The conflict between Israel and Hamas following the latter’s 7 October 2023 terror attack has caused uproar and reaction in Europe. Antisemitism is clearly on the rise particularly among left-wing progressives, while a strong pro-Israel force is defending the Jewish state and fighting the recent surge of antisemitism.
The conflict between Jews and Muslims is indeed steeped in antisemitism; however, in Europe, this term is now used to hide a deeper culture war. On the one hand, it simply conceals a more fundamental anti-Western cultural revolution, and on the other it allows for a newfound national and European courage to mask itself as a progressive crusade against a new Holocaust.
Thus, Israel, for each side, embodies either the confident West or the colonial oppressor. Europe is simply dealing with its own cultural issues by projecting them on the current conflict in the Middle East. This makes for an unsustainable situation as it highlights the mental acrobatics still needed to simply stand up for European values.
Antisemitism as Anti-Western Sentiment
The main reason for the politcization of the conflict between Israel and Hamas is therefore relatively straight forward: it reflects the culture war taking place in Europe and the West overall. The left-wing progressives’ embracing of Palestine and by extension Hamas coupled with an equally keen rejection of Israel should not primarily be seen as an outburst of antisemitism, but of anti-Western sentiment. That is, Israel is not being opposed because it is a Jewish state, but rather because it is a Western one. In a recent talk titled “The Left’s Long War on Israel,” social scientist Nikos Sotirakopoulos stated that the Left would probably be just as hostile to Israel if it were a Christian state. Even if one disagrees with his assessment, this thought experiment highlights a certain truth, namely that left-wing antisemitism is anti-Western at its core.
This anti-Western sentiment springs from an alliance between Palestinians and Western left-wingers, progressives, academics, and journalists which goes back decades, and is grounded in the belief that the Palestinian fight against Israel is part of the same ‘anti-colonial,’ ‘anti-racist,’ and ‘anti-imperialist’ struggle that the Left are fighting against Western cultural expressions at home.
This is clearly visible in my native Finland, where all the usual suspects on the Left—the local variations of BLM, Extinction Rebellion, and Antifa—have emerged to protest Israel. Even the “student movement against welfare cuts” has—naturally—joined in to “stop the genocide.” All of the groups and activists who have spent the past months protesting the new Finnish right-wing government are now on the streets protesting Israel. Again, they see the Palestinian struggle against Israel as part of the same ‘anti-colonial,’ ‘anti-racist,’ and ‘anti-fascist’ fight that they as activists are conducting against ‘right-wing extremism’ at home. We have reached a point where left-wing progressive forces and their enablers now see more reason to protest a liberal Western government than a Muslim terrorist organization.
The Unholy Alliance of Decolonization
The current anti-Israel protests ought therefore to be seen as a fundamental anti-European exercise directed at all the ills from which the West supposedly suffers: racism, nationalism, colonialism, and right-wing extremism, now embodied by Israel in its ‘genocide’ of ‘oppressed’ Muslims. The protests and revolts taking place display a lot of commonalities with the BLM-riots in the U.S. during the summer of 2020. Then, as now, the problem was both ‘colonialism’ and law enforcement with the solution being ‘decolonization’ and ‘defunding’ of those who uphold order (the police)—now seen in calls for ‘armistice.’ In the minds of cultural revolutionaries, the ‘privilege’ inherent in ‘whiteness’ has now simply been transferred to the Jews. The expression of anger towards the structural racism of the police, supposedly exemplified during George Floyd’s death, turns out to be equally applicable to the supposed racism of Israeli colonialism in Gaza.
Over the past decade, calls for ‘decolonization’ of education, museums, government, urban spaces, art, and entertainment have become frequent, but it is increasingly clear that decolonization can also be mobilized as direct violence against nations. As American journalist Najma Sharif put it on X (formerly Twitter) after the Hamas terrorist attack: “what did y’all think decolonization meant? vibes? papers? essays? losers.” Such remarks put the decolonization efforts by our own homegrown cultural revolutionaries in a new light, and illustrate how and why they choose to ally themselves with anti-Western forces, foreign belief-systems, and politicians who call for mass-immigration.
Hamas is clearly aware of this connection and uses it well for propaganda purposes. In a 2021 interview, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar stated that Israel’s conduct towards the Palestinians was “the same type of racism that killed George Floyd.” It mirrors a statement made by Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif the year before. Zarif criticized French president Emmanuel Macron for fuelling extremism, stating that “Muslims are the primary victims of the ‘cult of hatred’—empowered by colonial regimes.” This was after a teacher in France had been beheaded by an Islamist for showing cartoons of Muhammad, and Macron had defended the teacher’s right to freedom of speech.
