For two years European streets filled in outrage and public opinion shifted, and yet Europe is no more serious on Israel today than it was when the protests began. At least, that is how it seems from the outside.  

So where does Europe’s paralysis on Israel come from? Has the EU budged at all on Israel? And if so, why is there not greater action? Is it historical guilt, its trade dependency, the unanimity trap, the gravitational pull of Berlin? And who are Europe's elected officials actually trying to represent? 

To find out, Samuel sits down with MEP Catarina Vieira, who sits on the Trade Committee, the Human Rights Committee, and the Delegation for relations with Israel. She holds a vantage point onto the conversations the rest of us don't see. 

They get into why the EU can fund Palestinian life one day and watch it bombed the next, how the shock of October 7th shaped the Parliament's first year of debate, what ELNET – the self-styled "AIPAC of Europe" – actually buys with its trips and galas, why the EU’s association agreement's human-rights clause has gone two years unenforced, and how Germany and the centre right became the elephant in the room. 

Comments, concerns or suggestions: samuel.dempsey@europeancorrespondent.com 

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Recorded early September 8th, before the news broke that the UK, France, and Canada – backed by nine other European governments – announced coordinated bans on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.