Europe can save Gaza. Here's how.
The dithering Europeans must step up if the latest misguided plans for Gaza are to have a chance of succeeding. Do not hold your breath.
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This is a guest essay written by Nachum Kaplan of the newsletter, “Moral Clarity.”
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
Persian Gulf states are scrambling to assemble an alternative plan for Gaza than U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to take over the Strip, relocate its two million people, and rebuild the area.
While the Arab plan has not been released yet, what has leaked so far sounds thoroughly unimaginative and likely to fail for all the same reasons as all such plans before it.
If a Gaza plan is to work this time, things will need to be done differently, and this is where Europe — the spiritual home of dithering, waffling, and ineffectiveness — must play a role.
The Europeans have spent decades making the Israeli-Palestinian conflict worse, out of malice, stupidity, and racism. Ignorance is also a factor because the average European bureaucrat understands the Israeli-Palestinian conflict about as well as I understand the Chinese board game “Go,” which is vastly more complicated than chess, at which I am also rubbish.
Let us first look at what the Arabs are reportedly proposing; then we will hop into our submarines for a dive into Europe’s foreign policy, which is lying on the bottom of the ocean somewhere next to the Bismarck.
The Arab plan essentially involves Arab and European states funding Gaza’s reconstruction, while the region’s Palestinian residents remain there. A Palestinian administration comprising neither Hamas nor Palestinian members will govern the Strip with international participation, although no one has mentioned where they are going to find these apolitical technocrats.
The plan’s main problem is that, so far, it has no viable mechanism for keeping Hamas out of power. Hamas has indicated it would be willing to relinquish power as part of a deal, but there is no way to stop them from being re-elected or seizing power as they did in 2005 when Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Strip.
Hamas then began 20 years of attacking Israel, culminating in the October 7th pogrom in 2023. Any settlement that leaves such a possibility open should be deemed a failure from the start.
For the Europeans, who are in a crisis over their inability to defend themselves against Russia without a U.S. backstop and protect their borders from the jihadist hordes posing as immigrants, it is obvious they need to stop funding terror in all forms.
The fact that they keep funding terror shows they are morally stunted.
Financial Aid
Europe’s billions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians is not money well spent unless funding terror is the aim. The European Union sends tens of millions of dollars a year to the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian “refugees” (UNRWA), which Israel has just banned because of its involvement in Hamas terror.
The European Union gives a further tens of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority’s administrative fund, including its pay-for-slay policy in which this Palestinian government pays terrorists stipends for murdering Jews, with more money paid per Jew killed.
The Palestinian Authority, under dictator Mahmoud Abbas, who has achieved nothing in his 20 years in the role besides enriching himself and his sons, has just announced it is scrapping its pay-for-slay policy, though Israeli officials see no evidence of that because Abbas is an inveterate liar.
The UN argues that, while some money inevitably ends up in terrorists’ pockets, most goes to Palestinians as desperately needed humanitarian aid.
Yet, when the Houthis in Yemen abducted a single UN aid worker, all aid was cut off to Yemen. There are different rules for different countries. Funding terrorism against Jews continues at all costs.
There is no need to wander down Baker Street to call on Sherlock Holmes. There is no great mystery. Europeans have hated Jews for millennia. It is in-bred into their DNA.
Even serial killers know that such actions, and funding them, are morally repugnant, which is why they try to hide their actions, as did the Nazis. The European Union and Hamas do not even try to hide their complicity.
Working Toward a Two-State Solution
The European obsession with a two-state solution is irritating and fascinating in equal measure. It is irritating because it is a mindbogglingly stupid idea that only knavish idiots support.
It is fascinating that so many people think it is a good idea — many deftly insist it is the only idea — despite it being a failed approach for 80 years that most Palestinians and Israelis oppose. European colonialism dies hard, it seems. They still want to tell other sovereign states what to do.
Frankly, Europeans would be better served learning Russian, the language of their new masters, than meddling in the Middle East. To be fair, this is primarily a Western European affliction, since the closer countries are to Russia, the more in touch with reality they tend to be.
The two-state solution is a loser because rewarding psychotic terrorists with a state, allowing another radicalized terror state to form near Israel’s borders with predictable results down the line is a pea-brained idea.
The European two-state delusion stems from Europe’s desire to prioritize illusory peace over Israel’s security and, of course, Europe’s genetically determined antisemitism.
