(JNS) When Washington designated three branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations this week, the announcement travelled far beyond the Middle East.

For Israeli policymakers and Jewish communities across Europe, it supported a long-standing concern. Namely, that much of the continent remains unable or unwilling to confront extreme Islamist movements that operate not through explicit violence, but through the subtle infiltration of its institutions.

The Americans have designated the Lebanese branch of the Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and labelled its Jordanian and Egyptian branches as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

This reflects a focus on ideological infrastructure rather than isolated physical attacks that can be easily identified as such, blurring the line between what is considered violence and an overall threat to the harmony and safety of a country.

This focus has been slower to take hold in Europe, where Brotherhood-linked organizations often function legally as charities, advocacy groups, or religious associations.

And a growing Muslim population across the continent has only increased pressure on European policymakers wary of upsetting an increasingly influential voting bloc.

Israel has been watching this development closely, especially in recent years following the Hamas attack on Israel and the global response to the ensuing war.

For years, Israeli security officials and analysts have warned European counterparts that Hamas cannot be understood in isolation, but must be viewed in the broader Muslim Brotherhood ecosystem that sustains it, most notably with support from nations like Iran and Qatar.

While Israel has confronted this reality militarily, Europe has largely approached the issue as a matter of integration, social cohesion and civil liberties.

That approach is now, of course, under strain.

Europe’s Muslim Brotherhood problem 

Across the United Kingdom, France and Germany, governments are reassessing the presence of Islamist networks that do not always openly call for violence, but promote illiberal values and cultivate environments in which antisemitism or anti-Western sentiments thrive.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron’s government attempted to crack down on “Islamist separatism,” citing concerns about parallel societies and radicalization. German authorities have similarly increased surveillance of Brotherhood-linked groups, describing them as long-term threats to democratic order.

In the United Kingdom, parliamentary inquiries have repeatedly examined (but stopped short of banning) Brotherhood-affiliated organizations. Even today, European governments remain sensitive to accusations of targeting Muslim communities or infringing on religious freedom. And since the Brotherhood operates in the gray zone between faith, politics and activism, it makes some of this pushback risky for ambitious politicians.

The Jews left behind 

For Jewish communities in the United Kingdom and across Europe, the consequences of inaction are tangible.

Antisemitism linked to Islamist ideology has become a defining feature of Europe’s post-Oct. 7 environment. Pro-Hamas demonstrations, calls for Israel’s destruction and harassment of Jewish institutions have forced many governments to confront uncomfortable questions about the ideological currents flowing through their cities.

Far-right antisemitism indeed remains a threat, but Jewish leaders have been pointing to Islamist and far-left spaces as sources of hostility that are often minimized by the media or other institutions.

Jewish UK MP Damien Egan had a visit to a school within his constituency cancelled after a local pro-Palestinian group protested his presence due to his support for Israel—one of several recent incidents highlighting tensions facing Jewish public figures.

“The [American] administration has taken an enormous step to confront the threat that the Muslim Brotherhood poses around the world,” said Charles Asher Small, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), which has briefed Western policymakers on the Muslim Brotherhood’s global strategy. The movement, he argued, seeks to embed itself within democratic systems, gradually reshaping norms and discourse from within.

That strategy, described as “strategic entryism,” has particular resonance in Europe, where state support for religious and civic institutions can inadvertently provide legitimacy and resources to groups with Islamist agendas.

Israel has cautioned that such networks do not need to carry out physical attacks to weaken democratic societies or normalize antisemitic narratives. And President Donald Trump’s designation may shine a brighter light on those warnings.

The American (and Israeli) way

By targeting Brotherhood branches for their support of Hamas rather than direct violence, Washington has finally signaled a willingness to treat ideological enablement as a security concern.

That framing aligns more closely with Israel’s threat assessments, which emphasize systems over symptoms.

It also mirrors how Israel views other ideological adversaries. Iran’s regional strategy, for example, relies less on confrontation with Israel than on cultivating proxies, institutions and narratives that outlive leaders or governments.

In Europe, the Brotherhood represents a different (but no less durable) challenge—a Chinese-style long game that relies on patience rather than provocation.

The implications for Europe are significant. As antisemitism rises and Jewish communities reassess their future on the continent, governments face mounting pressure to demonstrate that democratic tolerance does not extend to movements that undermine democratic values themselves.

So far, they are not meeting that moment.

For Israel, the issue is more about security than solidarity. Europe’s internal debates over political Islam shape everything from diplomatic alignments to counterterrorism cooperation.

A Europe that underestimates ideological extremism is, in Israel’s view, a Europe less prepared to confront the forces destabilizing the Middle East.

This is not to say the Muslim Brotherhood is violent in every instance. But the continent must confront whether its democratic societies can afford to ignore movements whose power lies not in what they destroy, but in what they intercept and quietly reshape over time.

Israel learned those rules early. The United States has now begun to act on them. Europe, inevitably, may soon have to decide whether it wants to keep playing… or continue pretending the game is not being played at all.

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