European Rift Widens Over Israel as Nine EU States Seek Trade Sanctions Amid Iran Threats

By: Fern Sidman

As Israel confronts an “existential battle” against Iran’s nuclear ambitions—amid a campaign of targeted preemptive airstrikes aimed at dismantling Tehran’s military and atomic infrastructure—some of its fiercest critics in Europe are escalating their efforts to isolate the Jewish state diplomatically and economically. In a move that has drawn sharp condemnation from Jerusalem, Belgium and eight other European Union member states formally petitioned the European Commission this week to explore mechanisms for halting trade with Israeli communities located in the West Bank.

As reported by The Algemeiner (algemeiner.com) on Thursday, the coalition—comprising Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden—invoked a recent advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which stated that third countries should avoid trade or investment activities that could entrench what the court views as “an illegal situation” in the territories Israel has administered since 1967.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot described the move as a necessary step toward legal and moral clarity. “Upholding international law is a shared responsibility,” Prevot wrote. “In a rules-based international order, legal clarity must guide political choices. A united European approach can help ensure that our policies reflect our values.”

But as The Algemeiner report emphasized, this diplomatic maneuver is taking place against the backdrop of a far more ominous development: Iran’s continued enrichment of uranium, coupled with an expanding ballistic missile program, and repeated calls by Iranian officials for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar issued a scathing response to the EU initiative, calling it “shameful” and symptomatic of what he described as Europe’s “anti-Israel obsession,” even in the face of mounting Iranian aggression.

“It is regrettable that even when Israel is fighting an existential threat which is in Europe’s vital interest — there are those who can’t resist their anti-Israeli obsession,” Saar said on X, according to the report at The Algemeiner. “While we’re striking nuclear and missile targets that could one day reach European capitals, European ministers are fixated on weakening Israel economically.”

The letter from the nine EU foreign ministers was sent ahead of a scheduled meeting in Brussels on Monday, where the EU’s foreign affairs council is expected to debate the bloc’s broader relationship with Israel. According to the information provided in The Algemeiner report, the timing of the letter appears calculated to shift the tone of the debate, particularly as the Gaza war and the Israeli-Iranian confrontation converge into a single, region-defining crisis.

Beyond trade sanctions, individual EU states are ramping up pressure in other ways. Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has once again called for an arms embargo against Israel. Speaking Wednesday, Albares urged the EU to “end the war in Gaza” by cutting off weapons transfers to the Israeli Defense Forces. His remarks were met with deep concern in Jerusalem, especially coming on the heels of intensified Iranian threats.

As The Algemeiner has previously reported, Albares has emerged as one of the most persistent international voices pressing for punitive measures against Israel, even as Hamas continues to hold Israeli hostages and fire rockets toward civilian areas. Albares has positioned himself as a leading advocate of a two-state solution, but his consistent emphasis on Israeli culpability has strained relations with Jerusalem.

In parallel, Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris expressed “deep concern” over Israel’s military strikes on Iranian nuclear and missile sites, calling them potentially destabilizing and warning of “a very real risk of regional spillover.” Like Albares, Harris called for a negotiated resolution to Israel’s concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program—a position Israeli officials have characterized as dangerously naive.

In an interview with The Pat Kenny Show cited in The Algemeiner report, Israeli Ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich lambasted what she termed Europe’s “moral confusion” in equating Israel’s precision strikes on Iranian military targets with Iran’s repeated violations of international norms and its open calls for genocide.

“They [the Islamic regime] are deliberately, indiscriminately targeting civilians, while we target their nuclear program, their ballistic program,” Erlich said. “I didn’t hear any Irish condemnation when Iran violated the UN Charter and called repeatedly for the destruction of another UN member state — Israel.”

Erlich went on to warn that Iran’s ballistic missile program poses a direct and growing threat to Europe itself. “Europe is concerned about it [and] so should Ireland,” she concluded, warning that complacency now could endanger the very European capitals whose diplomats are now seeking to constrain Israel.

While Spain and Ireland continue to lead the bloc’s anti-Israel push, other European leaders have taken markedly different stances. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz offered one of the most forceful endorsements of Israel’s military campaign to date, telling German media this week that “Israel is doing the dirty work for all of us.”

Speaking to ZDF while attending the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada, Merz emphasized that Iran’s regime has sown chaos not only in the Middle East but globally. “This mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world,” he stated, as quoted by The Algemeiner. “What Israel is doing is preventing a nuclear-armed Iran that could one day threaten Berlin, Paris, and Rome.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also voiced support for Israel’s right to defend itself, though her statement reportedly drew internal dissent. The Algemeiner report cited a Euronews report claiming that “there was no consensus” among EU officials on von der Leyen’s language, reflecting the growing schism between northern and southern member states over the bloc’s Middle East policy.

As reported by The Algemeiner, the current diplomatic turbulence between Europe and Israel reveals a fundamental fault line in the West’s approach to the Middle East: whether to prioritize abstract legal frameworks and criticisms of Israeli settlement policy, or to confront the immediate and tangible threat posed by a radical regime intent on regional domination and nuclear armament.

As Israel’s fighter jets continue to circle the skies over Qom and Gaza, and as Europe’s chancelleries debate embargoes and trade blacklists, the questions at the heart of this moment are as old as modern diplomacy: What is the cost of moral clarity? And who, when it matters most, will stand with a democratic ally on the front lines of a global threat?

In the words of one Israeli analyst quoted by The Algemeiner: “The irony is that while Israel is acting to protect Europe from a nuclear-armed Iran, some in Europe are too busy punishing Israel to notice.”