The Israel-Hamas war is sowing strife in national capitals around the world

Although 999 of every 1,000 people on Earth live outside the theatre of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it has long had a hold on the public imagination stronger than that of many larger and deadlier conflicts.

Much of the world barely noticed the war that tore Ethiopia apart between 2020 and 2022, causing innumerable atrocities and hundreds of thousands of deaths. It featured rampages of murder and rape against civilians even deadlier than those Hamas perpetrated on October 7. It saw the bombing of cities and the deliberate starving of civilians.

The death toll of Ethiopia’s war far exceeded that of the whole Israeli-Palestinian conflict going back to 1948, combined with all of the Arab-Israeli wars since the foundation of the Jewish state. But the war in Ethiopia did not send foreign politicians into Twitter frenzies, divide campuses, or provoke outrage around the world. The communities decimated by that war struggled to get outsiders to notice what was happening.

An explosion in Gaza or Tel Aviv travels around the world in a way that one in Syria, Colombia, Congo or Myanmar does not. That’s partly due to the wide dispersal of diaspora communities. It’s also explained by the ideological dimensions that outsiders have attached to the conflict.

This war is proving to be no exception and its shock waves have rippled through all six inhabited continents.

European voices out of harmony

The highest officials of the European Union have struggled to find a voice that represents all of their members.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been widely criticized by governments that felt her remarks on a trip to Israel following the Hamas massacres of October 7 gave the Netanyahu government a green light to break international law. She was also accused of showing more sympathy for Israeli victims than for Palestinians.

European Council President Charles Michel complained that he was not consulted, or even informed, about von der Leyen’s trip to Jerusalem.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell seemed on Wednesday to reproach von der Leyen when he told the European Parliament that “the right to self-defence, like any other right, has limits. In this case, it’s the limits set by international law and, in particular, by international humanitarian law.”

“Condemning one tragedy shouldn’t prevent us from condemning another tragedy,” he went on. “Showing our sympathy for the victims of terrorist attacks shouldn’t, and doesn’t, prevent us from showing our feelings for the other dead.”

Von der Leyen defended her stance. “I believe it was important to pass this message of solidarity in person, in Israel, just days after the Hamas attack,” she said.

“Only if we acknowledge Israel’s pain, and its right to defend itself, will we have the credibility to say that Israel should react as a democracy in line with international humanitarian law. And that it is crucial to protect civilian lives, even and especially in the middle of a war.”

She also warned of a rise of antisemitism in Europe and said “it is our shared responsibility to make sure that our dark past does not return. We have to protect Jewish life in Europe.”

EU leaders, who called an emergency meeting on Tuesday to try to reach consensus, have all stressed the need for Europe to speak in unison, but remained at odds Wednesday over what that message should be.

Borrell represents the side of the debate that is less willing to overlook the role of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in sabotaging the Oslo peace process.

“As long as there is no peace (treaty with the Palestinians), there will not be an army powerful enough to guarantee Israel’s peace,” he said.

“Since Oslo until now, the number of Israeli settlers (in the) occupied territories has tripled. And the space for a possible Palestinian state has shrunk and turned into a labyrinth of spaces detached from each other.

“But even if the (two-state) solution seems far away, we don’t have anything else.”

Echoes of painful histories

The reactions of different European governments are clearly influenced by their own countries’ histories.

German politicians typically express a strong historical obligation to stand by Israel. That instinct was particularly strong once the cruelty of the Hamas massacres of October 7 became apparent.

Ireland, on the other hand, historically has shown strong sympathy for the Palestinians because of parallels between Ireland’s experience of British colonialism and settlement and the losses experienced by Palestinians since 1947.

Normally mild-mannered Irish President Michael Higgins on Tuesday castigated von der Leyen over her trip and statements.

“I don’t know where the source of those decisions was,” he said. “I don’t know where the legitimation for it was and I don’t know where the authority for it is. And I don’t think it was helpful.

“It may not have been meant to have malevolent consequences but certainly we need a better performance in relation to European Union diplomacy and practice.”

Von der Leyen was “not speaking for Ireland,” he said. He called Israel’s Gaza campaign “a thoughtless and even reckless set of actions.”

Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar, who comes from the centre-right Fine Gael Party, backed Higgins, saying that von der Leyen had “lacked balance”.

“Europe has been very strong in its condemnation of the targeting of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and those basic principles need to apply in all parts of the world, no matter who’s involved,” said Varadkar.

Higgins went further by accusing Israel of pursuing collective punishment of civilians in the Gaza Strip.

“To actually announce in advance that you’re going to break international law, and that you announce it again and again, and that you do so on an innocent population … I have thought about it and I think that it really reduces all that code that was there from the Second World War through the Geneva Conventions about the protection of civilians, it reduces it to tatters,” he said.

