The rest of the world struggles to restrain Israel

Washington Post

18-07-2025

On Thursday, Pope Leo XIV urged 'an immediate ceasefire' in the Gaza Strip. Not long before, an Israeli strike had hit Gaza's sole Catholic Church, killing three people who had been sheltering there and injuring 10 more. Israeli authorities attributed the incident to 'stray ammunition.' The pontiff expressed his sadness for the losses endured by the small Christian community in the embattled territory and urged 'dialogue and reconciliation,' as negotiations between Israel, militant group Hamas and their interlocutors over a truce continue.
His entreaties, for now, amount to more hope and prayers. The conflict and misery in Gaza shows little sign of abating, while Israel keeps pounding targets across a wide swath of the region. That includes a bombing campaign this week in Syria, which Israel says is aimed at defending minority Druze from sectarian attacks but analysts also believe is part of a deeper strategy to maintain influence over the country's fragile post-dictatorship transition.
Away from the warzones of the Middle East, Israel finds itself fighting other battles. Judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague rejected Israel's request to withdraw arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, who are both wanted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out under their watch in the aftermath of Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, strike on southern Israel. In a bid to pressure the international court, the United States has placed sanctions on some ICC judges and prosecutors.
Earlier this week, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar went to Brussels for meetings with European counterparts. He emerged, in his words, victorious, having achieved 'an important diplomatic feat' of persuading the European Union to avoid adopting punitive measures against Israel. Kaja Kallas, the E.U.'s top diplomat, said the bloc was keeping 'options on the table' but would not pursue mooted sanctions that it was considering after an earlier E.U. assessment found Israel possibly in breach of human rights commitments.
Saar cast the developments as a vindication of Israel's efforts to defeat terrorists and defend its citizens. 'The mere attempt to impose sanctions on a democratic state that is defending itself against attempts to destroy it is outrageous,' he wrote on X. 'I thank our friends in the European Union and their foreign ministers, who supported us and prevented an attack on Israel that would also have been an attack on the European Union itself.'
But rights advocates were frustrated, given the scale of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and Israel's documented stifling of aid into the flattened territory. The E.U.'s acquiescence, suggested Amnesty International's Agnès Callamard, would be 'remembered as one of the most disgraceful moments in the EU's history' and was 'a cruel and unlawful betrayal of the European project and vision.'
The governments of Ireland, Spain and Slovenia are the three European nations that have been outspoken in their criticism of Israel and spearheaded the attempted reckoning in Brussels. They are pressing ahead with their own measures to show their disapproval of Israel's conduct of the war, which has severely depleted Hamas but also destroyed Gaza and killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including many children.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez accused Israel of carrying out a 'genocide' earlier this month. Irish lawmakers are advancing legislation banning trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, much to the anger of some U.S. officials. And Slovenia declared two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers as personae non gratae, banning them from the country. 'This kind of measure is the first of its kind in the European Union,' Slovenian foreign minister Tanja Fajon said. 'We are breaking new ground.'
There's reason to be cynical about the efficacy of such attempts by small countries. In Europe, the governments of Britain, France and Germany remain far more reluctant to confront Israel in similar fashion, while French President Emmanuel Macron's efforts to revive international momentum toward the creation of a Palestinian state seem to be fizzling out.
Israel's boosters in the U.S. can shrug and smirk. 'An unstated reason for Europe's particular animus toward Israel over the decades is that the continent's leaders secretly resent Israel's willingness and ability to regularly defend itself through tough military action,' mused veteran Washington wonk Robert D. Kaplan, 'something Europe's elites never had even to countenance, and arguably couldn't manage.'
Kaplan and his ilk were unlikely to be impressed by a summit that took place earlier this week in Bogotá, where delegations from thirty countries convened to pressure Israel to end its war in Gaza, as well as its occupation of the West Bank. The session of The Hague Group was co-hosted by South Africa, which is leading a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and the left-wing government of Colombia. It concluded Wednesday with 12 countries agreeing to implement a set of measures to 'restrain' Israel. These include a denial of arms to Israel, banning of ships transporting such arms and reviews of public contracts with companies linked to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.
A scan of the list of the countries that immediately signed on may suggest Israel's leadership isn't quite shaking in its boots: Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and South Africa. But the conference's backers argued that it's a first step in a global shift.
'For too long, governments have been too afraid of the consequences of angering the United States to risk taking action to uphold international law,' Annelle Sheline, a former State Department official who attended the proceedings in the Colombian capital, told me. 'This is about more than Israel and Palestine, this is about a new multilateralism taking shape to replace the old system.'
You're reading an excerpt from the WorldView newsletter. Sign up to get the rest, including news from around the globe and interesting ideas and opinions to know, sent to your inbox on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.