Benjamin Haddad on Why Europe is Becoming More Pro-Israel

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Among European diplomats and public figures in the 1990s, it was universally believed that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians was the central key to understanding the Middle East. It was their view that until Israel made peace with the Palestinians and enacted a two-state solution, the region would remain in constant chaos, a view that made Israel the subject of much European opprobrium. Since then, even through the second intifada and multiple wars with Hamas, Israel remains in largely the same position with the Palestinians as it was two decades ago. The broader Middle East, however, has changed dramatically, with direct results for European security. Europe has endured countless Islamist terror attacks and has seen a refugee crisis in Syria bring numerous migrants to its borders, redrawing the fault lines of its politics.

In light of all of this, are European leaders finally changing their views of the Jewish state? This week’s podcast guest, Benjamin Haddad, the director of the Future Europe Initiative at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, thinks that many are. In a recent essay, Haddad argues that the reaction of leaders across Europe to Israel’s recent confrontation with Hamas revealed a significant shift in European thinking about the Jewish state. In conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, he explains the change he’s seeing, and why it’s happening now.

Musical selections are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	That the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is the central key to understanding the Middle East
0:14.0	was once a foundation stone of the conventional geopolitical wisdom of European diplomats and public figures.
0:25.5	It was thought that nothing else could be solved without having first made peace between Israel and her neighbors.
0:27.6	But since Oslo and the second intifada, now about 20 years ago, so much in the Middle East
0:33.4	has changed, and changed moreover with direct results for European security.
0:38.5	There have been Islamist terror attacks on European soil, the growth of the Iranian nuclear
0:43.5	program, the war in Syria, with its consequent refugee crisis that has really redrawn
0:50.1	the fault lines of European politics.
0:52.5	In light of all of this, are European leaders changing
0:55.1	their views of the Jewish state? Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. My guest
1:00.8	today thinks that some of them have. In Israel's recent confrontation with Hamas, the reaction
1:06.4	of European leaders, and not only in Central and Eastern Europe, but in Western Europe too,
1:12.4	reveals a shift in European thinking about Israel. He is Benjamin Haddad, the director of the
1:18.2	Future Europe Initiative at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., and he's the author of
1:23.2	how Europe became pro-Israel, published in foreign policy May 20th, 2021. If you enjoy this conversation,
1:30.3	you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.
1:36.3	I hope you'll leave us a five-star review to help us grow this community of ideas. I welcome your
1:41.9	feedback on this or any of our other podcast episodes at
1:45.4	podcast at ticfa fund.org. And of course, if you want to learn more about our work at
1:50.8	Tikva, you can visit our website, tikfa fund.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Here now is
1:57.2	my discussion with Benjamin Haddad. Ben Haddad, welcome to the Tikva podcast.
2:02.4	Thanks for having me.
	...

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