Is Brussels unaware of the anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish hatred not just of Hamas but the supposedly ‘cleaner’ Palestinian Authority (PA)—if so, under what rock has it been hiding?—Or does it simply not care?
Either way, the European Union’s doubling down of support for the body in high-profile talks on Monday, and the handing over of €1.6 billion in support “for Palestinians,” displays a total lack of foresight about what will actually bring the conflict in the Middle East to an end.
As if standing for the understatement-of-the-year award, French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday accepted that, in order to establish “credible governance,” the PA needs some “reforming.” This was after his talk with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who—to paint a brief picture of his mindset—is on record as saying that Hitler “killed the Jews” not because they were Jews but because of “their social role, which had to do with usury, money, and so on.”
Macron did not go into detail about quite how much reforming will be required to deal with the PA’s incentivising of terrorism, including by allocating monthly salaries and benefits to extremists jailed in Israel or to the families of ‘Martyrs’—that is, those who die fighting against Israel. Here, for example, Macron’s chum Abbas prays for the “martyred” soul of the assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was partly responsible for the October 7th attacks, clearly approved of by the PA.
Neither did he say what Europe will do about the PA’s fairly well-documented corruption, mistreatment of women, and persecution of homosexuals. Not to mention the fairly significant fact that the PA isn’t even popular in Gaza, despite strong Palestinian support for October 7th.
It is no wonder then that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously stressed he “will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism,” referring to the PA.
Macron further pitted himself against Israel on Monday, again calling for an “urgent” end to the fighting and expressing hope that his own planned recognition of a Palestinian state triggers “a series of other recognitions.” Netanyahu later told the president in a call on Tuesday that establishing a Palestinian state would be a “huge reward for terrorism.”
Meanwhile, Egypt said it received an Israeli proposal for a temporary Gaza ceasefire on Monday evening which Hamas said crosses a “red line”—for Hamas to disarm before any permanent end to the war. The terror group suggested it would respond to the proposal properly by Thursday.
