Anti-Israel protesters demonstrate in front of the Central Bank of Ireland against the sale of Israeli bonds throughout the EU, in Dublin, Ireland, May 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Israel has moved the process of securing EU approval for its diaspora bond prospectus to Luxembourg from Ireland amid increasing opposition in Dublin to its central bank’s role in approving the program on behalf of the European Union.

Irish lawmakers and anti-Israel campaign groups have called on the central bank to stop facilitating the sale of the bonds over the last year due to Israel‘s near two-year military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.

Israel‘s diaspora bonds are relatively small and sold mainly in Jewish communities around the world to help supplement the state’s bond sales that finance its budget deficit that has risen due to the war. Israel launched a diaspora bond campaign in October 2023 to raise money amid the conflict.

Non-EU countries must choose one EU member state to apply to for approval of a prospectus where securities are traded in the EU and Ireland‘s central bank had been asked to approve Israel‘s diaspora bond program each year since 2021.

A joint committee of Irish lawmakers recommended in August that the government seek to amend EU regulations so as to allow each individual European central bank to refuse to act as the competent authority for such bond prospectuses.

Protesters have also demonstrated outside the central bank’s offices.

Ireland has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel on the international stage since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, leading the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin.

The Irish central bank had consistently said it is legally obliged to approve any prospectus once the relevant conditions are met.

In a letter to a lawmaker published by the central bank, Governor Gabriel Makhlouf said the approval for Israel‘s program would be transferred to Luxembourg upon the expiry of the prior year’s prospectus on Monday.

The new prospectus published on the website of Israel Bonds, the country’s borrowing vehicle for diaspora bonds, said its program for the next year had been approved by Luxembourg.

Israel‘s finance ministry did not immediately comment on the reasons for moving its EU bond prospectus approval.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, Sept. 1, 2025. Photo: Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

UN Security Council permanent members China and Russia backed Iran on Monday in rejecting a move by European countries to reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran loosened a decade ago under a nuclear agreement.

A letter signed by the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian foreign ministers said a move by Britain, France, and Germany to automatically restore the sanctions under a so-called “snapback mechanism” was “legally and procedurally flawed.”

China and Russia were signatories to Iran‘s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, along with the three European countries, known as the E3. US President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in his first term in 2018.

The Europeans launched the “snapback mechanism” last week, accusing Iran of violating the deal, which had provided relief from international financial sanctions in return for curbs to Iran‘s nuclear program.

The letter published by Iran‘s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X on Monday said that the course taken by Britain, France, and Germany “abuses the authority and functions of the UN Security Council.”

Iran has long since broken through the limits on uranium production set under the 2015 deal, arguing that it is justified in doing so as a consequence of Washington having pulled out of the agreement. The deal expires in October this year, and the snapback mechanism would allow sanctions that were lifted under it to take effect again.

Iran and the E3 held talks aimed at a new nuclear agreement after Israel and the US bombed Iran‘s nuclear installations in mid-June. But the E3 deemed that talks in Geneva last week did not yield sufficient signals of readiness for a new deal from Iran.

“Our joint letter with my colleagues, the foreign ministers of China and Russia, signed in Tianjin, reflects the firm position that the European attempt to invoke snapback is legally baseless and politically destructive,” Iran‘s foreign minister said in his post on X.

A British bulldog toy and other souvenirs are pictured at a souvenir store, near Parliament Square, on ‘Brexit Day,’ in London, Jan. 31, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Simon Dawson.

In 1968, Enoch Powell — a British politician and writer — was attacked when he criticized immigration to Britain by large numbers of former members of the British Empire. At that time, I was convinced that he was off his rocker, largely because of the inflammatory language he used.

The Conservative Party expelled Powell and excoriated him for being a racist fanatic. At that time between 70 and 80% of the British population agreed with him. Anti-immigration in Powell’s day was directed at the black West Indians. But they in fact shared so much of the British cultural and religious values. Their only fight was racial prejudice — not imposing blasphemy laws or outlawing whatever they considered offensive speech.

In the 1970s, I was in the cabinet of Chief Rabbi Lord Jakobovits, who was responsible for Interfaith Affairs, and I must say I enjoyed very cordial relationships both with Christian, Hindu, and Muslim leaders. We hoped to work together, to support each other for a tolerant society.

Since then, Britain and Europe have changed beyond all recognition. In some ways, this has been very healthy. The old imperial white entitled middle and upper classes have seen the erosion of their grip on society. In its place, a much fairer and less prejudiced world emerged. But as with all cycles, there are reactions and have been major problems.

In Europe as in America, the cultural, academic, and human rights progressives have inexorably swung towards the left-wing neo-Marxist ideology that allows for any alliance, even with other groups with incompatible values, so long as it leads to power.

Like Stalin’s pact with Hitler, they have allied themselves with jihadi Islam and against Israel. The irrational theories of a universal, capitalist oppression lump everyone together regardless of history or nuance. Anyone perceived to be or have been suffering — regardless of the cause or the history or their wealth and status — is a victim. Everyone else is an oppressor.

This has resulted in a completely different ethos that is leading countries on a downward spiral of social and cultural conflict that is tearing apart societies and helping the rise of the only apparent alternative — fascism.

Welfare and health systems everywhere are in crisis. Public subsidies have made it almost unnecessary for so many people to find work. And yet, advanced countries desperately need new blood, to fill jobs — which will only increase as birth rates decline.

Unless the disparity is addressed, humanely, the result will be disastrous. Already there are no-go areas in the Western world, living according to different ethnic values that conflict with the dominant culture — and yet there is no serious effort to integrate them.

The UK Government’s own website explains, in straightforward terms, that anyone, including foreigners, can easily get subsidies — and can also help their families and friends.

We have ignored the explosive reality that is now changing Western civilization. Our lay and religious leadership has wanted to curry favor with governments for their own careers and status, and preached an apologetic gospel of naivete — a dream of sharing homes and co-operating and working together, that ignored an ideology of domination that came with many who have been preaching far-left and jihadi doctrines.

Liberal Jewish organizations on both sides of the Atlantic were so blinded by showing how liberal they were and only empowered enemies of Western values. Charity is important of course, but not at the expense of standing up for principles and the rights of everyone.

Meanwhile the press, the Internet, social media, and influencers have all but corrupted the minds of billions under our noses — and with our encouragement, they have all but erased the art of honest reporting, and reasonable, objective, and civilized discourse.

Too often, we have been told that Israel and the Jews are to blame, as if this disease, this culture war, were not endemic to our societies. We have allowed imported ideologies funded by rich states and enemies of freedom to spread, because we were overconfident and took our eyes off the ball.

Are we witnessing the death of Western culture and civilization? I pray not.

The author is a rabbi and writer, based in New York.