The West’s Strange Impulse to Deny Arms to Israel

As the multifront war intensifies, so do the calls to leave it unable to defend itself.

Netanyahu responds to Macron’s UN comment. (Fox News)

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has told Dimiter Tzantchev, the European Union’s ambassador to Israel, that

an arms embargo on Israel at a time when we are fighting against terror organizations is unacceptable and unforgivable.

We have here a democratic country fighting against terrible antisemitic terror organizations and we need to fight them and defeat them, you can’t put an arms embargo on Israel under these conditions.

The report goes on to note that “several EU nations led by Spain and Ireland have called for an arms embargo on Israel.”

Spain, for its part, “says it has suspended its arms sales to Israel since 7 October, when the offensive in Gaza began.”

Those words are from the website of the Euronews TV network, which is described as “cover[ing] world news from a European perspective.”

To those of us who remember October 7, 2023, as a day when an offensive from Gaza—by Hamas—began, they’re indeed strange words. Also strange is the decision Spain took in response to the events of that day—namely, to cut off arms to the party that suffered a barbaric attack.

The Irish Senate, for its part, voted unanimously in February 2024 to “impose sanctions against Israel, prevent the passage of U.S. weapons to Israel via Irish airspace and advocate for an international arms embargo against Israel.” 

But what of the more consequential European countries? There too, the notion of stopping all weapons supplies to Israel—which, just this month, has seen four fatal terrorist shootings and stabbings within the country (here, here, here, here); a massive ballistic-missile bombardment from Iran; and daily bombardment of scores of missiles, rockets, and drones from Lebanon particularly, as well as Iraq and Yemen—has considerable purchase.

Italy, too—which had been the third-largest foreign arms supplier to Israel after the US and Germany—suspended arms sales to Israel after the October 7 Hamas massacre.

About Germany, the Euronews site has this to say:

Germany’s support for Israel is considered part of its “reason of state,” or Staatsräson, due to its role in the Holocaust....

Yet, data shows that Germany has slammed the brakes on arms sales to Israel since the start of this year....

Data provided by the German Economy Ministry—which approves export licences—shows that while it approved €326.5 million in arms to Israel in 2023, it approved just €14.5 million between January and mid-August 2024.

As for the UK, in July the relatively pro-Israel, Conservative government of Rishi Sunak was replaced by the much more critical—of course—Labour government of Keir Starmer, which announced on September 2 that it was suspending 30 of 350 arms export licenses to Israel. As India’s Economic Times noted, the UK’s move came

after six Israeli hostages were found murdered in a Gaza tunnel by Hamas, leaving Israel outraged and determined not to relent. Condemning the UK’s suspension, Israeli PM Netanyahu said, "With or without British arms, Israel will win this war."... Slamming the Starmer govt., ...Sunak pointed out that the PM made this decision on the same day as the funeral of the six hostages.

And that, among the EU big leaguers, leaves France. Its prime minister Emannuel Macron sparked fury in Israel by calling this month to embargo all arms to Israel that it could use in Gaza and Lebanon. Macron did not call on Iran to embargo arms to Hamas and Hizballah. What does he have in mind?

Across the pond, the US is in a different category from the EU, having provided Israel with crucial military support since the multifront war began. Still, Washington has liberally used suspensions of arms (for example, here and here) and threats of suspensions to try to bend Israel’s policies to its own preferences and electoral concerns—just lately based on a false claim that Israel was deliberately blocking aid to Gaza.

Even amid justified cynicism and low expectations, we shouldn’t gloss over the clear evidence of a Western impulse to leave Israel defenseless. It has surfaced before—particularly when the US State Department embargoed arms to Israel in the 1948 multifront Arab war against it; and when, three days before the 1967 multifront Arab war against Israel, France—an arms supplier to the Jewish state up to that point—abruptly cut off the supply.

An explanation? Try David Nirenberg’s Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition. Reading it earlier this year is the closest I’ve come to understanding such disturbing phenomena.