Fifteen of the European Union’s 27 member states—around 55%—have now publicly recognised the imaginary state of Palestine. To end up on the same side as Hamas should be a cause of great shame for European leaders. Latest polls show that almost 90% of voters in the UK and 70% in France do not support their governments’ policies of unconditionally endorsing a Palestinian state. Recognising a fantasy state with no agreed borders or system of government does not even comply with the rules of international law, which the EU elites normally insist must take preference over national sovereignty.
‘Pro-Palestine’ European leaders have now reached a new low. They are shamelessly trying to exploit the life-and-death struggle in the Middle East to aid their own political survival, posturing on the international stage to try to compensate for their domestic crises. Hence, the more unpopular Macron or Starmer become at home, the keener they are to shout about ‘Palestine.’ In this, they are seeking to placate the leftists for whom, at a time when they are in retreat across Europe and the West, Israel-bashing has become woke’s last stand.
It is time Europe as a whole publicly recognised Israel as our vital ally, fighting on the front lines of a global war for democracy. This is, as we have said from the start, not a conventional fight about territory. It is a conflict between civilisation and barbarism. European leaders who have effectively sided with Islamists against the Israelis would sign us up to the armies of barbarism in that existential struggle. They are surrendering to the anti-civilisation forces on the home front, too. Instead, let all of us who stand for European civilisation now stand foursquare with the democratic state of Israel and its right to defend its people. No surrender.