The ongoing conflict in Lebanon and Palestine has taught us a lot over the last year. One such lesson has been that the Western hegemony many of us have lived under their whole lives, a hegemony led predominantly by the US, is slowly and unwillingly loosening its decades-long chokehold on the world. The position taken by the EU throughout all of this shows that Europe is yet to face up to this new reality – and more importantly that it doesn’t realise that it could even flourish because of it.

With a rising East gaining economic traction and building bridges with the Global South, the world order is shifting, and the power balance is slowly aligning, not tipping. So why is Europe still hiding behind US foreign policy?

The United States assumed a dominant global position after the Second World War. It helped set up international organisations, promoted multilateral cooperation, and led the West from turbulence, establishing what became known as the Pax Americana. When the European Union (EU) was established, it became one of the US’s most loyal allies, often echoing its position on global geopolitical affairs.

But a lot has changed since the 1990s. The EU’s economic influence has grown significantly, though its ability to project unified political and military power remains constrained by internal divisions. As a result, the bloc’s foreign policy still largely mimics what’s set out by the US, especially when it comes to the Middle East. This is particularly perplexing when considering that, between the war in Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza, and the crossfire between Hezbollah (in Lebanon) and Israel, Europe is almost encircled by transnational conflict.

The closer you are to a conflict, the greater the chances of getting sucked into it, or at the very least, experiencing the instability that results from it. The truth is that the political establishment in the US has never shown anything close to remote interest in maintaining stability in the Mediterranean, and as Malta regularly emphasises, there can be no peace in Europe without peace in the Mediterranean.

The Union and its member states would be far better off adopting tangible and realistic policies that reflect the region’s needs than appeasing US interests through ambiguity.

Europe should be doing everything in its power to try and stop Israel’s unbridled aggression. We should be talking about sanctions against Israel, arms embargoes and suspensions of trade deals, as well as the recognition of the state of Palestine by the EU as a whole. 

What’s worse is the silence surrounding the US as Israel’s largest benefactor. While EU and European leaders have pointed out the devastation Israel is causing and have called for a ceasefire, albeit reluctantly, there has been little-to-no pressure on the US to stop enabling Israel.

Let’s be clear, there is little Europe can do to stop this war; that power lies mainly in the hands of Israel and the US. But the EU does have the responsibility to urge the US to stop shipping weapons and sending billions of dollars to Israel’s military. It may have little direct power to stop the US from doing whatever it wants, but the least it could do is not play along with the absurd narrative that Israel is the good guy, or even the victim in all of this. Furthermore, while the EU might be unable to directly stop the US, it could exert pressure on Germany—the second largest supplier of weapons to Israel—to cut arms sales.

For context, the US spent a record $17.9 billion on military aid for Israel since 7th October,  according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project. It also makes up 65.6% of Israel’s foreign-sourced weapons, with Germany making up another 29.7% and Italy some 4.7%.