Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Britain, France and Canada issued a statement on Monday, demanding that the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu cease its military campaign against the people of Gaza and halt its months-long blockade of food and medical aid, which has left the Strip on the verge of widespread famine. The three threatened Tel Aviv with “concrete steps” should it fail to do as they insist.
The three NATO powers went further than a 22-nation petition to Israel to halt its food and aid blockade issued on Monday, which they also signed. The other 19 countries apparently declined to go so far as to demand an end to the war, as well.
“We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said jointly. The North Atlantic troika thus squarely took aim at the current Israeli escalation of the war, involving extensive ground operations, which Netanyahu is pleased to call “Chariots of Gideon.” It is part of his ongoing campaign to smear the Bible as a warrant for genocide.
They continued, “We call on the Israeli Government to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.”
I want to underline that this demand that Israel put a halt to the fighting is unprecedented for international outsiders over the course of the 21-month conflict.
The three were not taken in by Netanyahu’s announcement Monday that he would let a paltry 9 aid trucks into the Strip per day, when the pre-war total was 500. They protested, “Yesterday’s announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is wholly inadequate.”
The UN denounced the paltry gesture of a handful of aid trucks as “a drop in the ocean.”
Instead of this Israeli fig leaf, the trio demanded, “This must include engaging with the UN to ensure a return to delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles.”
Translated, it means put back the 500 trucks a day. (Gaza’s agricultural hinterland was stolen by the Jewish migrants in 1948, and Israel put the remaining Gaza Strip under blockade from 2007. So the people in Gaza haven’t been able to feed themselves for a long time, and now their remaining fields have been turned into toxic waste by over a year and a half of intensive Israeli genocidal bombardment.)
Britain, France and Canada also starkly parted ways with US President Donald J. Trump on the desirability of ethnically cleansing the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, implicitly upbraiding Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose Religious Zionism party is the closest thing Israel has to a neo-Nazi party. It is a pretty good imitation.
The international leaders said forthrightly, “We condemn the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli Government, threatening that, in their despair at the destruction of Gaza, civilians will start to relocate. Permanent forced displacement is a breach of international humanitarian law.”
They shot down the Israeli propaganda talking point that the complete destruction of Gaza and the killing of tens of thousands of innocent civilians there was justified by the Hamas act of terrorism on October 7, 2023: “Israel suffered a heinous attack on October 7. We have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate.”
Aware that Netanyahu and his cabinet have no shame and will not respond to mere accusations of egregiously violating international law, the three North Atlantic leaders went there, threatening to lift Israeli impunity:
“We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.”
One can only wish they would have specified the concrete response. An arms embargo? Economic sanctions? Any of the concrete steps that a civilized country would have taken a whole year ago? (See: e.g., Spain.)
They made it clear that Palestine is the issue, not just Gaza:
“We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank. Israel must halt settlements which are illegal and undermine the viability of a Palestinian state and the security of both Israelis and Palestinians. We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions. ”
They demand a negotiated ceasefire, the release of remaining Israeli hostages, and an end to Hamas control of Gaza, and then the implementation of a two-state solution.
“Starmer, Macron, Carney stand up to Netanyahu,” Digital, ChatGPT, 2025
Then they twist the knife deep in Netanyahu’s puffed-out chest, saying the words he hates to hear more than any other:
“And we are committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution and are prepared to work with others to this end.”
In fact, this entire statement seems aimed at preparing the way for the conference planned this summer, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, which aims at putting a two-state solution and a Palestinian state back on the international agenda. France has hinted that it may recognize the Palestine Authority as a state at the conference. Spain, Ireland and Norway took that step last year this time, elevating Palestine’s representation to full embassy status.
It would be huge if Macron has convinced Starmer and Carney to follow suit. It is one of the “concrete steps” they could take in fulfillment of their threat.
Netanyahu predictably squawked that the three NATO leaders had gone over to Hamas and boasted that he was fighting the war of civilization against barbarism. I think the whole world can recognize barbarism when they see it.
Israel-Palestine is an American sphere of influence, however, and these three countries, important as they are militarily and economically, don’t really have much in the way of cards to play in ending the war. Netanyahu and his new friends Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir think they are on the cusp of getting rid of the 5 million Palestinians under their military occupation entirely, and maybe permanently gobbling up parts of Lebanon and Syria — and finally achieving a huge step toward their long-time dream of Greater Israel. It is a dream shared by American Evangelicals, to whom the Republican-held Congress is beholden, and by the wealthy Jewish Americans behind the AIPAC lobbying organization, which has whipped Congress into shape by picking off any critics of Israel in its ranks with massive campaign donations to their opponents. (Think Cori Bush and Jamal Bowman.)
The May 19 statements, both of the 22 nations and of the big three within them, are a highly significant turning point in diplomatic history. Unless Trump comes on board, however, that’s all they will be.
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