Europe, stop blaming the Jews for problems you won’t confront at home.
In September, 12 countries coordinated plans to restrict trade in goods from Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria. France and the United Kingdom were among them; Belgium backed related measures; and Italy joined the chorus of criticism. Your governments held press conferences, issued joint statements and presented a united front. On this one issue, at least, Europe knew exactly what it wanted to do.
A month later, your streets are burning.
France. Italy. Belgium. Britain. Look at what is happening right in front of you.
In France, rioters set fire to Limoges Town Hall, a 143-year-old landmark. Its roof collapsed, and much of the building was destroyed. Across the country, demonstrations turned into fires, looting, rioting and attacks on police. A building that survived wars and generations of political change could not survive one night of unchecked rage.
French leaders now face serious questions about how protests spiraled into that kind of destruction. Yet weeks earlier, they had the energy to help coordinate economic pressure on the State of Israel.
In Italy, demonstrators clashed with police in Milan just steps from the Duomo and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, some of the most visited places in Europe. Businesses shut their doors as tear gas filled the streets. In Bologna, police turned to water cannons. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the violence, and she was right to. But condemnation after the fact is not the same as prevention.
Belgium, Brussels—the political heart of the European Union—saw protesters overturn vehicles and fight security forces. The city where Europe writes its rules for everyone else could not keep order on its own streets.
In Britain, intelligence agencies keep warning of terrorist threats against Jewish and Israeli targets. Jewish schools and synagogues operate behind security guards, cameras and reinforced doors. This is the same country whose government just decided that an urgent diplomatic priority was restricting Israeli goods from Judea and Samaria.
These are not distant problems. They are on Europe’s doorstep right now.
To be fair, the unrest has different causes. Some come from economic grievances and some from far-left agitation. Islamist extremism is a separate and continuing threat. But taken together, they should be forcing European leaders to look hard at their own responsibilities, not search abroad for easy political victories.
So, what have the measures against Israel actually accomplished for Europeans?
They haven’t restored order in France. They haven’t protected shopkeepers in Milan. They haven’t stopped violence in Brussels. They haven’t made a single British Jewish family safer.
As someone who represents business owners, I can tell you that trade restrictions don’t create peace. They create lost contracts, lost jobs and lost trust, and they rarely hurt the people politicians claim to be targeting.
And this raises a harder question: Are European leaders letting domestic pressure shape how they treat Israel?
Are they betting that condemning the Jewish state will quiet the loudest radical voices at home? That another restriction will buy a few weeks of calm? That pointing a finger at Jerusalem is easier than confronting the people making demands in Paris, London and Brussels?
Real leadership means facing threats directly, protecting citizens and refusing to let intimidation write policy.
These questions deserve answers. Because appeasement doesn’t end with a press release. When governments respond to pressure by handing over what is being demanded, they teach everyone watching that pressure works. But demands don’t shrink; they only grow.
And when the target is Israel, Europe’s Jews are the ones left standing in the line of fire, blamed for a conflict thousands of miles away they have no power to control.
There is something deeply wrong with a continent where Jewish families need extraordinary protection while their governments spend so much effort condemning the Jewish state.
Jewish children shouldn’t be afraid to walk into school. Families shouldn’t feel that they need to tuck away a Star of David or swap a kippah for a baseball cap. Synagogues shouldn’t need armed guards just so people can pray. Yet across Europe, that is the reality.
Israel didn’t set fire to Limoges. Israel didn’t organize the clashes in Milan or Brussels. Israel didn’t build the extremist networks threatening European societies. Those are Europe’s problems, and Europe has to solve them.
Europe has every right to disagree with Israeli policy. Democracies disagree all the time. But no continent knows better than Europe where it all leads when Jews become the convenient scapegoat for unrest at home. That history isn’t ancient. It’s within living memory, and the scars are still visible in nearly every European city.
Real leadership means facing threats directly, protecting citizens and refusing to let intimidation write public policy. It does not mean looking abroad for someone easier to blame.
Citizens want and need security, public order and leaders who govern. Instead, they are watching historic buildings burn, city centers shut down and Jewish institutions turned into fortresses.
Their governments should be responsible to them—not to radical movements and the political convenience of making Israel the villain of the moment. Blaming a minority population in your country and abroad is not a substitute for governing.
Europe, you chose to target the Jewish state instead of confronting the pressure at home. You thought it would take the heat off your governments. Now your own streets are burning.
How’s that working out for you?
