Anyone seeking a break from Israel coverage by traveling to Europe should think again—unless they plan to escape civilization entirely. In hotels across the continent, wherever there’s a television screen, Israel’s story follows. Much of the global media seems more interested in whether there will be a Gaza ceasefire than in issues closer to home.
Take France 24, for example. One might expect a French network to focus on developments in France or the European Union. Yet its news priorities suggest otherwise. Viewers are shown relentless coverage of Gaza, speculation about Israeli politics, and analysis of how figures like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will react to future developments.
Questions about the stability of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government or whether the ultra-Orthodox will be drafted into the IDF dominate broadcasts.
This obsessive attention is not born of admiration for the Jewish people as the “People of the Book” or appreciation for their historical contributions. Rather, the media’s focus on Israel today often comes with a sharp edge: endless images of destruction, wounded children, and interviews with Gazans insisting that targeted buildings housed only civilians—not terrorists or weapons caches.
While Yemen, Sudan, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Tibet barely register in European media, Gaza coverage is constant—night after night, day after day.
The making of a 'martyr'
This past weekend, one more figure was added to this grim narrative. Before the usual footage of destruction aired, viewers were introduced to Francesca Albanese, an “independent observer” working with the UN, whose entry into the United States was recently barred and assets frozen at the order of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Albanese, an Italian national, has repeatedly accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and recently called for investigations into France, Italy, and Greece for allowing Netanyahu’s plane to fly through their airspace, thereby, in her words, aiding a “fugitive” evade arrest by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Her story was presented with a striking lack of scrutiny. European media highlighted Albanese’s supposed independence and impartiality, portraying her as a victim of US and Israeli intolerance.
No effort was made to report her background: a former far-left activist who failed to win election to parliament and who, during her UN tenure, accepted an improper $20,000 payment from Hamas-affiliated groups to finance trips to New Zealand and Australia just weeks after the October 7 massacre.
Even more telling, one Australian organization that hosted Albanese later released a video of her reading aloud the will of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, praising its poetic quality and expressing her emotional connection to it.
Europe’s enduring fixation
The disproportionate media focus on Israel reflects more than contemporary politics. It is rooted in a complex, centuries-old relationship between Europe and the Jews: a minority that was simultaneously admired, envied, and persecuted.
The Holocaust left a double legacy: guilt alongside an unresolved impulse to demand exceptional moral standards from the Jewish state, standards not applied to any other nation.
For centuries, Jews were regarded as an alien, antagonistic minority. Even today, for some, Jewish sovereignty appears unnatural. This perception has been amplified by anti-colonial rhetoric that casts Zionism as a European colonial project, ignoring its indigenous roots.
The imbalance is stark. Israel, with a population of around 10 million, routinely receives more media coverage than countries like Brazil (214 million), Nigeria (230 million), or Indonesia (270 million). The BBC devotes more time to Israel than to China or India, two countries that are reshaping the global order.
Research from CAMERA has shown that during Gaza conflicts, news articles about Israel outnumber reports on conflicts that have killed tens of thousands in Africa and Asia by a ratio of four to one.
The phrase “Jews are news,” coined in the early 20th century, endures because it captures a deeper reality: stories about Jews attract attention, for better or worse. The drama of Jewish history, a small nation with outsized influence, sudden reversals, and improbable achievements, continues to fascinate.
In this sense, Israel serves as a magnifying glass through which the West examines its own morality, identity, and post-colonial anxieties. Yet this fascination remains intertwined with an older obsession: one in which Jewish sovereignty itself is a source of discomfort for many Europeans, burdened by guilt, religious unease, and a difficulty in accepting a state rooted in Biblical tradition.
Above all, there is a struggle to come to terms with how a people long cast as history’s victims have built a state of formidable military, technological, and economic strength—a country to which the world pays close attention.
This tension, between the image of the Jew as perpetual victim and the reality of a powerful, modern Jewish state, lies at the heart of the current obsession. When Europe watched in May 1945 as the remnants of European Jewry were blocked by Britain from reaching Israel, few would have imagined that a Jewish state would arise just three years later.
In May 1967, many believed that the Zionist project was nearing its end as then-Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser massed five armored divisions in the Sinai Peninsula and prepared for war alongside Syria and Jordan. Yet after six days, Israel controlled Sinai, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights.
The sympathy and solidarity that had briefly blossomed in Europe evaporated. As the dust settled, many felt they could return to an old habit: hostility toward the Jews.
Israel’s very success unsettles the historical narrative. The extraordinary leap from near destruction to sovereignty and strength makes Israel and the Jewish people difficult for Europe to categorize. This discomfort ensures that even far from home, Israelis will continue to find themselves under Europe’s scrutinizing gaze.
The author is the president of the Likud Party Tribunal.