As European pressure ratchets up on Israel over its Gaza policies, some at Jerusalem are detecting a whiff of old-style antisemitism coming from the Continent. 

Prime Minister Starmer said on Tuesday that Britain would recognize a Palestinian state by September unless Israel “takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a cease-fire, and commit to a long term sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a two state solution,” among other conditions. 

France’s earlier announcement that it expected to recognize Palestine in September was dismissed by President Trump as “irrelevant.” Mr. Trump denied on Tuesday a report that he “green lighted” Mr. Starmer’s statement. “We never did discuss it,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “You reward Hamas if you do that. I don’t think they should be rewarded.” 

Mr. Starmer’s pile-on, though, sounded more like a threat to Israel than conviction that a Palestinian state is a necessity. His statement joined a host of measures on the Continent and beyond that are seen at Jerusalem as hostile. 

Citing the Gaza war, the European Commission on Tuesday recommended a partial suspension of Israel’s participation as an associate in its Horizon program, a scientific and research initiative designed to promote research and innovation, and to “drive economic growth, create jobs, and enhance citizens’ lives.” Germany and Italy blocked the measure, but failed to remove it from the EC’s agenda. 

Does ending Europe’s cooperation with the so-called startup nation make economic sense? Israel’s economy is projected to grow by 3.5 percent at the end of 2025. Growth in the Euro zone in the same period is projected to amount to 0.9 percent. 

The Netherlands fares slightly better, with projected growth of 1.3 percent in 2025. Yet, it will “press for further European measures, for example in the realm of trade,” the Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, said in a statement, citing Israel’s Gaza conduct. 

Meanwhile, Israeli tourists increasingly feel unwelcome on the Continent. Last week, protesters prevented a ship carrying Israeli children from docking at Rhodes. On Tuesday, Greek riot police forcibly dispersed protesters who again tried to block a docking. Tourism is one of Greece’s top cash cows, and attacks on island-favoring Israelis can harm the sector, so the Athens government is reacting harshly to the protest. 

On October 7, 2023, an Israeli resident of Gaza-bordering Nahal Oz, Nissan Dekalo, fought for his life for 13 hours as Hamas terrorists committed atrocities all around him. Last week, he celebrated his wedding anniversary by traveling in Austria in his recreational vehicle. A manager of an RV camp was extremely kind when he stopped there for an overnight stay, Mr. Dekalo told Kann news. But once he showed his Israeli passport, the manager denied service. “We have no place for Jews here,” he reportedly said. 

The Vienna government apologized to Mr. Dekalo, who was then invited to the chancellor’s office. European governments are embarrassed by the fast-growing number of incidents of antisemitism. Yet, the same governments criticize Jerusalem’s conduct in Gaza in ever-harsher tones, at times even forgetting what should be obligatory criticism of Hamas. 

Pressuring Israel “already caused Hamas to harden its position, directly sabotaging the chances for a cease-fire and hostage deal,” Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, told reporters on Tuesday. A Hamas negotiator, Khalil al Hayya, said diplomatic efforts at Doha are “useless.” Instead he called on Jordanians and Egyptians to storm Israel’s borders. 

Cairo and Amman reacted angrily. Mr. Hayya’s “provocative speech” from “an unknown location” was an attack on Jordan, according to the government-owned Mamlaka Television. Mr. Hayya, it added, is “ignoring the tragedies of Gaza and falsifying and distorting history.”

Egypt and Jordan see the Muslim Brotherhood, which spawned Hamas, as a threat to their regimes. Separately on Tuesday, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt for the first time called on Hamas to disarm and end its rule in Gaza in a statement that was part of a drive to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations. 

Arabs living in Europe, in contrast, seem more radicalized than their Mideast brethren. “We are aware of the fact that there are countries in Europe today with a huge Muslim population,” Mr. Saar said in his press conference. “Sometimes it affects the policies of their governments, but this cannot and will not lead Israel to commit suicide.” 

Yet, as Europeans pay more attention to perceived atrocities in Gaza than anywhere else in the world, is it only because of their growing Muslim populations? An image of a child that recently became an avatar for perceived Gaza famine in fact depicted a boy suffering from a genetic disease. To some observers, the framing of the picture, a child held by his mother, was reminiscent of the pieta, Mother Mary cradling the dead Jesus.

“This is imagery embedded deep in the West’s cultural brainstem,” an Israeli commentator, Haviv Rettig Gur, writes on X. “Classical Christianity’s Jew has returned with a vengeance. And the new puritans have found purpose at long last in the crusade against this new-old villain.”