Holocaust guilt can drive either supporting or denouncing Israel as expiation

Evidence

The feeling of guilt, particularly guilt for the Holocaust, can operate in more than one way. One can expiate it, by supporting Israel even when it’s wrong; or one can escape from it, by denouncing Israel even when it’s right. For the clergy in particular, the problem of guilt for the Holocaust has been an extraordinarily difficult one, and to deal with Jews as accused and not accusers brought welcome relief. It enabled them to abandon the uncomfortable and unfamiliar posture of contrition and penitence, and to return to the more familiar and comfortable posture of moral superiority and stern reproof. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1646

Categorization

• CANDY: A compact, tweetable formulation: guilt over the Holocaust can be expiated either by backing Israel or by denouncing it.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1646
• XREF: connects to: Zionism rose on Holocaust sympathy to become a leading Western ideology — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 144; British Jewish attachment to Israel can stem from survival anxiety, not conviction; Sabra contempt for Holocaust refugees dulled their sensitivity to Palestinian suffering