In trying to understand the factors underlying the surge of extreme hostility toward the State of Israel in certain circles, it is striking that so many of the manifestations of this hostility come back to one theme: that Israel is an illegitimate state because it is part and parcel of the historic movement known as colonialism, the great sin of the Western world. 

Sometimes this is expressed directly and bluntly. Many times it is the obvious, and not so obvious, underpinning of other charges against the Jewish state. Even as, through the years, Israel was becoming more and more accepted in the international community, and even in some parts of the Arab world as seen in the Abraham Accords, the theme of Israel being a manifestation of the sin of colonialism was lingering and waiting for the occasion to burst forth as the underlying basis for attacks on the Jewish state.   

It has been noted that immediately after the massacre of October 7, the greatest tragedy of the Jewish people since the Holocaust, hostility toward Israel or rationalization of the events of October 7 surfaced around the world. Instead of the normal sympathy that a monumental terrorist attack like October 7 evokes, one was hearing that this was part of a legitimate resistance, and in the most extreme version, that the Israelis got what they deserved. 

This, of course, was framed in terms of Israel’s occupation of territories and the continuing struggles of Palestinians under Israeli rule. While........

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