There would have been no Europe had it not been built upon the need to turn the page after the Shoah. Europe claimed to be “new,” as Konrad Adenauer declared. It swore to become “different,” as Simone Veil assured us, in the name of overcoming the antisemitism that murdered six million Jews.
And so the celebration of Europe Day on Saturday was deeply paradoxical.
Antisemitism has once again become omnipresent—a stain spreading across the continent just as it did in the Europe of the 1930s, a Europe dazzling in beauty, culture and tradition before the plague of Nazism and fascism consumed it.
Today’s Europe, confused by a mixture of distorted human-rights ideology and third-worldist progressivism, applies an obvious double standard. It condemns Donald Trump while treating Iran gently. It attacks Israel while forgetting Hamas and Hezbollah.
All this while Europe claims to be forging a stronger identity, capable of competing strategically and politically with the United States.
But antisemitism remains the structural weakness of European thought—its recurring condemnation.
Walter Hallstein, one of the first presidents of the European Commission, once said: “Anyone who lived through National Socialism knows that Europe was born so that such persecution could never happen again.”
Yet when European Parliament President Roberta Metsola spoke this week of the “many challenges” facing Europe, she did not mention antisemitism.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke of a “treasure forged by courage.” Yet why is that courage not used to pressure Lebanon to stop Hezbollah and pursue genuine peace, instead of endlessly blaming Jerusalem?
Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi dedicated a “White Rose,” the symbol of his political movement, to Sophie Scholl, the young German student executed for resisting Nazism. Rightly so. That is the Europe we should honor.
But in the hands of a political camp that, in the name of peace, condemns only Israel, that rose appears withered.
Where are the voices defending Europe’s Jews?
Who says publicly that the Israeli pavilion at the Venice Biennale cannot be compared to the Russian one because Israel did not invade another country but defended itself after a massacre and terrorism, while Russia invaded Ukraine? Almost no one.
Who protests when Spain deprives millions of viewers of the opportunity to hear Israel’s Eurovision song, followed by Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands?
Meanwhile, across Europe, cultural and political campaigns aligned with Hamas and Iran spread fabricated images, promote boycotts of Israeli books, professors, students and exhibitions, and encourage a climate in which freedom is granted only to those who attack Israel and the Jews.
In London, where Jews increasingly fear walking openly in certain neighborhoods, police have reportedly assigned additional officers specifically to protect Jewish communities, elderly Jews and children.
In France, a succession of antisemitic attacks has left many Jews contemplating emigration.
In Belgium, Jewish communities live under constant pressure while circumcision—a sacred tradition since the time of Abraham—faces growing legal and political challenges.
In Germany, Jews once again find themselves an intimidated minority, while institutions such as Burg Giebichenstein University of Art have faced controversy over accusations involving alleged cooperation with “genocidal Jews.”
In Italy, Israeli students at the University of Naples have faced hostility severe enough to push some to leave.
Tourists wearing a kippah, speaking Hebrew or displaying a Star of David increasingly report discrimination.
The White Rose, a non-violent resistance group led by students in Munich against Hitler, was beautiful before it was exterminated by Nazi Germany. It once stood for courage and moral clarity against tyranny.
Today, statistics speak of tens of thousands of antisemitic incidents across Europe, met with little meaningful political resistance.
What kind of Europe is this, in which parts of the Left systematically promote the false narrative that Israel is a colonialist and genocidal state, projecting onto the Jewish people the very crimes and prejudices Europe itself once produced?
Europe celebrated itself this week and reaffirmed its desire to grow stronger. But nothing weakens it more profoundly than the return of this shameful antisemitism.
