The European Union, despite strong economic and diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, is often the first to condemn its behavior and, moreover, gives millions of dollars to institutions that undermine its security. Eldad Beck writes:

[In the] past, Israeli governments sought, for obvious reasons, to tie Israel’s economy to that of Europe. Israel has much to offer in many fields, and the Europeans have a lot of money. Geographical proximity to the continent makes Europe Israel’s main trade partner. While Israel enjoys access to various major EU programs, this relationship, which contributed to Israel’s transformation into a stable and leading economy, came at a heavy price: the Europeans conditioned this cooperation on their involvement in Israel’s internal affairs and a significant role in the promotion of a “peace process” between Israel and the Palestinians. In retrospect, this role was meant from the outset to allow Europe to defend Palestinian interests at the expense of Israel’s.

This is not just about unlimited and unconditional assistance to the Palestinians in their struggle to “liberate” Judea and Samaria and, in the past, the Gaza Strip from “Israeli occupation.” . . . [EU] funds have allowed the Palestinian Authority and the UN refugee agency-education systems to propagate anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement for years. [In addition], the EU encourages the financing of bodies that seek to eradicate the Jewish character of Israel and transform it from an “apartheid state” to a “state of all its citizens.” This is not about bringing change to the status of the “occupied territories,” but rather a fundamental change to the state of Israel. The EU also supports groups and organizations that oppose the current government’s policies, in an effort to influence internal Israeli politics. . . .

And yet, all this could not have happened had successive Israeli governments not allowed the phenomenon to develop and intensify.

Israel is not a European colony and certainly has no interest in joining the European Union in its present state. If the EU is interested in good ties with Israel, and there are many reasons and motives for this to be the case, it must immediately cease its subversive efforts to impose on Israel arrangements and solutions that are neither to its advantage nor to its benefit. As a sovereign state, Israel must both demand this and make every effort to prevent it from happening.

Early Friday morning, Israel attacked military installations near the Iranian cities of Isfahan and nearby Natanz, the latter being one of the hubs of the country’s nuclear program. Jerusalem is not taking credit for the attack, and none of the details are too certain, but it seems that the attack involved multiple drones, likely launched from within Iran, as well as one or more missiles fired from Syrian or Iraqi airspace. Strikes on Syrian radar systems shortly beforehand probably helped make the attack possible, and there were reportedly strikes on Iraq as well.

Iran itself is downplaying the attack, but the S-300 air-defense batteries in Isfahan appear to have been destroyed or damaged. This is a sophisticated Russian-made system positioned to protect the Natanz nuclear installation. In other words, Israel has demonstrated that Iran’s best technology can’t protect the country’s skies from the IDF. As Yossi Kuperwasser puts it, the attack, combined with the response to the assault on April 13,

clarified to the Iranians that whereas we [Israelis] are not as vulnerable as they thought, they are more vulnerable than they thought. They have difficulty hitting us, but we have no difficulty hitting them.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out. . . . It is good that a question mark hovers over . . . what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and air forces was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but, as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel. I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment.