Europe’s Role in Ending the War in the Middle East

For weeks, and months, more than a year now, we’ve been grappling with the devastating war in Gaza, and now Lebanon, Israel, and the broader Middle East, and with a deep frustration at Europe’s inaction. I’ve struggled to understand how we—neighbours to this region, allies, supposed champions of human rights—are allowing this to continue. Our silence is deafening. And for those of us who see the damage unfolding daily, it feels like complicity.

Europe’s support for Israel should never mean blind endorsement of every decision its leaders make. True allies—friends who care—challenge each other when they see harm being done. Instead, by failing to speak up, we are doing both Israel and the people of Israel and the region a profound disservice.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, a far-right coalition, is pursuing a war that not only risks Israel’s moral standing but its long-term security. The ICC’s recent ruling for Netanyahu’s arrest underscores this—the world is watching.

The bombing campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon are exacting a human cost that is unjustifiable.

Civilian casualties mount daily, families are torn apart, and trust in any future peace evaporates.

Meanwhile, Lebanon suffers under bombardments, with whole neighborhoods turned to rubble.

How did we get here? How did the international community, which proclaims “Never again,” fail to prevent a catastrophe that feels all too familiar?

Diplomacy has been too slow, too reactive, and—dare I say it—too self-interested. And the blame isn’t just on Netanyahu or Israel’s far-right ministers. The region is caught in a web of extremism and political failure, from Hezbollah’s deadly provocations to the international community’s unwillingness to prioritize peace.

I can’t stop thinking about the families—on all sides—who have paid the ultimate price for this violence. Every child killed in Gaza, every civilian buried under rubble in Beirut, every Israeli family mourning their dead is a failure of leadership. A failure of us all.

There is still hope.

Reports of a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon offer a glimmer of what diplomacy can achieve. But we need more than temporary truces. We need bold, transformative action. We need Europe to find its courage and action in the Middle East. Even if some will oppose it.

Europe must stop sitting on the sidelines. It must push for an immediate end to hostilities, not just in Lebanon but in Gaza, too. It must use its influence to demand accountability—from Israeli leadership, from Hezbollah, from every party stoking the flames of war. And it must commit to rebuilding trust in the region, which begins with protecting civilians and upholding international law.

This is a personal plea.

I have spent my life believing in the power of democracy, the necessity of collective action, and the duty of leaders to stand up for what is right…

This year, over and over, I feel that belief being tested. But I also know that despair is not an option. We owe it to the people of the Middle East to demand better. As we owe it to the people of Eastern Europe.

History will remember what we did—or failed to do—in this moment.

Let it remember that we chose peace.

Let it remember that we found the courage to act.

I understand what Israel wants to achieve. Or at least I think I do. This is not how it achieves it. This is not the way, to secure long-term peace.