While American B-2s were dropping fourteen-ton super bombs on the Iranian nuclear facilities, on magnificent Lake Geneva there was a meeting between the foreign ministers of France, Germany, England and Iran. Also present was Kaja Kallas, the high representative of EU foreign policy and the only woman there. The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghachi, did not shake her hand.
No European diplomat seemed upset. Remember when Erdogan left President of the European Commission Ursula von Der Leyen without a chair and former president Charles Michel shrugged? And Ursula, without a chair, muttered: “It’s regrettable, but I chose not to make the situation worse”.
A few hours later, the British foreign minister, David Lemmy of the Labour Party, addressed Iran in this way: “We did not participate in the attacks (by Israel and America).”
In other words, we British ostriches have nothing to do with it.
When Trump took out Iranian general Soleimani, German foreign minister Heiko Maas was quick to distance himself from the raid (“it will not help reduce tensions”) and to point out that “as Europeans, we have reliable channels of dialogue with both sides”.
In mid-June, Israeli forces launched an unprecedented offensive against Iran, targeting military and nuclear infrastructure. The message from Jerusalem was unmistakable: Israeli deterrence is real and not subject to diplomatic concessions from anyone.
The European Union issued ritual calls for “moderation on all sides”, carefully avoiding any statement that might offend Tehran, always expecting the liquidation of the Iranian nuclear threat to be carried out by others.
The exasperating European inertia is the result of impotence, which in turn is the result of a great misunderstanding that grew in the shadow of US military and political tutelage, progressively eroded since 1989 and now openly under discussion.
If Israeli pilots hadn’t bombed Iran’s nuclear project, who else would have? The RAF? The French? The Germans? After all these years and all these “talks,” the only country that finally intervened was the one with the most at stake: the one that Ayatollah Khamenei and his predecessors always said they wanted to annihilate like a “tumor.”
Israel acts because it must, because its survival demands it and as Melanie Phillips wrote, it has become the moral compass of the free world. America acts from principle because Trump wants to protect Western ideals. And he has secured his place in history, as has Benjamin Netanyahu. Europe doesn’t act because it no longer knows what it stands for.
And the implications are clear.
Some European leaders have “Das Houellebecq-Problem”, as Die Welt calls it: Emmanuel Macron is siding with the Islamists and against the Jews because of “French demographic dynamics,” not to mention the trade surplus with Iran.
“Recognize the Palestinian state to appease French Muslims”: this is the recommendation contained in a dossier from the Ministry of the Interior in Paris.
Clear?
It’s not about Gaza, it’s about us, in Europel
Along the corridors of the Paris Air Show, the French air show, the stands of Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael, Uvision, Elbit and Aeronautics were fenced off with two-meter-high fences covered in black cloth, preventing access (and even a view) of the Israeli stands, at the same time that the Israeli air force was bombing Iranian atomic sites.
Brilliant, these French.
Those black panels reminded me of others.
The ones used by the Italian government to cover the statues of the Capitoline nudes in Rome during the visit of Iranian President Hassan Rohani. At the time, in Le Figaro, I called it “the little Italy that submits to Iran”.
In 1976, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq purchased a nuclear reactor from France. While Iraq and France claimed that the reactor, called “Osirak” by the French, was intended for “peaceful scientific research”, Israel rightly saw it differently and destroyed the reactor in 1981. Thank God.
European dhimmitude was also atomic.
From Swiss President Alain Berset to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, European chancelleries specialize in congratulatory telegrams for the anniversary of the Islamic Republic.
In the European squares these days there is not a single demonstration for Israel or even one from the Iranian diaspora: only Islamic flags and slogans of submission. And Israeli flags are burned, in Italy, not in Tehran.
In what imaginary world do Europe’s statesmen live – under the blackmail of multiculturalism, fear of their own shadows and their own cultural cowardice?
Giulio Meotti is an Italian journalist with Il Foglio and writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author, in English, of the book “A New Shoah”, that researched the personal stories of Israel’s terror victims, published by Encounter and of “J’Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel” published by Mantua Books, in addition to books in Italian. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Gatestone, Frontpage and Commentary.
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