Judy Asks: Does the Hamas-Israel War Make Europe Vulnerable?

The conflict between Hamas and Israel reveals deep divisions within and among EU member states. These tensions are fuelling both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Does the Hamas-Israel War Make Europe Vulnerable? 10 experts answer this question. Carme Colomina, Senior Research Fellow at CIDOB, argues that “if the Russian invasion of Ukraine cemented a unity in European foreign policy that has taken more than a year to show cracks, the escalation of violence between Hamas and Israel needed only a few days to expose the geopolitical fragility of the union. Struggling to have a common position, the hard-to-get consensus for a “humanitarian pause” proves how deep divisions are among member states”. Colomina states that “this crisis has aggravated the lines of fracture between the West and the Global South, and between the EU and its southern neighborhood. The EU today is a secondary player in a diplomatic framework that has failed in the region”.