Europa y los judíos

Muy interesante artículo en The Economist sobre el por qué de las diferentes actitudes hacia Israel y los judíos de Europa y de EEUU. No se pierdan el análisis de la historia de la relación entre Israel y la izquierda en Europa:

Countries that were most culpable in the Holocaust tend to be stauncher supporters of Israel—especially Germany. What was then West Germany became the main financial backer of the new Jewish state six decades ago, with a first payment of $865m in 1952. Aid continued throughout the 1960s, long before America became Israel's main source of outside support. This week's decision to commit German troops to the peacekeeping force in Lebanon also reflects past guilt.

If the right (and the Germans) are doing penance, the left, which now controls many of Europe's chanceries, and certainly much of its media, feels a sense of betrayal—which is why many now attack Israel with all the zeal of the convert. Until the 1960s European socialists championed the cause of the Jews and Israel. Mid-century socialists saw anti-Semitism and fascism as products of the right, so they became instinctively pro-Israel. In the 1950s it was left-wing French governments that provided Israel with nuclear power and a modern air force.

This changed with the six-day war in 1967, when Israel launched a pre-emptive strike to defeat the Jordanian, Egyptian and Syrian forces that seemed about to invade. It was a stunning victory, but it led to the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and Sinai. To European socialists, who had rallied to the underdog Israel in 1967, the Palestinians were now the oppressed and displaced. Israel came to be seen as a neo-colonial regional superpower, not the plucky survivor of the Holocaust keeping powerful neighbours at bay.

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