palestine Problem–to do something??  It leaves a bitter taste of cynicism in one’s mouth.

The Palestinian dead amount to 2.1% of the entire Gaza population.  In terms of US population this would be 7.6-million dead.  During the Civil War, the most deadly in US history, 2.4% of the US and Confederate population died.  The difference between Gaza and that war is that the majority of the US dead were soldiers, while 70% of those in Gaza are civilians.  In WWII, 3% of the European population was killed.  In other words, Gaza is on a par with some of the worst genocides in human history.

But it’s also important to note that things (hopefully) are finally moving in the right direction.  The EU sanctioned several of the most virulent pro-genocide activists. The list of those targeted is somewhat misleading (and less than meets the eye), as several were already sanctioned in 2024. In effect, the EU was offering a summary of all of those designated including the new figures.  Those named face asset freezes in EU states and prohibition on travel there.

However, these are the low-hanging fruit.  Everyone can agree that Benzy Gopstein and Baruch Marzel are odious and beyond the pale.  But they are bit players. We’ll only know whether the Europeans mean business when they target the leaders of the genocide. The ones conceiving and implementing the plan. The powerful figures cheering it on: the prime minister and defense minister, the IDF chief of staff, Ben Gvir, Smotrich, etc.  They are the big fish.  They are the ones wielding real power.  The ones bearing the most responsibility. Without targeting them, everything is performative. Is there will to act decisively? And to withstand opposition from Israel and those it pressures to support it?

Two-state conference

Europe’s new approach will be accompanied by an international conference next month sponsored by Saudi Arabia and France.  The agenda will include provisions leading to a Palestinian state.  Other proposals would call for European and UN recognition of Palestine, including full membership in that international body.  This would be the “horizon” much bandied about by wishful leaders and diplomats, who offered it as a means of absolving themselves of responsibility for the Gaza genocide.

Of course, there is no chance for a two-state solution, no matter how many states and conferences offer it.  Israel and the US, the two most powerful figures needed to facilitate  this outcome, adamantly refuse.  So, will the Saudis and their Gulf allies determine that the meager crumbs offered to Palestine via this meeting will give it “cover” to normalize relations with Israel; while concurrently betraying the Palestinians?  Or will they stay the course until a such a state is formalized under international protocols.

Notably, Germany did not sign the statement.  Not only does it have a new right-wing government allied even more than its predecessor with Israel, but it has wholeheartedly adopted a pro-Israel (in effect a pro-genocide) policy criminalizing opposition to Israel’s slaughter.

In fact, in the midst of growing European disgust with Israel, Germany welcomed Netanyahu for a state visit, despite an ICC arrest warrant. It is a member of the internatonal legal body and chose to ignore its responsibilities to arrest figures wanted for war crimes.

Then, Germany’s Pres. Steinmeier traveled back to Israel with the prime minister, where they were met with suitable pomp and ceremony, including a Medal of Honor bestowed by Israeli President Issac Herzog.  All this is an unspeakable affront to basic human decency.  Germany is a willing prisoner of Israel.  Considering its history as a genocide state, this is a shameful betrayal.  An insult to the suffering it inflicted on European Jewry and on the current Palestinian victims.  The only difference is that today Germany is only abetting the horror, but not committing it. Little comfort to its victims.

Israel’s Final Solution

The Europeans acted in the face of increasing Israeli threats of not just genocide, but outright extermination and elimination of any Palestinian presence in Gaza.  Nor are the threats theoretical.  It clearly plans to implement this policy, which would be even more destructive than what Israel has already inflicted.

For 11 weeks, Israel has blockaded all shipments of food and medicine into Gaza.  Even fresh water is in short supply.  Tens of thousands of children are on the brink of death. Anticipating the world’s disgust, Netanyahu and his most virulent Judeo-Nazi ministers offered an odious and cynical plan to permit a drip of aid to enter the enclave.  Not enough to maintain life. But just enough (or so they hoped) to stave off the worst of the anger:

We’re going to take control of all the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu vowed…announcing that Israel would begin delivering “minimal humanitarian aid: food and medicine only.” Netanyahu claimed that international pressure, including from pro-Israel Republican senators and the White House, required the appearance of humanitarian intervention. “Our best friends in the world—senators I know as strong supporters of Israel—have warned that they cannot support us if images of mass starvation emerge,” he said. “They come to me and say, ‘We’ll give you all the help you need to win the war… but we can’t be receiving pictures of famine,’” Netanyahu added. To continue the war of annihilation, he asserted, “We need to do it in a way that they won’t stop us.”

In other words, we will offer a veneer of benevolence in order to conceal our real eliminationist intent.  But even the veneer appears to be a mirage.  Israel announced it would permit 100 aid trucks to enter Gaza yesterday.  While the trucks did enter, the army prevented them from delivering their cargo to distribution sites.  So even this tiny drop hasn’t fallen where it’s most needed.