Call for a Ceasefire
Europe’s whiny, weak, gutless, and spineless call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas explains why no country has had any respect for Europe since Charlemagne.
Hamas (i.e. jihadist freaks) launched a savage pogrom against Israel and then started crying like children whose toys had broken when Israel fought back.
Europe lobbying for a ceasefire which would keep the raping, warmonger, mass-murdering Hamas in power in Gaza shows that Europe’s moral compass works as well as the European Union’s porous borders.
A ceasefire, such as the one underway now in which Hamas is trading civilian hostages for convicted terrorist murders — including the stupefyingly gross site of Hamas returning murdered babies in coffins — and giving Hamas time to re-arm is an act of such moral debauchery that words are inadequate.
Calls for Peace Talks
European loves talking because it is a substitute for action, and nothing scares the sclerotic Europeans more than having to make a decision and follow through. To understand what a breathtakingly stupid idea negotiating has been for most of the war, consider the respective negotiation positions.
Israel: Give our hostages back and surrender and the war will be over.
Hamas: No, not until we have destroyed Israel and every last Jew. We will never stop trying.
That has been Hamas’ response, as written in the group’s founding charter. No one in Europe seems to have read this because they have been too busy seduced by TikTok’s Chinese Communist Party algorithms.
Peace talks are what countries cry for when they are losing a war, so it is instructive that Europe keeps calling for one. It suggests they are on Hamas’ side and know they are losing.
Furthermore, calls for such negotiations legitimize Hamas as a force in Palestinian and Middle Eastern politics.
Allowing Pro-Hamas Demonstrations
Western states’ willingness — and this extends well beyond Europe — to allow pro-Hamas demonstrators to rally through our streets like herds of buffalo has been a world-class act of stupidity.
Yes, there are real debates to be had about freedom of expression and association, and there are also real discussions to be had about where the lines for inciting violence and free expression lie.
However, with calls for genocide and attacks on Jews, those lines were crossed so far and so fast that the debate became moot. Police inaction against incitement genocide was as inept as the French civil service.
The best way to deal with these protestors is to ask the simple question of whether it makes sense to allow violent Caliphate-seeking jihadists to take over our cities. If the answer is “no” — which it is — then the law should come crashing down on these people like a tidal wave.
Beyond bringing potential violence onto Western streets and universities, allowing these protests is disruptive and helps normalize antisemitism, taking society’s moral zeitgeist back 30 years.
Appeasement
Europeans love appeasing dictators and terrorists. I do not know why.
Europe supported weak former U.S. President Barack Obama in allowing Iran to access billions of dollars in oil revenue for the most minor concessions on its nuclear program, a policy that U.S. President Joe Biden blindly followed.
The European Union, whose idea of bravery is to go down to the basement with a candle during a blackout, has allowed Iran to get close to developing nuclear weapons.
They also sat and played tiddlywinks while Iran’s proxies — Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and various unsavory militia in Iraq and Syria — launched thousands of rockets at Israel. Today, Western Europe’s military is about as threatening as the plastic toy soldiers I used to play with as a boy.
A curious feature of the Israel-Hamas war, and all wars involving Israel, is that Europe is obsessed with sending aid to Israel’s enemies. This is like sending financial aid to the Nazis, something only unreconstructed scunge buckets would do.
The West has sent more than $4.5 billion to Gaza since Israel unilaterally pulled out in 2005, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That is more on a per-capita basis than the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War Two.
The reason there has been no Marshall Plan-like revival in Gaza is that Hamas stole all the money, built a terror state, and gave next to none for the Gazan people’s welfare. It is why about 1,700 Hamas members are millionaires.
Europe keeps giving Hamas money because it has the moral compass of a vampire. If a rebuilt Gaza is going to be different, the propping up of the odious Hamas must end.
Arms Embargo
If you are ever under the illusion that Europe represents a civilization, remember that many states in Europe — the continent that brought the world the Holocaust — imposed arms embargoes to make it harder for Israel to defeat Hamas.
That shows you the kind of classless rabble they are — and that is the best of them.
The West is fortunate enough to have enjoyed several generations of peace to have forgotten what war is, or its occasional necessity. Israel is surrounded by genocidal enemies and has no luxury or space for such delusions.
If Europe wants peace between Israel and Hamas, it should provide Israel with the weapons Israel needs to finish the job with extreme prejudice.
Lack of Diplomatic Support
The good news is the United Nations is so worthless that, if it disappeared tomorrow, no one would notice, let alone care.
