Israel is obsessively demonized and singled out for alleged human rights violations by global media outlets and international forums. Concurrently, there is a burgeoning sentiment that denies the Jewish nation’s right to self-determination and statehood.
The underlying causes of this hostility toward the Jewish state are multifaceted, deeply rooted, and mutually reinforcing.
First, Israel’s reality is characterized by a state of protracted conflict. Over the past three years, the nation has faced persistent aggression from terror armies along its northern and southern borders, while Iran has launched missile strikes against Israeli population centers – explicitly articulating its objective to eliminate the Jewish state.
As with all wars, Israel’s defensive counteroffensives generate distressing imagery that shapes public perception. Despite a shifting global security landscape marked by rising threats from Russia and China and a subsequent push for rearmament, the use of military force remains unpopular across much of the world.
Furthermore, the complexities and destructive consequences of modern warfare in densely populated civilian areas remain widely misunderstood.
Consequently, Israel has been unjustly accused of orchestrating starvation in Gaza and committing genocide, overriding the reality of its military’s unprecedented operational efforts to mitigate collateral damage and to facilitate the delivery of vast quantities of humanitarian aid – much of which was subsequently misappropriated by Hamas.
Second, the pervasive animosity directed at the Jewish state possesses a profound theological foundation. Within Christianity and Islam – the world’s two largest religions, which collectively encompass over half of the global population – doctrines are predicated on the Jewish rejection of their respective paths to salvation. These theological frameworks have generated centuries of overt antisemitism.
While it is certain that not all Christians and Muslims harbor antisemitic views, their respective cultural traditions remain permeated by these historical motifs.
In Christianity, the concept of deicide aligns with the historical condemnation of the Jewish rejection of Jesus as the savior.
Similarly, Islamic tradition critiqued the Jewish refusal to recognize Muhammad as a prophet. Although Jews were classified as “People of the Book” rather than infidels, they were nonetheless relegated to the subordinated status of dhimmitude, rendering them second-class citizens within Muslim-majority societies.
While various Christian bodies have made modern efforts to reform internal attitudes toward Judaism, their long-term efficacy remains ambiguous.
Conversely, comparable theological revisions in Islam are almost nonexistent. Furthermore, the modern resurgence of radical Islamism has fortified anti-Jewish sentiments among Muslims, stressing the view that Jewish statehood is a religious sacrilege.
Third, Israel’s unique historical narrative elicits significant skepticism among non-Jews. Zionism, the Jewish national movement, represents an unusual trajectory wherein an ancient people, expelled from its ancestral land, returned to reestablish its state after a two-millennium Diaspora. When juxtaposed against the contemporary Palestinian narrative, the Zionist history frequently fails to persuade observers who lack historical depth. Proponents of Zionism are often forced to explain the complex history of the region, including the fact that a substantial proportion of the Arab population in Palestine arrived via migration only during the 19th century.
Moreover, global public opinion remains largely oblivious to the historical record of Palestinian Arab leadership consistently rejecting all suggested territorial compromises, responding instead with enduring violence.
Justifying Israel’s legitimacy requires a historical literacy that the general public often lacks. Today, Israel finds itself entangled in a tragic conflict with a very hostile population often perceived by outsiders as indigenous victims of oppression.
This dynamic is exacerbated by a postcolonial guilt within parts of the West, which is subsequently projected onto the Arab-Israeli conflict; the establishment of Israel is viewed through a colonialist prism, positing that Western imperial powers implanted a Jewish polity in the Levant to secure regional hegemony.
This perspective has been widely adopted across the Muslim world, reinforcing existing religious hostility and the belief that Israel is a transient, modern version of the Crusader state, destined for collapse.
Fourth, Western societies increasingly exhibit post-nationalist attitudes that are critical of nationalist particularism. This trend is particularly evident among younger Europeans, who see themselves primarily as Europeans rather than citizens of a specific nation-state. This transnational preference is sustained by multicultural ideologies that tend to obscure national identities.
A distinctly nationalist project
In stark contrast to this trend, Israel remains a distinctly nationalist project. Within progressive and leftist intellectual circles, nationalism has been increasingly delegitimized, often conflated with jingoism and reactionary conservatism.
Furthermore, certain critics seek to reduce Jewish identity strictly to a religious category, thereby denying the validity of its national manifestation.
Fifth, the radical Left, which has long maintained hostility toward Zionism, has gained significant global influence.
This ideological shift is visible within European socialist and social-democratic parties; for instance, the Labour Party in the United Kingdom has adopted anti-Israel policy positions.
In the United States, the administration of president Barack Obama served as an ideological precursor to the ascendance of the progressive wing within the Democratic Party, a faction increasingly critical of Israeli policies compared to traditional elements of the American political mainstream.
This broader polarization of domestic politics across Western nations has empowered political extremes on both sides, each harboring distinct forms of animosity toward Israel.
Sixth, there is a consolidation of the “red-green” alliance – an alignment between the political Left and Islamist factions. This alliance has emerged as a potent political force, particularly in Western Europe, where expanding Muslim minorities exert growing electoral and political influence.
Because these factions oppose the global projection of American power and values, their hostility is naturally extended to Israel, which is correctly identified as a staunch American ally.
Furthermore, widespread international disapproval of political figures such as US President Donald Trump has further degraded Israel’s diplomatic image by association.
Seventh, the collective memory of the Holocaust is experiencing a natural generational decline. The historical sentiments of guilt and sympathy regarding Jewish suffering are weaker today than in the immediate postwar era, leaving public consciousness vulnerable to deeply entrenched anti-Jewish biases.
Regrettably, these historical sympathies are occasionally replaced by a perverted rhetoric that frames Palestinians as victims of Nazi-like Israeli actions.
The Palestinians have conducted public diplomacy campaigns designed to institutionalize a narrative of victimhood.
This global effort to cultivate hostility toward Israel has been heavily subsidized by Arab states – most notably Qatar.
Eighth, opponents of Israeli policy frequently cite domestic Israeli critiques. Furthermore, Diaspora organizations such as “Jews for Justice in Palestine” and advocacy groups like J Street in the United States align themselves with campaigns critical of Israeli policy.
Conversely, on the opposite end of the ideological spectrum, the controversial rhetoric and positions of radical right-wing Israeli factions, with a representation within the present Israeli government, provide external critics with ready pretexts to erode the legitimacy of the state.
In conclusion, hostility toward Israel is a pervasive global phenomenon that mirrors the historical permanence of antisemitism. Consequently, shifts in Israeli policies can alter this reality only marginally.
While navigating an exceedingly difficult diplomatic landscape, Israeli public diplomacy must remain committed to projecting the state as a rational and moral actor amid the geopolitical instability affecting portions of both the Middle East and the West.
Ultimately, strategic messaging must consistently emphasize that Israel’s existential struggle serves the national security and civilizational interests of the Western world.
The writer, a professor emeritus in political studies at Bar-Ilan University, is the founder and senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.