Why do so many countries hate Israel?

Answer 1

These are two separate, but interrelated questions. For information solely on "Why do people hate the Jews" and "Why do people hate Israel" see the links below. The Community Answer below will speak solely to the conflagration of hating Jews and Israel.

Related Questions:
Why do people hate the Jews?
Why do people hate Israel?
Did Hitler only hate Jews?

For so many people, both Jews and non-Jews, Israel is believed to be a Jewish State in a religious sense, even though when examined, this view makes little sense. Israel never describes itself as being a country where citizenship is conditioned on being Jewish, never requires any religious test or examination for public office or private work, has numerous laws which contravene (quite explicitly) Jewish religious principles or views, and has a generally secular population.

Regardless of these facts, the two are mixed together since many Jews see Israel and Jewish Nationalism (Zionism) as outgrowths of their ethno-religious identity. Many non-Jews recognize this and therefore see Israel's actions as connected to Jewish ideals and desires. Of course, such a thing is ridiculous to do and this is why nobody ever judged the actions of the world's one Hindu State (Nepal - which is now no longer Hindu) as representing the views of Hinduism, or China of representing Confucianism, or Thailand of Buddhism. Only recently have people been judging the Vatican (a country actually founded on religious grounds) as an outgrowth of the virtues of the Catholic Church. Many of the actions taken by Israel are problematic for a number of reasons (see the Israel question for more on this) and extrapolate those problems to the Jews themselves. Conversely, a person may feel little antagonism towards Israel, but holds Anti-Semitic views which eventually color his perception of Israel. Admittedly, the latter is much less common than the former.

In many Arab and Muslim countries, in addition to attacking Israel's policies, acts which may have merit, they circulate Anti-Semitic Propaganda such as the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and similar texts in order to buttress their claim that Israel is evil. Such virulence can only lead to Anti-Semitism and goes directly against the Islamic tenets of treating the Jews with dignity as they are Ahl Al-Kitaab. However, the rulers and religious elites in these countries are perfectly fine with suspending such views in order to achieve a political objective.

Answer 2

These are two separate, but interrelated questions. For information solely on "Why do people hate the Jews" and "Why do people hate Israel" see the links below. This answer will speak solely to the conflagration of hating Jews and Israel.

Answer 1

For so many people, both Jews and non-Jews, Israel is believed to be a Jewish State in a religious sense, even though when examined, this view makes little sense. Israel never describes itself as being a country where citizenship is conditioned on being Jewish, never requires any religious test or examination for public office or private work, has numerous laws which contravene (quite explicitly) Jewish religious principles or views, and has a generally secular population.

Regardless of these facts, the two are mixed together since many Jews see Israel and Jewish Nationalism (Zionism) as outgrowths of their ethno-religious identity. Many non-Jews recognize this and therefore see Israel's actions as connected to Jewish ideals and desires. Of course, such a thing is ridiculous to do and this is why nobody ever judged the actions of the world's one Hindu State (Nepal - which is now no longer Hindu) as representing the views of Hinduism, or China of representing Confucianism, or Thailand of Buddhism. Only recently have people been judging the Vatican (a country actually founded on religious grounds) as an outgrowth of the virtues of the Catholic Church. Many of the actions taken by Israel are problematic for a number of reasons (see the Israel question for more on this) and extrapolate those problems to the Jews themselves. Conversely, a person may feel little antagonism towards Israel, but holds Anti-Semitic views which eventually color his perception of Israel. Admittedly, the latter is much less common than the former.

In many Arab and Muslim countries, in addition to attacking Israel's policies, acts which may have merit, they circulate Anti-Semitic propaganda such as the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and similar texts in order to buttress their claim that Israel is evil. Such virulence can only lead to Anti-Semitism and goes directly against the Islamic tenets of treating the Jews with dignity as they are Ahl Al-Kitaab. However, the rulers and religious elites in these countries are perfectly fine with suspending such views in order to achieve a political objective.

Answer 2

Because that's just the way people are. Haters will hate.

Answer 3

I think it is their religion and they disagree with the Jews and Israel's viewpoint of how things are.

Answer 4

No one has "liked" Jews since roughly 700 AD, when Islam started to contend with the Christian armies from Europe. That being said, in modern history there are a lot of reasons for Muslims (and anyone who can identify with the underdog) to dislike Israel. Firstly, they were founded by using terrorism and military power to defeat both the British (who owned Israel as a colony until 1947) and the Palestinian populations (who had been on the land longer than anyone, and were overwhelmingly Islamic). After the full extent of the Nazi Holocaust was unearthed, the world felt overwhelmingly responsible to the Jewish community, and so accepting a Jewish state was an easy thing for them to do. The Palestinians and their Arab brethren didn't see this as the case, and they were angered that Jews had moved in and taken their land by force.

