Fair-weather friends of Israel in Europe and Canada are threatening to punish the Jewish state over its war in Gaza. A letter published yesterday at London and signed by Prime Ministers Starmer and Carney and President Macron claims that the British, Canadian, and French leaders “have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism” — so long, it turns out, as they don’t go after Israel’s enemies.

“We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza,” the three self-appointed arbiters of war conduct write. “The Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law.” If Israel doesn’t cease its pursuit of Hamas in Gaza, they ominously add, “we will take further concrete actions in response.”

The London Labourites then rushed to announce today a suspension of trade talks with Israel. Britain’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, summoned the Israeli ambassador to Britain, Tzipi Hotoveli, for some tongue-lashing over what he described as Israel’s “cruel and indefensible” conduct. Meanwhile, the Netherlands is leading an effort to review, and then suspend, all European Union trade with Israel. 

Much of it is bluster. As Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, notes, trade talks with Britain have already been stalled. EU members, who insist on acting by consensus, rarely agree on foreign affairs. Yet Israelis are stung. “I want to tell every country, mainly those who had colonial pasts,” Mr. Saar said today, Israel is “an independent nation, fighting for its existence. We will not accept any dictates from outside with regard to our national security.”

Hamas’s strategy of maximizing the number of Gaza victims in order to garner maximum global sympathy is working, though. Monsieur Macron is planning to reward the Islamist terror group’s assault on Israelis and Gazans by promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state in an international conference at the United Nations in mid-June. “Palestine,” it seems, is forever established at New York’s Turtle Bay, rather than in the Mideast.

Saudi Arabia is slated to co-chair the planned UN conference alongside France. That raises the fear that President Trump, too, might join the crowd of Israel-booers. While he has highlighted the humanitarian conditions in Gaza, Mr. Trump nevertheless has so far preferred quiet cooperation with Israel to public criticism. Even while touring the Gulf last week, he pointedly refrained from addressing Palestinian statehood.  

Yet at Riyadh, Doha, and Abu Dhabi, Mr. Trump likely heard an earful over Israel’s war conduct. Arab crowds, who get their news from the pro-Hamas, Qatar-owned Al Jazeera, are being fed an endless one-sided diet of Gaza suffering. While Hamas-averse Saudi and Emirati leaders quietly root for Israel, they’d rather see an end to the war and must have made their feelings clear. Mr. Trump, proud of his deal-making talents, is also itching to move on.      

This morning the American ambassador to Israel, Governor Huckabee, dismissed as “nonsense” a Washington Post report that Mr. Trump is threatening to “abandon” Israel. Similar reports, though, are mushrooming. Mr. Trump is “frustrated,” telling Mr. Netanyahu to “wrap it up,” unidentified White House officials tell Axios. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says the president is working hard to end the war. 

Unlike Presidents Obama and Biden, though, Mr. Trump and his administration have been careful to place the blame for the suffering in Gaza where it belongs — on Hamas and Qatar and the ayatollahs in Iran. He has vowed that Israel will have what weapons it needs. On Capitol Hill, Secretary Rubio, visiting the Senate, declared, “The people of Gaza deserve a more prosperous, peaceful future, which they’ll never have as long as Hamas exists.”