On Tuesday, Israel’s embassy in Dublin complained on X (former Twitter) that it’s “disappointing how some public figures in Ireland spread misinformation. Israel isn’t violating international law.”

France and Germany ban demonstrations

While Britain and Germany have thrown their support fully behind Israel, France has appeared preoccupied with the domestic spillover of the war.

France is home to Europe’s largest Jewish population by far, and (excepting Russia) also has its largest Muslim population. French Muslims outnumber French Jews by about ten to one.

On Wednesday, a French court partly upheld France’s temporary ban on pro-Palestinian rallies, which was motivated mostly by fear of rioting. France was recently rocked by riots that cost the country over a billion dollars.

Some German cities, including Berlin and Frankfurt, also banned protests. Authorities there cited the need to preserve public order and to prevent the celebration of the atrocities of October 7.

Spain’s socialist government found itself at odds with Israel after some of its members accused the Jewish state of “genocide” and expressed support for the Palestinian cause.

Spain has a coalition government; its junior partner is the far-left Podemos party. It is members of that party who have gone furthest in their statements and provoked the strongest reactions.

Social Action Minister Ione Belarra has been particularly vocal, holding a news conference calling on her government to take Israel to the International Criminal Court, accusing Israel of a “planned genocide” in Gaza, and calling for both the termination of diplomatic relations with Israel and economic sanctions.

Israeli anger at Spain

On Monday, Israel’s embassy in Madrid responded with an angry letter accusing “certain elements within the Spanish government of aligning themselves with ISIS-style terrorism.”

Spain’s Foreign Ministry shot back with a communique that said “the Government of Spain categorically rejects the falsehoods expressed in the communique of the Embassy of Israel about some of its members and does not accept unfounded insinuations about them.”

The communique said the Spanish government “categorically condemned … the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas” and supported Israel’s right to defend itself within the limits of international law. It also called for the immediate release of all hostages and reiterated Spain’s support for a two-state solution.

While Israel has reacted angrily to Spain, Arab governments appear to have been more appreciative. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez spoke personally Wednesday with both Jordan’s King Abdullah II and with Egypt’s President Abdel Fatteh El-Sisi. Both of those leaders had just cancelled their scheduled meetings with President Joe Biden, causing him to return to Washington after only eight hours in the Middle East.

Colombia’s Petro accused of using antisemitic tropes

In Latin America, as in much of the world, Israel-Palestine has become a metaphor for divisions between right and left. In Brazil, supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro marched for Israel, while supporters of current president Lula Da Silva mostly took the Palestinian side.

Israel expects criticism from the governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, which have long had ties to Palestinian organizations and, in Venezuela’s case, to Iran.

But the most furious diplomatic row over this war in Latin America was with a country with which Israel has signed a free trade deal: Colombia.

Netanyahu visited Colombia in 2017 and in 2021, Colombia’s then-president Ivan Duque returned the courtesy. But Colombia’s current President Gustavo Petro, who describes himself as the country’s first left-wing president, has blown up the relationship.

At times during the past ten days, Petro appeared more interested in the Israel-Hamas conflict than in his own country’s acute security crisis, firing out dozens of tweets on the topic. He even tweeted about Israel multiple times on the afternoon of Monday, October 9, when he was attending a national security briefing with leaders of his own country’s military, which is engaged in an often deadly fight with armed groups on Colombian soil.

None of Petro’s tweets mentioned the two Colombians murdered during the Hamas rampage, Antonio Macias and Ivonne Rubio, who left two orphaned children. His office did not extend condolences to their families.

Instead, Petro offended many Israelis and Colombians by comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. He wrote that he had visited Auschwitz and now saw the death camp reproduced exactly in Gaza.

Petro soon found himself in a Twitter war with Israeli Ambassador Gali Dagan, who accused Petro of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, while Petro warned of an impending “Holocaust” against Palestinians.

‘Israel will ask us for forgiveness’

Petro also dredged up the role of two Israelis, former mercenary Yair Klein and former IDF general Rafael Eitan, who played bit parts in Colombia’s narco-guerrilla-paramilitary dramas of the 1980s and 1990s.

“Some day the government and army of Israel will ask us for forgiveness for the genocide that they unleashed in Colombia,” he wrote.

By the second week of the conflict, Israel ordered a halt to the export of security-related material to Colombia and Petro was calling on fellow Latin American leaders to rally to his side.

“If we have to suspend relations with Israel, we’ll suspend them,” he tweeted. “We don’t support genocides. The president of Colombia will not be insulted.”