Duvi Honig isfounder and Chief Executive Officer of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber Of Commerce
In Denmark this week, EU foreign ministers gathered to debate punitive measures against Israel in response to the war in Gaza. On the table were proposals to suspend EU funding to Israeli start-ups, ban imports from Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and even sanction Israeli cabinet ministers deemed too “far-right.” Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen urged his colleagues to “change words into action,” insisting that Europe must move beyond rhetoric.
But here is the irony: Europe has been trying to weaken the Jewish people for centuries - and every attempt has only made us stronger.
History of Exclusion, Legacy of Strength
From the expulsions of Jews from England in 1290, France in 1306, and Spain in 1492, to the countless pogroms that devastated Jewish life in Eastern Europe, Jewish history is a chronicle of exclusion. Jews were barred from owning land, locked out of guilds, and denied entry into universities. In many places they were forced into ghettos, heavily taxed, and marked as permanent outsiders.
What was intended as punishment became the foundation of resilience. Denied farmland, Jews turned to commerce, finance, and trade. Barred from universities, they created their own schools and studied with unmatched rigor. In Eastern Europe’s shtetls, Torah and Talmud became textbooks of logic, discipline, and endurance. In Western Europe’s ghettos, creativity and adaptability became survival tools.
Even professions that Jews later came to dominate were not freely chosen. In medieval Europe, moneylending was considered “dirty work” and forbidden to Christians. So kings and nobles forced Jews into the role — and then despised them for it.
Antisemitism did not stop Jewish achievement; it forged it. The very stereotypes Europe now resents about Jewish success were born of the very restrictions Europe itself imposed.
Israel: The Answer to Centuries of Persecution
This long history explains why the State of Israel exists today. Israel is not the product of privilege but the safeguard against persecution. Zionism is, in truth, the most successful act of decolonization in modern history: an ancient people returning to its ancestral homeland after 2,000 years of exile.
While the world applauded national liberation movements from Africa to Asia, it balked when Jews reclaimed their homeland. Critics call it colonization. But Israel is not conquest — it is return. Hebrew, the Jewish language, was born in the Land of Israel. Jewish prayer has always faced Jerusalem, not Paris, not Warsaw, not Berlin.
And let us not forget: when Israel declared independence in 1948, nearly a million Jews were expelled or forced to flee from Arab lands. Their communities — in Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, and Tripoli — vanished almost overnight. They were stripped of citizenship, property, and dignity, and yet received no international refugee agency, no global campaign for a “right of return.” Instead, they rebuilt — in Israel.
October 7: The Reminder
October 7, 2023, tore away any illusions. Hamas did not target soldiers on the battlefield. They slaughtered civilians — babies, grandmothers, festival-goers, Holocaust survivors. They raped, burned, and kidnapped — and proudly broadcast it to the world.
And yet, instead of rallying in solidarity against terror, much of the world turned its anger toward Israel for defending itself.
Now, Europe debates sanctions against the Jewish state, as though survival were a crime. That silence in the face of terror, followed by condemnation of self-defense, tells us everything we need to know.
Resilience in the Face of Pressure
Europe may attempt to pressure, isolate, or punish. But Jewish history has one enduring lesson: every time the world tried to break us, we rebuilt and grew stronger. From the ashes of the Holocaust, Israel was born. From expulsions, ghettos, and pogroms, came scholarship, commerce, and innovation. When Jews were told they would not survive, they endured — and thrived.
Sanctions will not weaken Israel. They will only remind Jews everywhere why Israel’s strength is not optional, but essential.
Never Again as Policy
Israel is not at the mercy of Europe — nor will it ever be again. The State of Israel exists precisely because Jewish history taught us never to rely on Europe’s mercy. “Never Again” is not just a slogan; it is a doctrine of survival backed by F-16s, Iron Dome, and the will of a people who refuse to be victims again.
Europe may talk of punishment. But the existence of Israel itself is the ultimate proof that Jewish resilience is eternal. Every attempt to weaken us has only made us stronger. Every effort to destroy us has only reminded us who we are.
Israel stands today not in defiance of history, but because of it. And no sanctions — not from Denmark, not from Brussels, not from anywhere — will ever change that.
Europe can threaten to sanction Israel, but history has already sanctioned Europe
"עם ישראל חי"