While most European countries say Israel has the right to defend itself, this belief lasts only until Israel starts doing so. Then the criticism, much of it rabid like UN members themselves, about civilian deaths kicks in, and Israel begins to be held to an impossibly high standard than other states. This is because Israel is a Jewish state.
The Europeans have allowed themselves to become Hamas puppets. The more people Hamas uses as human shields, and the more Palestinian suffering they engineer, the more support they get, and the more pressure is put on Israel.
It is outright madness.
Human Rights Pressure on Hamas
Human rights in Gaza are among the rarest things on Earth. Women, religious minorities, and LGBTQ people are persecuted and executed as a matter of policy. It is a horror for which words are inadequate.
Yet, none on Europe’s sanctimonious woolgatherers, or the morally empty governments they elect, have anything to say about this. Only Israel’s far fewer rights violations — usually a result of mistakes of rogue actions — get coverage.
The UN said that Hamas’ atrocities must be seen “in context,” which suggests there are contexts in which murdering and kidnapping babies is okay. Only someone as evil as the witches of Macbeth would say such a thing.
Israel should quit the UN, the body’s budget should be slashed, and all its staff should be transported to some uninhabited remote island surrounded by sharks and poisonous jellyfish.
Europe could start making a difference by linking its financial aid to human rights violations in Gaza. This would not be a panacea, but it would focus a few minds.
The Europeans should also put pressure on Hamas to abide by the laws of war. Hamas’ targeting of civilians, use of civilians as shields, and embedding military positions in schools, hospitals, and mosques are gross violations of the laws of armed conflict. This generates no outrage. Only Israel is subject to such criticism.
That Europe tolerates such things partly explains why the continent is in inexorable decline and why Asia, which ignorantly gets no publicity beyond China, is going to eat its breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight snacks.
Europe could turn down the anti-Israel rhetoric and stop spreading — and legitimizing — Palestinian lies about Israel being an apartheid state that engages in genocide and other crimes.
Israel has done more than any army in history to abide by the laws of war, yet gets no credit for this. This double standard does more than embolden Hamas to commit war crimes; it rewards it.
These claims are all provable lies, and the UN engages them to put pressure on Israel. It also legitimizes antisemitism, which Europe has clearly spent the past 80 years failing to address.
Stop surrendering to Islamism/jihadism.
The European Left are more scared of Islam than a fraidy cat the size of a lion. They will not criticize Islam even if Jihadists are running through the streets chopping off heathens’ heads.
Some of these “progressives” watch jihadist atrocities unfold before their blinkered eyes, engage in violence, target Jews, and somehow conclude that the real danger is Islamophobia, or — or more accurately — Muslim bigotry. These people have the moral spine of a jellyfish and contribute nothing to society. They are scared that if they criticize Islam, they will be branded “Islamophobic” and violently attacked.
If European states arrested those calling for genocide, jailed those engaged in treasons, and deported agitating foreigners, this jihadist war — which is just beginning — could have been stopped early.
It is a textbook case of Europe’s trademark inertia. For Europe to make a meaningful contribution to Middle East peace, it must give up its entirely fictional belief that the Palestinians are a nationalist movement fighting for a state. Anyone who believes this in the face of such overwhelming evidence is delusional or a Jew-hating liar. My money is on the latter.
Palestinianism is an Islamist identity created in the 1960s to destroy Israel by means of an alleged nationalist insurgency after Arab states failed to do so in conventional war.
The Palestinians do not want their own state; they want to destroy the Jewish one. Europe accepting this truth — rather than buying into these lies and fiction — would help bring the recalcitrant Palestinians to the negotiating table.
As Europe panics over U.S. President Donald Trump cutting Europe out of talks with Russia about its war with Ukraine and faces up to the fact that Europe is in political and economic decline, they can reflect on the fact they oversaw their own decline due to humming and hawing about virtually every issue since World War Two.
Our universities need to stop all funding from Islamic nations.
Gaza needs to be carpet bombed every week until every Hamas vermin is turned to ask
Thank you for this essay. While reading it, I was reminded of an old SNL sketch in which Dan Aykroid played a sleazy spokesperson for a product that doubled as a dessert topping and a floor cleaner - like Hamas being both a brutal terrorist organization and a legitimate peace partner. I am not being deliberately naive and uninformed, but why is Israel sending tons and tons of humanitarian aid to assist those who are hellbent on destroying it? Why?