This week, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, a friend told me how her father, as a young Jew in Libya, was arrested by the Italians and, after the Nazis occupied Italy, marked for deportation to Bergen-Belsen. An hour later, during a television panel on the Holocaust, I learned that Italy’s right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, had frozen her country’s defense agreement with Israel.
Meloni’s decision, coming from one of Israel’s closest remaining allies in Europe, along with the electoral defeat of Hungary’s Viktor Orban, marks a turning point in Israel’s relationship with the continent. It follows years of anti-Israel measures by many European governments, including suspending arms sales, barring Israel from defense exhibitions and recognizing a Palestinian state. Across Europe, antisemitism has surged sharply.
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Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, terminated a defense deal with Israel last week
(Photo: Tiziana Fabi/ AFP)
Relations, already strained before February, deteriorated further with the start of US-Israeli strikes on Iran. While much of the criticism was directed at President Donald Trump, European leaders also condemned Israel, and several refused to allow US forces to use their bases or airspace.
“There can be no immunity for these criminal acts,” Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said, calling for an international trade boycott of Israel. French President Emmanuel Macron denounced what he described as Israel’s indiscriminate strikes in Lebanon. Little mention was made of the thousands of rockets fired by Hezbollah at northern Israeli communities.
Such hostility does not exist in a vacuum. It follows nearly two millennia in which the Jewish people contributed to European art, science, philosophy and medicine, only to face pogroms, inquisitions, ghettos and the largest mass murder in history. After so many centuries of ingratitude and hostility, Jews should stop seeking Europe’s approval.
Today’s Europeans are not reliable allies. Many appear determined, 80 years after the Holocaust, to escape guilt for their history by leveling accusations against Israel, including claims of genocide against Palestinians.
Michael OrenIt is time for a strategic shift, literally a turn eastward. In the coming years, Israel must reduce its dependence on Europe and focus on strengthening ties with India and other Asian nations. It should diversify its foreign policy portfolio and pursue alliances in Africa and South America.
While Israel can maintain economic and technological ties with Europe, particularly with friendly countries such as Germany, Bulgaria and Greece, it should distance itself from governments that are openly or partially hostile.
As Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli once sang, it may be time to say goodbye. Or, more precisely: au revoir, adiós and ciao. After 2,000 years, the time has come.