European hostility to Israel stems from its resemblance to Europe’s colonial past

Evidence

In the United States the association between Israel and the West is generally positive and framed in terms of an alliance against fundamentalist Muslim terror, whereas the deep-seated hostility to Israel in much of Europe stems precisely from its resemblance to Europe’s bygone colonial regimes, which evoke painful sensations of shame mixed with nostalgia. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 147

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to broader literature on how colonial guilt and nostalgia shape postcolonial perceptions of successor states — echoes of Edward Said’s framework of orientalism persisting in European self-identity. — connects to: Running against historical decolonization made Israeli settler-colonialism uniquely visible — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 473
• DEEPTHINKING: Compresses a counterintuitive geopolitical asymmetry — the same traits that endear Israel to America produce revulsion in Europe — into a single mechanism of shame-nostalgia over colonial legacy.