European weakness under Netanyahu
The European Union has reached an agreement with Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, repair vital infrastructure such as desalination plants, and ensure the protection of humanitarian personnel. The announcement, made by European Foreign Minister Kaja Kallas, does not specify the quantity of humanitarian aid or, above all, who will deliver it to the population. It should be noted that distribution is now in the hands of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a purportedly US-based NGO that replaces the UN and international and local humanitarian organizations, which Israel accuses of collaborating with Hamas. Since the GHF took over the aid, it is estimated that more than 600 Palestinians have died and 4,000 have been injured by Israeli army fire at distribution points.
The gesture may help alleviate the situation on the ground, but in reality there are reasons to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted it to prevent the EU from breaking the Association Agreement with Israel at the next EU Foreign Affairs Council, which is being held next Monday and Tuesday, as some are demanding. But it is difficult to understand what else needs to happen in Gaza for the EU to take decisive action against Israel. Because if Netanyahu has one thing going for him, it is that he is transparent and has already made his intentions very clear: the goal is to confine the population of Gaza to a very small area in the south of the Strip, the one that touches Egypt, so that Israel can annex the rest of the territory and, as Donald Trump has already said, turn resort tourist.
In parallel, both Netanyahu and Trump are trying to silence critical voices, such as that of the UN Special Rapporteur on Gaza and the West Bank, Francesca Albanese, who has called what is happening in the Strip a "genocide." The Donald Trump administration has repeatedly maneuvered to have the UN remove Albanese, but has failed, and on Wednesday announced sanctions against her, including a ban on her entry into the United States and a freeze on any assets she has in the country. This is an unprecedented gesture by the country that, paradoxically, hosts the United Nations headquarters.
In the face of all this, failing to take decisive decisions is tantamount to being complicit in these plans. The European Union, as is already happening in other areas, is displaying shameful weakness and seems to be driven only by the principle of not angering Trump, in the purest Mark Rutte style. But then we have to ask ourselves: was this what the European Union was founded for? Is this what the founding fathers had in mind? Wasn't it meant to be a powerful and lucid voice in favor of multilateralism and against human rights violations, apart from being a commercial club? Why isn't Netanyahu considered on the same level as Putin? Isn't it because the former doesn't directly threaten us, while the latter does? In the future, we Europeans will be ashamed when we are reminded of what our leaders did, and especially what they didn't do, in the face of the Gaza tragedy.
