The European Union voted to sanction Israeli settlers, a move that the staunch opposition of former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had previously stymied. His ouster has paved the way for the sanctions vote to succeed.

The bloc also voted to sanction Hamas leaders.

“It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. “Extremism and violence carry consequences.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot could not contain his glee.

“It’s done!” he gloated in a post on X. “The European Union is sanctioning today the main Israeli organizations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonization of the West Bank, as well as their leaders. These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay.”

“It is sanctioning the main leaders of Hamas, responsible for the worst antisemitic massacre in our history since the Shoah during which 51 French people lost their lives, a terrorist movement that must imperatively be disarmed and excluded from any participation in the future of Palestine,” he added.

Helen McEntee, Ireland’s foreign minister, speaking to reporters before the vote, also voiced her full-throated support for sanctions against Israeli settlers.

Responding to backlash that sanctioning both settlers and Hamas terrorists creates a moral equivalence, an EU official told an Israeli news outlet that was not the case, explaining that some EU members refused to vote to sanction Israeli settlers unless they also sanctioned Hamas terrorists.

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, was furious.

“Israel firmly rejects the decision to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and organizations,” he fumed on X. “The European Union has chosen, in an arbitrary and political manner, to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and entities because of their political views and without any basis.”

“Equally outrageous is the unacceptable comparison the European Union has chosen to make between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists,” he added. “This is a completely distorted moral equivalence.”

“The attempt to impose political views through sanctions is unacceptable and will not succeed,” he concluded.