Does Israel deserve our support?

But second, and more seriously, behind these Israeli justifications something deeper and more intangible is at play that makes confronting Israel, or even criticising it, so difficult for the West. The much older narrative of Israel’s creation in Palestine, the “return” of its people, and the necessity of maintaining its existence at all costs, owes much to the Bible and the Holocaust. Both of these are deeply embedded in Western memory and consciousness. Without them, it is unlikely that a Jewish state would ever have been established.

The biblical story of the ancient Israelites in the birthplace of Jesus, the Holy Land, ties Jews to Palestine and all Christians from childhood onwards as well. The idea of Jews “returning” to their ancient homeland thus seems natural, familiar and valid. The assumption is that the East European Jews who set up Israel in 1948 were “modern Israelites”, and that nothing has changed in the intervening 2,000 years.

That such an extraordinary view of human history could have taken hold is proof of the power of childhood religious conditioning. Who, in other contexts, would accept that people living in one place now should be replaced by those who claim their ancestors lived there before? Would Australians or Americans accept being replaced by modern Aboriginals, Tasmanians or Native Americans as valid after three centuries, let alone 20?

Modern Jews in Europe are not the people of ancient Judea and hold no title deeds to modern Palestine. Yet that is their claim for being there, and many have uncritically accepted it. Even so, the idea of Israel was not appealing to the majority of Jews before World War II. It was Nazism and the Holocaust that excited worldwide sympathy for Jews and Palestine became the obvious refuge. The European guilt created by Jewish suffering ensured Israel’s establishment and its ardent support ever since.

Given this sympathy and the older biblical association, the idea of Israel is so firmly internalised in the Western mind that to challenge it on any grounds, let alone to defend a bunch of terrorists, which is how the propaganda portrays Palestinians, is unthinkable. Yet, right-thinking people must search their consciences. Can they stand aloof from such human suffering and still support its perpetrator? Morality, justice and the desire for peace compels us all to face these questions and act.