Europe must work on domestic security instead of trying to stop Israel

As the IDF moves from the air offensive phase and remote detonations to the ground invasion into Lebanon, the European countries begin to show real panic, with repeated calls for a ceasefire, truce, negotiations, de-escalation, and the protection of civilians. These are all terms that we have long heard by now, since the October 7^th massacre, when Israel began its counter-offensive against Iran’s terrorist proxies.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari explained that Hezbollah was planning to use villages near the border as a staging ground for an October 7-style invasion of Israeli homes. The plan, named “Conquer the Galilee”, aimed to attack Israeli urban centers such as Misgav Am, Manara, Baram, Zarit, Shtula, and Metullah, as exposed by the IDF with plenty of evidence.

This is indeed a war against the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies and Israel is doing what any healthy country would do to defend its citizens. Therefore, why are the European governments panicking? For several reasons such as national interests and the concern for security repercussions in Europe.

Firstly, Lebanon is a former French colony; the French have maintained strong relations and connections. That’s why Macron has been so loud against Israel’s intervention in Lebanon, calling for an immediate stop to the operations targeting Hezbollah.

Italy and Spain are also concerned since they maintain a consistent presence of UNIFIL military personnel in south Lebanon; theoretically to maintain peace. However, since that did obviously did not happen, otherwise Israel would not have been forced to take action, it is worth asking if their presence is still necessary as it is.

On this issue, it is worth recalling how the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, made a very concerning statement on April 14^th, 2024, regarding Iran’s aggression against Israel: “The Iranians have assured us that our Italian soldiers in the area will be respected.” (as already reported by The Times of Israel).

In Spain, the current left-wing government recently recognized the “state of Palestine” and took some quite hostile positions against Israel, and it is even allowing a one-week-long conference organized by the Masar Badil platform, to celebrate October 7^th and develop forms of Palestinian resistance abroad.

It is also important to recall that, despite the international sanctions on Iran, the regime has been maintaining relations with European countries while positions towards Hezbollah remain ambiguous. So far, Germany, Holland, and Austria have banned the entire organization, while France only blacklisted Hezbollah’s military wing, and considers its political branch a legitimate sociopolitical organization. Italy, Spain, and Portugal did not ban the organization at all.

However, one big concern involves the handling of internal security inside EU state members. While Germany and France have taken serious steps in contrasting antisemite, pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah propaganda, with deportations of problematic preachers and the closure of extremist Islamist sites such as mosques and “cultural centers”, the same thing is not occurring in Spain and Italy.

The president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, David Obadía, expressed serious concern about the situation of the Jews in the country while many Jewish university students are afraid to attend classes, since universities have become a main hub of pro-Palestinian extremism.

In Italy, the situation is even worse as the “freedom of expression” policy maintained by the Meloni government led to a blacklist of Jews and “Zionists agents” divulged by a far-left formation known as “New Communist Party”, which includes MPs, journalists, entrepreneurs, ministers, rabbis and even 94-year-old Holocaust survivor, Liliana Segre.

On Saturday, September 28^th, far-left formations close to the NPC paraded Hezbollah flags and cardboard signs with the faces of several people included in the list and the words “Zionist agent”, while from the stage, one of CARC’s followers, Gabriele Rubini, defined Nasrallah as a “brother” and incited to mark the houses of the “Zionist agents” with paint. A practice that, just like the blacklist, recalls the dark Nazi era. In the meantime, Islamist preachers continue to spread hate speech without any substantial obstacles.

The wave of extremism and antisemitism that is growing in the Old Continent is simply the further development of a “seed” that was already present but possibly neglected by authorities. The priority was given to ISIS propaganda and narrative. For some reason, the risks presented by the far left and the antisemite, anti-Israel and anti-West common denominator it shares with the pro-Pals and the Islamists were underestimated.

In addition, some European countries prefer not to “touch” the Palestinian cause, even when its supporters cross the line of free expression and embrace hate-speech. Many in Italy, Spain, and France still prefer to imagine the current situation in Gaza and Lebanon as a problem between Israelis and Palestinians, rather than for what it is, a war on terrorism and its main sponsor, the Iranian regime.

Many still prefer not to see the tyranny and the abuses perpetrated by Hezbollah in Lebanon, by Hamas in Gaza, because they do not want to fuel possible violent reactions from those many, too many supporters of these terrorist organizations that have been filling the European squares for months. This is, however, a huge sign of weakness on the part of the authorities of these countries. The problem is clear, present and at some point, it will have to be addressed. It’s not a matter of “if”, but rather of “when”.

Those European country leaders cannot expect to make a fix quick on their internal security issues, which has been neglected for so long, by telling Israel not to defend itself, because that will clearly not happen.