Europeanism Hiding Behind Left-Wing Tropes
In all of this, a new resistance is brewing—primarily in the name of fighting antisemitism. However, as much as the real problem on the left of the political spectrum isn’t just antisemitism, the real goal on the right isn’t simply combating it.
Instead, Israel, much like Ukraine, now functions as a proxy for a newfound European spirit that is still shrouded in a veil of diversion. As it is still taboo to criticize the Left’s ongoing attack on European culture, these two nations are now serving as proxies for European national attachment. Even centrists and progressives can thus reveal their true feelings, as they are now able to transform what would otherwise be regarded as an intolerant culture war into a progressive struggle against antisemitism.
Unsurprisingly, Germany is at the forefront of this nationalism-by-proxy phenomenon, as any piety towards Germany has been unthinkable in the country for at least half a century. In line with this reasoning, CDU leader Friedrich Merz recently stated that immigrants to Germany can only become citizens if they acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, and that they otherwise have no place in Germany. He then added that guaranteeing the security of Israel is the Staatsräson—the founding principle—of Germany.
Apparently, becoming German is not about swearing allegiance to Germany, but instead about supporting another nation that is capable of embodying some notion of the ‘West,’ of which Germany is also a part. At the same time, Israel is a reminder of the worst crimes of Europe, and of Germany in particular, thus making sure that this newfound patriotism is of the right anti-fascist kind. Israel is the creation, outpost, and victim of the West, and therefore the perfect vessel for patriotism by proxy. Championing a culturally, socially, or ethnically cohesive nation state is still impossible in Europe; championing a proxy in the Middle East is the next best thing.
The passionate support for Israel is paired with constant references to the Nazis and slogans like “never again is now.” These are clear symptoms of European defeatism, as they allow the more progressive participants to avoid seeing the struggle through a ‘problematic’ Eurocentric lens, but rather as a continuation of an older struggle against something clearly Western and right-wing. ‘Last time it was the Nazis, now it is Hamas!’—or so the rationalization goes.
Just as the Left today conducts its struggles through ‘anti-ideologies,’ the current rhetoric of ‘anti-antisemitism’ illustrates how even the ‘Right’ has adopted the tactics and the mental space of the Left by itself adopting anti-fascist tropes. Part of this might be polemical—i.e., it is now possible to illustrate the threat to Europe and to criticize Islam by projecting the problem onto the relationship between Israel and Hamas, and thereby avoid being branded far-right. Indeed, the tables are now turned, so that opponents to the ‘right-wing’ view risk being branded Nazis by the Right—that old “the Left are the real Nazis” cliché.
Confidence by Proxy Does Not Win Any Wars
This all goes to show how unpredictable history is and how quickly constellations change. The Left is now forced to pick the side of Hamas, not because they really hate Jews or care about Palestinians, but because they need to double down on their own beliefs and avoid giving in to the critique of their political foes by admitting that the multicultural project in Europe has failed completely. Nor do they wish to admit that the relations between Israel and Gaza presage the future of Europeans and Muslims in Europe.
Left-wing progressives are happy to reinforce the link between what they see as Jewish imperialism and European rightism, in the same way that the Right—instead of defending Europeanism and nationhood—considers it expedient to portray their cause as a fight against antisemitism. For example, it is quite clear that the march against antisemitism in London on Sunday was as much a march for Britain as it was for Israel, with Union Jacks flying and “God Save the King” echoing over the crowds. As self-described conservative Chris Rose put it on X, the event was “a complete contrast to the anti-West hate marches with people who sympathise with our enemies.” Still, organizing such marches without the pretext of protesting antisemitism would be quite taboo.
It may seem tragically poetic that it is in the conflict between Israel and Hamas that an awakening of Europe might occur. However, in the end, confidence by proxy is no confidence at all. At best, it is a mere beginning. But a beginning of what? Clearly Europeans are now waking up to the fact that mass immigration isn’t leading to a multicultural utopia, and that in the face of incontrovertible evidence there are still well-established forces in Europe unwilling to roll back their destructive policies. These forces will, to the bitter end and at whatever cost, see right-wing populism, Jewish imperialism, and European ‘whiteness’ as the real threats, and they will ally with any anti-Western group in their anti-colonial struggle.
Those who care about the future of Europe and their own nations are therefore correct to defend Israel, but that will not be enough. Europeans need to shake off their feelings of demoralization and defeat. They must win over the establishment on their side regardless of the situation in the Middle East, and they must openly declare that their cause is ultimately not about the fate of Israel, but the fate of Europe. In the end, the rhetoric of anti-antisemitism cannot prove sufficient to the challenges at hand.
