Generational forgetting of atrocity erases the moral brake on foreign policy

Evidence

The existence, for the time being, of a living memory of the war and of organized European anti-Semitism, powerfully supports that strand of European foreign policy that remains supportive of Israel. At the very least, its continued existence holds back European inclinations to oppose Israel. The living memory, however, now is fading. It will have disappeared altogether by the second or third decade of the present century. A coincidence thus is in the making that may have profound implications for Europe’s approach to the Middle East and Israel: a greater (perceived) need to placate Europe’s Muslim communities will coincide with the disappearance of those Europeans who have recognized that pro-Israel obligations should temper pro-Arabist tendencies. — Michael A. Reynolds and Thomas D. Grant, The Future of Europe and Its Muslims, 343

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Frames collective memory itself as a load-bearing diplomatic constraint whose lapse is timed, not merely mourned — a structural mechanism rather than a lament.
• QUESTION: Does survey data from the 2020s bear out the predicted coincidence of fading Holocaust memory and hardening anti-Israel European publics?