Pro-Israel European countries successfully block initiative to impose sanctions on Israel

Israel’s European allies on Monday succeeded in blocking an anti-Israel initiative to impose sanctions on it due to the ongoing Hamas-initiated Gaza war. Ireland, Spain and Slovenia initiated the anti-Israel initiative, which also called for the suspension of the “association agreement” between Israel and the European Union. However, the move was blocked by EU member states such as Germany, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Croatia, Greece and Lithuania. 

Spain, which reportedly lead the anti-Israel initiative, failed to secure a majority, which is required in order to implement such diplomatic move. 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem had been proactively trying to influence and organize its allies in the European Union ahead of the vote. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar recently held talks with foreign ministers from friendly European governments on the matter. Sa’ar has also been in continuous dialogue with the European Union Foreign Policy chief Kaja Kallas. Jerusalem’s top diplomat emphasized that it was absurd to punish Israel diplomatically while the country is fighting for its existence against foes that openly call for its destruction. 

Diplomats in Jerusalem are likely very satisfied with the result. One diplomatic source in Israel argued that "the result obtained today is more significant than the previous discussion about a month ago."

During his conversations with his European counterparts, the Israeli foreign minister reportedly stressed the strong connection between the Islamic Republic of Iran and its terrorist proxy Hamas in Gaza. 

On Saturday, the Israeli military announced that it had eliminated Saeed Izadi, a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander who headed its “Palestine Corps.”  Izadi who was killed in an Israeli aerial strike on a safehouse in the Iranian city Qom, was directly linked to the Hamas Oct. 7 atrocities in 2023 against Israeli civilians. The Israeli military assessed that the senior IRGC commander was “one of the architects” of the Oct. 7 attack and “among the few who knew of it prior to its execution.”

Many European countries have increasingly expressed concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and criticized Israel’s military offensive against Hamas. However, it appears that the Iran- Israel war shifted perceptions within the European Union. Israeli diplomatic sources claimed that "the Europeans are concerned about the Iranian threat.” 

Unlike the vocal criticism against Israel’s Gaza operations, leading European countries expressed either open or tacit support for Israel’s self-defense actions against the radical Islamist regime in Tehran, which openly calls for Israel’s destruction. 

"Our diplomatic situation today in Europe is better," the diplomatic source in Jerusalem assessed.

Germany emerged as Israel’s strongest European ally during the war with Iran. Speaking at the Bundestag lower house of the parliament, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz emphasized that the Iranian nuclear program threatened the entire world and not only the Jewish state. 

“Not only Israel, but also Europe and the world as a whole are threatened by this Iranian nuclear program,” Merz stated, adding hope that the U.S. and Israeli military strikes had permanently neutralized the Iranian nuclear threat. 

However, the Iranian nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami vowed on Tuesday that Tehran would rebuild its destroyed nuclear program.