BRUSSELS - At universities across Europe, students have protested and occupied campus grounds demanding an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions — following similar protests at US universities.

Last week, students at Trinity College Dublin set up an encampment on campus grounds, with similar occupations launched at universities across the United Kingdom and the European continent.

As Europe awaits an Israeli assault on Rafah that could deliver anything from a massacre to mass ethnic cleansing, it has an important choice to make.

Will it signal that its values and interests are best served by playing Washington's good cop or will it finally use its leverage to end the bloodbath lapping ever closer to its shore?

The EU-Israel association trade agreement enabled a cool €46.8 billion of trade last year. Exports rose for both parties by around 20 percent in 2022.