European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a press conference in Brussels, Belgium on March 4, 2025 [Dursun Aydemir - Anadolu Agency]
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a press conference in Brussels, Belgium on March 4, 2025 [Dursun Aydemir – Anadolu Agency]
The Israeli mass murder and destruction of the Gaza Strip exposed the weaknesses of Europe and its institutions, including the EU itself. First it showed that the EU, as a whole, is unable to collectively act on its own values and principles. Europe could not pull itself together and take a stand separate from the United States hegemony within international institutions, including the United Nations, to tackle the longest running conflict in the Middle East.
Since the creation of Israel, the US has been the dominant force in the Middle East in both peace and war. Even during the Soviet era, Europe – which is primarily responsible for the creation of Israel in the first place – took a back seat when it came to the paramount Palestinian issue. With the exception of some European countries, such as France, which often followed its own political path regarding the Palestinian issue – although not anymore, the rest of EU followed what the US wanted, dictated, preferred or, worse still, ignored the conflict altogether, especially in times of crisis, except for a miserable statement here or an even more miserable statement there.
Change appears coming but slow. Never has the EU been more prominent and positive in expressing itself more independently from the US’ views than recently when some 11 European countries, including none EU member Norway, out of 27 EU states recognised the State of Palestine. At least two others are considering taking the step. All EU countries, including the departed United Kingdom, still believe the two-state solution is the best formula available to settle the bloody Israeli aggression and wider occupation not only of Palestine but also Lebanon and Syria.
Furthermore almost all EU countries have expressed their willingness to uphold international law as was evident by their positions concerning the ICC arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant. Though not many EU governments openly supported carrying out the warrants, they accepted it in principle with very few states expressing reservations.
READ: US rabbi exposed for misrepresenting the Qur’an to justify Israel’s occupation
Also at the initiative of Saudi Arabia, many EU countries have supported the idea of creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The Saudi initiative, formerly called the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, brought together delegations from 94 states. Another meeting in Cairo last month brought together 35 countries along with representatives of various international organisations.
Only last week, the EU said it “welcomes the Arab Recovery and Reconstruction Plan”, adding that the plan is a “serious basis” for discussion on the future of Gaza in light of Israel’s destruction of the enclave. Most importantly the EU’s position, however implicitly, rejects the Trump plan of taking over Gaza after cleansing it of its population to make way for what he described as the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
All such foreign policy steps by the EU are huge leaps from the old days when the EU listened passively to what the US said and followed obediently what it did vis-à-vis the Middle East. Yet the EU still cannot take the initiative to lead and act on its own principles and expressed intentions to resolve the Middle East conflict.
The EU today still stands where it stood when it was created in 1993: lacking both common foreign and defence policies. The EU’s defence is still defined and governed by the NATO parameters even when it needs its own independent defence policy as seen, again, in the Ukrainian war.
Back in 1965 France’s General Charles de Gaulle, a fierce supporter of common EU foreign and defence policies, said: “We are in a situation of military dependence… We consider it necessary for Europe to exist by itself, for itself, in the world.” A few years earlier de Gaulle had declared that it is Europe “the whole of Europe that will decide the destiny of the world.”
The basic principle that has distinguished the EU is respect for the rights of peoples to make their own choices regarding independence and living in dignity, and nowhere is this choice more evident than in Palestine. What the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese want is to live freely on their lands and safe from Israeli aggressions and threats.
READ: Europe firmly rejects any attempt to change Gaza’s demographics, official says
As we witness the tensions and outright contradictions between the US and EU over the conflict in Ukraine and bilateral trade too, we can conclude that a new Europe is emerging and it will not be the same as the Europe that existed since 1993. Europe is now slowly coming to terms with the fact that it must free itself from its dependence on America and that there is a future and there is life outside the framework of NATO.
And the Middle East remains the easiest way for Europe, as a whole, to break free from US foreign policy. The EU knows only too well that the US is not an impartial negotiator nor is it an independent mediator in the Middle East as it actually represents Israeli interests more than its own and when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, it is complacent and fully aligned to Israeli polices as we have seen over the year and half during the Gaza genocide. Trump’s approach to Ukraine could, unintentionally, awaken the EU to the fact that obediently following US foreign policy is not always in the interests of Europe as a whole, setting it free to take its own actions both with regards neighbouring states and further afield in the Middle East.
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