Europe’s Chance to Revive Middle East Peace

Europe's Chance to Revive the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

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Argument: Europe’s Chance to Revive Middle East Peace

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Argument

An expert’s point of view on a current event.

Europe’s Chance to Revive Middle East Peace

History suggests that when Washington loses interest, the Europeans step in.

By **Azriel Bermant**, an associate researcher at the Institute of International Relations Prague.

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French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a press conference in Jerusalem on Oct. 24, 2023. Christophe Ena/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

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October 5, 2026, 9:17 AM

Last month’s announcement by the British government to ban imports from West Bank settlements, backed by Canada and 11 European nations, marks the sharpest crisis between Western allies and Israel in decades. Amid U.S. inaction over escalating settler violence and continued settlement expansion, the move has triggered a predictable reaction in Jerusalem. Israel has accused Britain’s Labour government of appeasing the party’s hard left and domestic Muslim voters.

The timing of the British sanctions is undoubtedly politically motivated, with the decision coming just in time to pacify Labour’s left flank ahead of the party conference that started on Sept. 27. Beyond Britain, however, the bigger picture is much harder for Israel to challenge. It is highly unlikely that Canada and a broad coalition of European countries are all acting out of identical domestic political motives.

Last month’s announcement by the British government to ban imports from West Bank settlements, backed by Canada and 11 European nations, marks the sharpest crisis between Western allies and Israel in decades. Amid U.S. inaction over escalating settler violence and continued settlement expansion, the move has triggered a predictable reaction in Jerusalem. Israel has accused Britain’s Labour government of appeasing the party’s hard left and domestic Muslim voters.

The timing of the British sanctions is undoubtedly politically motivated, with the decision coming just in time to pacify Labour’s left flank ahead of the party conference that started on Sept. 27. Beyond Britain, however, the bigger picture is much harder for Israel to challenge. It is highly unlikely that Canada and a broad coalition of European countries are all acting out of identical domestic political motives.

Then there is the legislation introduced by U.S. Senate Democrats to sanction Israeli individuals and companies involved in the controversial E1 project, a new settlement that critics argue would cut off the West Bank from East Jerusalem and effectively destroy prospects for a viable two-state solution. As American public opinion increasingly turns against Israel, support for such measures in Washington will only grow. For now, however, it is Europe that is taking the lead.

The fact that Israel has focused its ire on Britain suggests that it views the Labour government as the ringleader of European sanctions. Israel has retaliated by ordering Britain’s representatives out of the international support center for Gaza, demanding the closure of the historic British consulate in East Jerusalem, and curtailing Britain’s role in training Palestinian Authority security forces.

As a historian who has written extensively about Anglo-American policy toward the Middle East, I see striking parallels with a similar crisis in the past. Much like U.S. President Donald Trump today, the Carter administration was mired in an Iran crisis in 1980: the Iran hostage fiasco. President Jimmy Carter had already exhausted much of his political capital in pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to sign a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 and return the occupied Sinai Peninsula to Cairo.

Carter was the first U.S. president to openly advocate for a Palestinian “homeland,” a term that was considered controversial at the time that he first used it in a press conference after taking office.

During his final year in office, he remained committed to the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over autonomy. At best, these promised administrative autonomy for individuals, not sovereign control over territory. During a meeting with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Foreign Secretary Peter Carington in December 1979, Carter stated that, during his 1978 tour of the Middle East, he had not met a single Arab leader who had insisted on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The U.S president stressed that the idea of Palestinian independence, like that of a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, was “dead.”

The notion that self-determination for the Palestinians was out of the question did not go down well in European capitals. West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt reportedly even described the Camp David Accords normalizing Egypt-Israel relations as “amateurish.”

As prospects for the autonomy talks became increasingly uncertain, European leaders began considering defensive actions of their own to mitigate the fallout of a potential collapse. In June 1980, recognizing that the United States was withdrawing from its active role as a peace broker, Britain and its European partners broke with Washington to unveil the European Economic Community’s (the precursor to the European Union) landmark Venice Declaration.

This initiative recognized Palestinian