Drawing on the ideas of the French philosopher Pierre Manent, Richard Reinsch II examines why the Jewish state’s battle for survival has provoked such extreme, even unhinged, opposition in the West—from the polite, moralistic condemnations of heads of state to the fury of street protesters.
The proud nation-state [of] Israel represents the opposite lesson of what European humanitarians have drawn from the history of Jews in modern times.
Israel has been built by struggle, sacrifice, and pride. The near destruction of the Jewish people by Hitler’s Germany is frequently invoked as the founding impetus for the unifying goals of the European Union.
The villain in the EU’s political narrative of unity is the nation, the so-called springboard of naked aggression and warmongering on behalf of the superiority of a people. Brussels promises to bring this to an end with the promise of endless union and unification of peoples.