If the European Union wants to consign itself to irrelevance as a global geopolitical player, this week’s shambolic response to Hamas’s gruesome massacres of Israeli civilians in southern Israel is the way to go. Fortunately, Europe has by and large managed to remain more united and effective in its support for Ukraine against Russian aggression. But the shambles over the latest Israeli-Palestinian crisis is more typical of inter-state, political and turf disputes that shackle efforts to project a coherent European foreign policy and wield influence in the world, or even on Europe’s doorstep.
While condemning the Palestinian Islamist group’s indiscriminate slaughter of men, women and children, including babies and elderly people, EU officials have publicly contradicted each other daily. They have bickered over whether to suspend €691m in aid payments to the Palestinians and whether Israel’s cutting off of power, water and fuel to the Gaza Strip as part of its military response violates international law.
