In the wake of the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington, DC on Wednesday evening, Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Saar was quick to cast blame on those he held responsible for the killings: Europe’s leaders.
"There is a direct line connecting anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement to this murder," he said. "This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organisations, especially from Europe.”
The Israeli government found itself facing unprecedented criticism from some of its staunchest European supporters this week as it launches a massive ground assault in the Gaza Strip, which Israel has cut off from all humanitarian aid for almost three months. The pressure pushed Israel this week to allow limited aid into the enclave even as it issued fresh evacuation orders for the Strip's north.
An IDF spokesperson said earlier in May that the operation, dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots”, would result in “the displacement of most of the population” of the Palestinian territory.
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17:23
Yair Wallach, reader in Israeli studies at SOAS, University of London, said that the country’s growing diplomatic isolation in part reflected the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
“We’ve seen a demonstration over the last week that when the consensus emerges that a war crime is being pursued, suddenly you’re going to see many people coming on board and agreeing to the kinds of policies that would have been unthinkable certainly a year and a half ago,” he said.
It is these criticisms, Saar said, that fed into a climate of anti-Israeli feeling that led directly to the two staffers’ deaths.
The two embassy employees, identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sara Lynn Milgrim, were shot dead as they were leaving the Capital Jewish Museum. Witnesses reported that 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez, who has been charged with the couple’s murder, shouted “Free Palestine!” as police came to arrest him.
Saar’s statements were soon echoed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused France, Canada and the UK in particular of “emboldening Hamas” with their joint call earlier this week for Israel to halt its ongoing Gaza campaign and allow humanitarian aid to enter the devastated territory.
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10:11
The statement, which called on Palestinian militant group Hamas to release all hostages, also condemned public comments by far-right cabinet ministers promising to “conquer” and “cleanse” Gaza and threatened sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“Because by issuing their demand – replete with a threat of sanctions against Israel, against Israel, not Hamas – these three leaders effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power,” he said in a statement posted on social media Thursday. “You're on the wrong side of humanity and you're on the wrong side of history.”
Officials from the three countries strongly rejected Netanyahu’s statement, with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot saying the remarks were “absurd and slanderous”. He emphasised that Paris was "unwaveringly committed to Israel's security". All three nations have designated Hamas as a terrorist group.
Israel has maintained a blockade of the shattered enclave since early March, refusing to allow food, shelter and medical supplies to enter the Strip as it renews its military assault. The UN today warned that 14,000 malnourished children in the coastal enclave face the real risk of starving to death by the end of the year.
More than 53,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed by Israeli troops since the October 7 terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas and its allies, the Gaza health ministry says.
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03:45
The rising diplomatic tensions reflect what seems to be something of a breaking point between Israel and a number of its erstwhile backers in Europe and the broader West.
The European Union this week announced it would be reviewing its Association Agreement with Israel in light of the worsening situation in Gaza, with the UK also putting negotiations around a free trade agreement with Israel on hold.
And while Israel’s main supporter, the US, has so far been unwilling to lend its voice to the chorus, the administration of President Donald Trump has done little to dissuade the condemnations.
Wallach said that Trump’s decision not to meet with Netanyahu during his recent tour of the Middle East likely reflected a sense of growing impatience in Washington with the Israeli government’s intransigence.
Trump’s Special Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been negotiating directly with Hamas leadership rather than going through intermediaries used in previous rounds of negotiations, reportedly pressed Israel and the militant group to accept an updated ceasefire proposal earlier this week.
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07:31
“I think why we’re seeing this kind of intervention now is that people waited for Trump’s visit to the region, if this would allow some kind of ceasefire,” Wallach said. “And then when that didn’t happen, and when there’s a real risk of starvation and images are coming out, they’ve – quite belatedly I would say – realised they needed a stronger reaction,” he said.
Wallach said he thought the killing of two of its young embassy staffers in the heart of the US would be unlikely to change the equation for Israel's critics.
“Whether the US would change tack – I’m sure that there would be people in the administration calling for that, but I don’t think so. I think the interests of the US, as the administration understands them, is to … get the situation under control.”
“So I doubt this will trigger a U-turn for the US – although I’m of course saying this with the caveat that this is Trump, and he could wake up and decide something else.”
English (US) · 