After the Holocaust, Jews were given a part of Palestine to start their country. Aside from Germany, it was mainly leftest Europeans and leftest Americans that supported Israel. Seeing that WWII was started by right-wing or fascists, many communists, socialists, and liberals supported the new Jewish state and her kibbutz as a fine example of downtrodden people realizing their potential, working on communes, and fending off evil neighbors that wanted to destroy her. These liberals also supported the countless liberation movements occuring throughout the world. In Europe, Israel found a powerful ally in the socialist French governments of the 1950s and 1960s, who provided her with weapons. In fact, it was France which gave Israel nuclear technology. The United States was ambivalent towards Israel, and more inclined to support the Arab cause.
This all changed with the war in 1967. Israel went from a plucky little democratic gov't fighting the tide of Arab hostility to being an aggressor. It went from being a defensive nation to one that occupied other countries and setup settlements in occupied territories, not unlike what colonialists from Europe, America and Japan did and so despised by Leftists. Support from the socialist Europeans dropped like a rock. In Israel itself, the liberal Labour party was being challenged by the right-wing Likud. Furthermore, the United States replaced France as Israel's principal supporter.
Today, Israel is universally condemned and supported by a very few nations, where only a handful of countries recognize her official capital of Jerusalem. Many feel that the age of occupation and colonialism is over. Unfortunately, the right-wingers in Israel feel that Israel is under attack and they fear a repeat of what happened in Nazi-occupied Europe. That psyche is extremely strong in the mind of many Jews, not just in Israel. Many on the left in Israel and Europe fear that Israel has turned into her own worst enemy. They feel that the Palestinian problem is the root cause of their isolation in the world.
This all changed with the war in 1967. Israel went from a plucky little democratic gov't fighting the tide of Arab hostility to being an aggressor. It went from being a defensive nation to one that occupied other countries and setup settlements in occupied territories, not unlike what colonialists from Europe, America and Japan did and so despised by Leftists. Support from the socialist Europeans dropped like a rock. In Israel itself, the liberal Labour party was being challenged by the right-wing Likud. Furthermore, the United States replaced France as Israel's principal supporter.
Today, Israel is universally condemned and supported by a very few nations, where only a handful of countries recognize her official capital of Jerusalem. Many feel that the age of occupation and colonialism is over. Unfortunately, the right-wingers in Israel feel that Israel is under attack and they fear a repeat of what happened in Nazi-occupied Europe. That psyche is extremely strong in the mind of many Jews, not just in Israel. Many on the left in Israel and Europe fear that Israel has turned into her own worst enemy. They feel that the Palestinian problem is the root cause of their isolation in the world.
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