Why Israel is losing its friends

Is West Bank settler violence the hill that Israel’s friends want to die on? I ask as a lifelong admirer of the Jewish state. I marvel at the achievement of maintaining an open society in a lawless region. I remember the warm glow I felt, two decades ago, when the IDF general who had laid out the West Bank barrier, the defensive wall that runs along the green line, showed me where the Supreme Court had made him alter its course, giving up some strategic ground so as not to violate the property rights of a Palestinian farmer. In no other state in the region, I reflected, did soldiers obey civilian judges. In 2010, when I was running the alliance of European conservative parties, I made sure that Likud could join as a full partner.Israel has been unpopular before, of course, but this is on a different scale. Anti-Zionist sentiment is rising among the groups that used to be most supportive: Americans, conservatives, even diaspora Jews. People of my sort of age (born 1971) grew up thinking of Israel as a dependable Cold War ally. The way young people talk of the state today shocks us.You can try to blame it on propaganda and delegitimization — or you can believe the polls, which show that the slide has come overwhelmingly since 2023. One of the factors behind that slide, I am sorry to say, is the intimidating fervor of those who refuse to countenance any criticism, defending every case of military misconduct, every instance of settler aggression. Protesters gathered in Parliament Square in support of Palestine and against what they call a ‘pro-Israel and Zionist influence’ in U.K. politics. (Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images via AP) Look at the reaction when Britain, along with numerous other Western countries, announced targeted measures against five settlers involved in violence, together with sanctions against goods from settlements deemed illegal. Israel closed the British consulate in East Jerusalem. Ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet called for Argentina to take the Falkland Islands. Columnists and parliamentarians called the British Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, an anti-Semite.God knows I am no fan of Miliband. He may very well be the single most obnoxious member of a terrible government. Still, to accuse him of “Jew hate,” as the ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, did, seems overblown when Miliband is himself Jewish.I happen to think that Miliband’s announcement was a mistake in its own terms. I suspect the British Foreign Secretary wants to weaken the Netanyahu coalition, but his actions have strengthened it. Sanctions are almost always bad policy, hurting the wrong people and strengthening the regime of which you disapprove. Nonetheless, to characterize Miliband’s speech as anti-Semitic is beyond absurd. Yes, he condemned some of the settlers, but he also condemned anti-Semitism, opposed the BDS movement, and reaffirmed Britain’s commitment to the Jewish homeland. If none of that counts, if support for the settlements is now the sole test of friendship, then Israel has almost no friends.The attitudes we form when we are young are often hard to shake. People of my generation were shaped by the Cold War, which left us suspicious of Russia. My mother, who was a schoolgirl during World War Two, had a similar prejudice against Germany. Listen, now, to how young people talk of Israel. Why assume they will alter their views as they grow up?Wars flick switches in our brains. What we might have taken as friendly criticism in peacetime seems suddenly like a betrayal. After the abominations of Oct. 7, abominations that some extremists actually celebrated, Israelis were bound to become more intolerant of criticism. We should all be able to understand that.HAVE VOTERS LOST THEIR SELF-RESPECT?Still, the overwhelming sentiment around the world after that black day was one of sympathy and support. It is extraordinary to see how that sympathy has been lost. In the days after 7 October, every Israeli I spoke to, most of them Likudniks, expected Netanyahu to take the rap and resign. Three years on, he has kept his job, but at a terrible cost to his country’s standing and, in consequence, to its long-term security.I want Israel to flourish. In my more optimistic moments, I share the vision of the early British Zionists, men like Winston Churchill, who believed that a prosperous Jewish state, trading with its Arab neighbors, would enrich the entire region. To realize that vision, Israel needs support. If it rejects support that it regards as qualified or conditional, if it insists on 100% backing even for people who have been unlawfully driving civilians from their homes, then it will lose almost all its backers. And that, after the miracles that it has wrought over the past eight decades, would be a tragedy.