Europe keeps giving Israel advice.
History suggests Israel will be foolish to accept it.
The Holocaust was not ancient history.
Six million Jews were murdered not in some distant age, but in living memory.
And while the Nazis carried out the extermination, they did not operate in a vacuum. Across Europe there were collaborators, informers, confiscators, opportunists, and governments that either participated, accommodated, or looked away.
After the war, Europe promised: Never Again.
But what did "Never Again" actually mean?
It increasingly appears to mean:
Never Again - until it becomes politically inconvenient.
For 78 years, Europe has repeatedly advised Israel to take risks that Europeans would never accept for themselves.
In 1967, Israel was told not to strike first while hostile armies massed on its borders.
In 1981, Israel was condemned for destroying Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor.
In 2007, Israel was condemned for destroying Syria's nuclear reactor.
During the Second Intifada, Israel was condemned for building a security barrier that dramatically reduced suicide bombings.
Time after time, Israel acted to survive.
Time after time, Europe condemned it.
And time after time, history vindicated Israel.
But perhaps the strongest evidence comes not from how Europe treats Israel.
It comes from how Europe treats its own Jews.
Since October 7, antisemitism has exploded across much of the West.
The pattern is impossible to miss. In Canada, Jews are about 1% of the population, but they were targeted in roughly 70% of religion-based hate crimes in 2024. In France, Jews are about 0.6% of the population, yet antisemitic acts hit 1,570 in 2024 - after 1,676 in 2023, compared with only 436 in 2022 - and still made up 53% of all anti-religious incidents in 2025. In Germany, antisemitic incidents surged to 8,627 in 2024, up from 4,886 the year before. Tiny communities. Massive target shares. That is not âcriticism of Israel.â That is antisemitism by the numbers.
"Globalize the Intifada."
"From the River to the Sea."
Calls that advocates for violence, expulsion, or the destruction of the world's only Jewish state.
Weekly hate marches filled city centers.
Meanwhile Jewish schools increased security.
Jewish students hid symbols of their identity.
And governments largely chose accommodation over confrontation.
How many organizers were prosecuted?
How many marches were banned?
How many universities lost funding for tolerating intimidation of Jewish students?
How many politicians demanded the same zero-tolerance standards that would apply if any other minority were being targeted?
Why are governments more concerned with protecting the sensitivities of the crowds than protecting the people those crowds are targeting?
Again and again, the pattern looked familiar.
A Jewish institution is attacked.
A synagogue is vandalized.
A "Visibly Jewish" student is assaulted.
And the official statement arrives:
"We condemn antisemitism *and Islamophobia*".
When Jews are attacked, political leaders often seem unable to discuss Jewish victimization without immediately changing the subject.
The conversation becomes about community tensions.
About not stigmatizing anyone.
About protecting everyone *except the people who were just attacked*.
The result is that the outcomes keep getting worse.
The numbers continue to rise.
And while all of this is happening, many of those same governments lecture Israel about how to defend itself against the very Islamist movements that inspire many of the slogans heard on Western streets.
They oppose Israeli military operations.
They restrict arms sales.
They recognize a Palestinian state before terrorism is defeated, before hostages are returned, before borders are agreed, and before peace exists.
The message is difficult to miss.
When Jews are attacked at home, governments struggle to protect them.
When Jews defend themselves abroad, governments rush to restrain them.
This is why so many Israelis no longer place much faith in European advice.
The Holocaust taught Jews what happens when they depend on others for their survival.
The decades since have taught many Israelis a related lesson:
Countries that cannot protect their own Jewish citizens are in no position to lecture the Jewish state about security.
