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Of all the reactions to Friday’s unprovoked Israeli blitz on Iran, the European leaders’ was the worst. None had the courage or the moral capacity to call it what it was: naked aggression against a sovereign state and a member of the UN. Interestingly, it was the leaders of the neighboring countries with a history of troubled ties to the Islamic Republic who were quick to condemn the Israeli attack as a clear violation of international law.

One must view the European leaders’ shameless position from a historical perspective. Whether it was the 2003 Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, NATO’s bombardment of Libya in 2011, the genocidal war Israel is carrying out in Gaza or the stark aggression on Iran, European governments have been either directly and openly complicit or stood by and done nothing other than to lecture the world on the need to respect international law.

European leaders have also proven time and again that they are merely blind followers of the US as it dictates controversial and often illegal policies about the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Israeli occupation and persecution of Palestinians.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s quick justification of Israel’s attack on Iran was probably the worst. Other European leaders soon followed, parroting the ambiguous and misguided phrase that “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Almost immediately, the UK’s Keir Starmer, Germany’s Friedrich Merz and the European Commission’s Ursula von der Leyen were lining up to protect Israel and blame Iran for the most dangerous military escalation in the region since the first Gulf War.

Not one leader denounced Netanyahu for his irresponsible call for regime change and the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader

Osama Al-Sharif

One can understand the US bias in favor of Israel, no matter what it does. This has become a trait of successive American administrations, which have denied the Middle East a just and lasting settlement to the core of its instability and conflicts for decades. Israel’s grip over US politics is well known. But one almost got duped by recent statements made by various European leaders who claimed that Europe must disengage and free itself from America’s orbit.

The illusion of such an awakening presented itself in the past few months, when European leaders attempted to distance themselves from the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over its genocidal war in Gaza. The EU tried, but failed, to make a distinction between its position against Russia’s alleged crimes in Ukraine and its initial support of Israel waging a full-scale war on 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Despite their apparent denunciation of Israel’s Gaza war, the UK and Germany have continued to supply Israel with weapons that are being used against civilians in Gaza. So much for the crocodile tears European officials pretend to shed over the 55,000 Palestinians Israel has killed so far.

But to go back to the Iran debacle, not one European leader has had the integrity to point to the fact that Israel launched its attack two days before the US and Iran were to hold a crucial sixth round of negotiations in Oman. US President Donald Trump had hinted that the two sides were close to an agreement on a nuclear deal.

Not one leader even cited the testimony before Congress in March by US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, in which she clearly stated: “The intelligence community continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon,” adding “that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had not reauthorized the program he suspended in 2003.”

And not one European leader pointed to the danger to the lives of millions in Iran and the entire region that might come from Israel’s direct bombardment of Iran’s numerous nuclear facilities. Not one leader bothered to denounce Netanyahu for his irresponsible call for regime change in Iran and the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader. There was not one condemnation of Israel’s killing of civilians, including Iranian nuclear scientists and their families.

Also, European leaders have omitted to mention that Iran had already reached a deal with them, as well as the US, under which it agreed to put its entire civilian nuclear program under inspection and provided guarantees limiting its uranium enrichment. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal was derailed by Trump, not Iran, under Netanyahu’s relentless attacks and lies. That agreement was deposited at the UN. Iran was not the party that withdrew from the deal.

European countries were threatened by Trump not to end economic sanctions imposed on Iran, even as Iran had honored its commitments. Even then, European leaders opted to throw Tehran under the bus rather than challenge Washington or point the finger at the warmongering Netanyahu.

Whatever Israel does, it does with impunity because it knows that European leaders will not dare challenge it

Osama Al-Sharif

The application of double standards has become a trademark of European leaders’ approach to this region’s conflicts, especially where Israel’s interests are concerned. Israeli violations of international law and conventions are treated with the utmost delicacy and tolerance. Whatever Israel does, it does with impunity because it knows that European leaders will not dare challenge it.

Macron had mustered some courage recently and denounced Israel’s use of humanitarian aid as a collective punishment against Gazans, only to be branded as an antisemite by Israel. He had contemplated recognizing a Palestinian state but was reprimanded by Israel, and now it appears he has decided to defer any move. He has even offered to join Israel in fighting Iran.

Once again, we have proof of how Western leaders are intimidated by Washington when it comes to averting what could spiral into a regional and possibly a global war in the Gulf.

It is worth remembering that it is Israel that refuses to join the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons or allow independent inspection of its nuclear program. And it was France that assisted Israel by supplying it with a nuclear reactor back in the 1950s. Israel deceived even the US by concealing the truth about its Dimona reactor while reportedly stealing, over a few years, between 200kg and 300kg of highly enriched uranium from a private nuclear materials processing facility, the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation, in Apollo, Pennsylvania, in the 1960s.

By the end of the 1960s, Israel was believed to have built the first of at least 100 nuclear bombs. Israel is the country that has brought nuclear weapons into this region, with the help of France and the US.

European leaders’ feverish support of Netanyahu, a wanted war criminal, in his reckless war against Iran is inexcusable and shameless. It is an insult to European values and the people of this region. It proves once again that those leaders are sacrificing Europe’s interests for the sake of an Israel gone rogue. And it demonstrates that, while Europe might be an economic giant — for now — it is, in fact, a political dwarf.

Meanwhile, Israel’s mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza continues unabated. Europe’s silence is deafening.

• Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. X: @plato010