The US and Israel have developed another half-baked similar scheme providing for humanitarian aid:

Both Israel and the U.S. have been promoting plans to deliver aid to Gaza that would circumvent a ceasefire deal…[They]  have concocted a scheme involving a newly established “non-governmental” foundation run by a former U.S. marine to take official charge of establishing zones, mostly in southern Gaza, to distribute a limited number of rations.

Palestinians wishing to receive aid would have to go through an Israeli security vetting process and subject themselves to checkpoints and facial recognition technology as a condition for receiving food. On Monday, Netanyahu said the sites would be located in “a sterile area controlled entirely by the IDF.”

This offering is not just a non-starter in which no Palestinian or humanitarian aid NGO would participate, it’s a means to offer aid knowing full well no one will agree to cooperate.  Israel knows no bounds of cynicism.

When I first began writing this blog in 2003, I was a liberal Zionist.  I could never conceive Israel would turn into a modern Nazi Germany.  But here we are’ at the worst, lowest point in 21st century Jewish history.  Facing a crisis not of our making.  But in which we are implicated whether we want to or not.

Bezalel Smotrich, a senior minister and genocide advocate echoed Netanyahu:

Smotrich—an extreme right-wing government minister and longtime advocate of starving, mass killing, and depopulating Gaza…said the aid scheme would allow “our friends in the world to continue to provide us with an international umbrella of protection against the Security Council and the Hague Tribunal, and for us to continue to fight, God willing, until victory.”

…The [aid] that will enter Gaza…is the tiniest amount. A handful of bakeries that will hand out pita bread to people in public kitchens. People in Gaza will get a pita and a food plate, and that’s it. Exactly what we are seeing in the videos: people standing in line and waiting to have someone serve them, with some soup plate…”

“Truth be told, until the last of the hostages returns, we should also not let water into the Gaza Strip. But the reality is that if we do that, the world will force us to halt the war immediately, and to lose. It would be winning the battle, and losing the war. I’m committed to winning the war,” Smotrich declared. “We are disassembling Gaza, and leaving it as piles of rubble, with total destruction [which has] no precedent globally. And the world isn’t stopping us. There are pressures. There are those who attack [us]; they are trying to [make us] stop; they are not succeeding. You know why they aren’t succeeding? Because we are navigating [the campaign] responsibly and wisely, and that’s how we’ll continue to do [it].”

Smotrich said that the Israeli forces are initiating a campaign to force Palestinians into the south of Gaza “and from there, God willing, to third countries, as part of President Trump’s plan. This is a change of the course of history—nothing less.”

This rhetoric also came from the mouths of Goebbels, Streicher and Hitler themselves.  They sought to rid Europe of Jews, including all traces of their presence.  And they succeeded in large part.  European Jewry never recovered. Before WWII, 9-million Jews lived there (primarily in eastern Europe and Russia). This was nearly 60% of world Jewry.  Today, there are 1.3-million.

Israel is repeating these crimes. It has gone full-Nazi.  But finally, the world appears to have awoken from its somnolence.  It’s unclear whether it’s too late; and whether the response will be robust enough to stop the slaughter.

Trump’s threats to withdraw US backing

As I’ve written here, even Donald Trump is displaying signs of frustration with Bibi Netanyahu. He offered him a slap in the face on four crucial policy issues including Syria, Yemen, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.  I never ever would’ve thought I had anything remotely positive to say about him.  But in this, he seems to be moving US policy in the right direction.

He has threatened Netanyahu:

An anonymous source familiar with the discussions stated that U.S. officials conveyed to Israeli counterparts that failure to conclude the war would lead to a withdrawal of American backing.  “Trump’s people are letting Israel know, ‘We will abandon you if you do not end this war,’” the source said. “Politically, as in the past, Netanyahu has a way to do that, with a huge majority in the Knesset and in Israel, but he does not have the political will.”

It’s hard to know what withdrawing US backing would mean.  But if it involved significant steps (stopping arms shipments, recognizing a Palestinian state, refusing to block US Security Council resolutions against Israel) it would strike like a lightning bolt both in Israel and the world.  It would enable other countries, previously leery of crossing Trump, to take their own steps.  This, in turn, would give the BDS movement increasing political relevance.

Of course, there is always a caveat with Trump. In this case, he continues to maintain the delusional belief that he can transform Gaza into a “freedom zone,” which he appears to envision devoid of Palestinians.

In order to gain the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander (negotiations that purposely excluded Israel), the US promised Hamas it would take action on behalf of the Palestinians:

According to Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, Witkoff made a direct commitment that, two days after Alexander’s release, the Trump administration would compel Israel to lift the Gaza blockade and allow humanitarian aid to immediately enter the territory. Witkoff, Naim said, also promised that Trump would make a public call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for negotiations aimed at achieving a “permanent ceasefire.” Naim said the U.S. “threw [the deal] in the trash.”

While Naim is correct, in that Trump did not do what had been promised. He has moved far more in that direction than anything Joe Biden did.  As I wrote above, this is a slow incremental process. Major policy changes which depart radically from previous principles, move like a battleship.