To understand what motivates the hatred toward Israel and anti-Semitism among left-wing "progressives," we must understand the threat posed by the Jewish state on the identity of those elites in Europe.
The origin of this hatred can be traced to three features that have come to define Israel (in their minds): Israel's constant need for strength, its disregard to the "international community" and its association with colonialism and apartheid.
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Those three things are at odds with the very core of the progressive Left, which comprises the following values: the guilty feelings over colonialism, the disavowal of force, and a belief in the "international community." The anti-Semitic undercurrents are just background noise to those three reasons.
The first two features of the Jewish state, are indeed true: Israel needs strength and does not take its marching orders from the international community. The third accusation against Israel – that it is part of a colonialist project – is divorced from reality and is designed to excuse the hatred and give credence to Europe's role.
It is true that Israel needs to use force to defend itself and deter its enemies. Had it not adopted this posture, Saddam Hussein and Bashar Assad, adored by the Palestinian masses, would have slaughtered thousands of Israelis, the Jewish state's economy would have been in tatters and the entire country would have been ablaze.
In fact, without Israel's strong deterrence and its successful use of decisive force during hostilities, there would have never been peace treaties that defused part of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Every Israeli citizen and every government in Israel understand this, but the European Left cannot come to terms with it and reconcile it with its hallucinations. This is the very same Left that enjoyed decades of peace primarily because of American resolve and deterrence.
Those who preach against the very America that provides for their security and freedom are the same people who lecture Israel on how it should use "limited force" against barbaric enemies that are slaughtering their own people.
Israel's primordial sin, according to progressives, is in its definition as a Jewish state and its close ties with the US. The disregard Israel has toward international organizations that are obsessively anti-Israel only makes this "sin" worse.
Had Israel heeded their advice, Israel would have had to commit suicide because they consider its self-defense as fascism and its Jewish character as racist.
The claim that Israel is a colonialist and apartheid regime could not be farther from the truth. It is designed to promote the Jewish state's delegitimization and compensate for the guilty feelings Europeans have over their own colonialist past and early support for Jewish statehood.
The clash between Israel and the progressive Left is a structural one. Israel's success has threatened the latter's very core.
It "brutal" approach and successful wars against its enemies and terrorists upended the notion that they should be appeased. And Israel's thriving economy has pulled the rug from under those who have tried incessantly to boycott and marginalize Israel.
Likewise, it's successful diplomatic stature despite the ongoing condemnations from international bodies, and its ties with Arab states, have shown the European Left to be feckless and pathetic.
Thus, it is clear why the Left in Europe is angry at us, for we have proved it wrong time and again. But what is sad is the anti-Semitic undertones alongside this anger.
In fact, the anti-Semitic attacks on the supposed evil of the Jewish state help those elites explain to themselves and others why Israel has succeeded and defied gravity.
Israel is strong enough to ignore those anti-Semitic attacks. European society should worry though.
