An article by Ben Weinthal published in the Weekly Standard  of July  1^st, claims that Israel is loathed in Europe  due to the latter’s need to alleviate its guilt of the Holocaust by projecting the Nazi horrors,  and the collaboration of other European countries with them, on Israel  which wished to “exterminate the Palestinians” nowadays and by equating the Warsaw Ghetto with Gaza. Horrifying and  hypocritical as this may be, it perhaps reflects part of the truth, but not all of it.

Remember the infamous remark made by the French Ambassador in London at the dinner table of  a Jewish journalist who leaked it to the public? He complained that was “a shitty little country” who caused much trouble in the Middle East and the world. That was a watershed, because after that unhappy  and embarrassing for French diplomacy disclosure, which was never officially censured, open anti-Semitism returned to the vogue in the upper reaches of French (and European) elites, under the cover of anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism.

One has to remember that Israel has not been the only object of European loathing, but the US too, under the leadership of George Bush, who dared to lead the Western battle against terrorism but was vilified as an “uncultured cowboy” from Texas who dragged the world into an interminable succession of wars calculated to  serve the interests of  American  neo-cons and their Israeli collaborators. Notice was taken, at the same time, that wherever and whenever a demonstration against Israel took place by Muslims and their leftist  and rightist supporters throughout Europe, Israeli and American flags were burned simultaneously in a never ending orgy of hatred and  disrespect for the great country which rescued them from slavery on more than one occasion, and  for its “underling” Israel, which fought for its existence.

Any thinking European who looks at present day Israel  is stunned by its  unparalleled achievements: it stands as an island of economic prosperity while the Euro bloc is in crisis, unemployment is high and economic growth is stifled; Israel has the highest absolute number of  high-tech start-ups (after the US), that is more than all Europe combined; in the past decade, Israel’s scientists were the recipients or more Nobel prizes than all the European countries combined; Israel was the only country which has kept Islamic terror at bay, while European countries are surrendering to it one after the other; Israel’s late start with farming and dairy production has surpassed in productivity and quality  the centuries old European experience in this domain; and all this against the background of disproportionate security expenditure to defend against the existential threats that are mushrooming  around her and the daily battle to protect her borders and citizens. Quite an accomplishment for a little shitty country, so despised and hated by the anti-Semitic elite of the old continent,  less by the elites and governments of the new Europe .

The only other people and country which have forged an economic comeback after the world crisis, and have proportionately won the greatest numbers of Nobel Prize laureates,  are the despised and hated war-mongers and uncultured Americans. Europe under the grip of Islamization  cannot any longer rise to the heights of their  nemesis Americans and Jews, a very humiliating situation. Therefore, all  they can do is to hate them and even try to bring them down, hoping thereby to erase the humiliation that those successful counter-examples provide.

Naturally, the populace in Europe may not be all aware of these underlying reasons for the hatred their elites and governments display towards Jews, , Zionism and their supporters. But with the European media,  following  the BBC,  carrying  the loathing of Jews by the elites to the masses, the ancient incipient anti-Semitism  of Europe  comes to the surface  more violently than ever since World War Two. It is significant that the only remaining solid friends of the in the West, are those new countries like the , and where human decency has replaced the old prejudices.

* The writer is a professor at Hebrew University , Jerusalem .