Over the next 6 decades (and indeed to this day) there were several conflicts between Islamic states and Israel. Israel handily defeated all of them, cementing resentment in the region. Then in the 60's, and increasingly getting worse, is the ghetto-ization of the Palestinians in the Territories. The Israeli government has put the Palestinians behind fences and walls to prevent unauthorized exit by the Palestinians. They treat them all like criminals, they've levied a blockade with varying degrees of severity to deny Palestinians any opportunity to thrive on the world scene through trade, sometimes denying them basic necessities for life.

The irony is that several times over the course of history Jews were put in ghettos in Europe. Then European Jews flocked to Palestine and put everything they'd learned to good use.

In America the Jewish lobby is very powerful, and our government provides theirs with weapons, technology, favorable trade conditions, aid money, and military support in the case of severe threat on their sovereignty. This makes many people (both in America and abroad) feel that we are Israel's whore/bitch.

These are the arguments that come to you from many Anti-Semites, and they do not necessarily reflect my personal feelings.

Answer 3

Only nine countries have ever gone to war against Israel (Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Palestine, and the Soviet Union), but far many more countries actually hate Israel and espouse Anti-Israel rhetoric. There are several reasons for this.

1) Distractions from Domestic Concerns: A number of autocratic leaders, especially in Arab countries like to use the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict as a safety valve to avoid protests and discontent with their lack of rights and economic ability. As a result, they stoke hatred of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict out of proportion and proceed to commit massacres of their own with impunity.

2) Arab and Islamic Connection: A number of countries hate Israel out of sympathy between Muslims in different places. There is no reason why Mauritanians, Pakistanis, or Malaysians should hate Israel if we were to examine exclusively Israeli-Mauritanian, Israeli-Pakistani, or Israeli-Malay relations. However, because they are Islamic countries they feel the need to echo the Arab position of hatred towards Israel.

3) Non-Aligned Coalition: One of the enduring legacies of the Cold War was the creation of the Non-Aligned Nations, which was a group of countries that chose to neither wholly align with the United States or Soviet Union. Since a large portion of the Non-Aligned Coalition was made up of Islamic Countries, Israel-hatred became a major unifying platform for the Non-Aligned Coalition. It was on this account that a number of African, Asia, and Latin American countries maintain lukewarm relations with Israel, even when they could really benefit from more expanded trade with Israel.

4) Fear of Antagonizing Others: Some countries are afraid of supporting or legitimating Israel because they fear another terrorist attack from Another Country that is less sympathetic to freedom of expression. While Israelis, and Jews in general, are used to people trampling on their ideals and not bombing public places or threatening mass death, other groups are more prone to such activities. Additionally, there are countries that require resources from the Arab World and cannot afford to back or support Israel for the fear that the Arab World would cut off trade in response.

5) Anti-Semitism: This should be self-evident. The Logic goes thus: Anti-Semites oppose any Jewish aspiration to freedom and/or power. Zionism promotes Self-Determination for the Jewish people which is an aspiration to freedom and power. Therefore, Anti-Semites oppose Zionism. Additionally, many people who are Anti-Semitic see Jews as running some sort of international cabal to strip power from everyone else. Equipped with a country, who knows what further havoc Jews could cause. The Arab World is prone to these types of conspiracy theories, making the Protocols of Zion and Mein Kampf bestsellers in the Arab World. There are many respectable Arabs who take these works seriously as historical discussions of Jews.

6) International Legal Violations: Israel has engaged in a number of policies in violation of international law, such as the unification of Jerusalem, the settlements in the West Bank, the annexation of the Golan Heights, etc.. Israel is not reticent for performing such acts and claims that it violates those laws because they are prejudicial to its rights and interests. If other countries did the same, (Iran is a great example), they are sternly reprimanded by the international community and forced to toe the line.

7) Anti-Colonialism: While Arab Nationalism was an anti-colonial movement, the general principles of the anti-colonialism led to a rejection of States based on European values in non-European locations with a large number of non-European (ethnically speaking) inhabitants. This sentiment was felt most strongly towards (South) Rhodesia, South Africa, and what would become Israel. Anti-colonialists believe that Asians and Africans had the right to Self-Determination pursuant to their cultures. However, Rhodesian and South African institutions could and did eventually convert to being African nations (in the true sense of the term) because their racist infrastructure could be reformed. Zionism is by default a government by the Jews and would cease to be Zionist if the Jews were taken out of the leadership position. Thus Zionism catches the ire of anti-colonialists.

8) Palestinian Indigenous Rights: The indigenous Palestinians and their descendants are aggrieved that people from abroad would come to the land that their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents had lived on and worked for as long as they could remember and buy that land from the Ottomans without consulting them. Moreover, these people had a particular agenda to establish a state on the land they called their own. Understandably, the Palestinians, and those who support them, are opposed to the Zionist project for these emotional and political considerations. Additionally, the Israeli Military Occupation of the West Bank Territories and the Blockade of Gaza represents a true legal and humanitarian crisis for Supporters of an Independent Palestine and the Palestinian People. To many in the world community, the Palestinians must have the right to go back to their homes (although it is doubtful that the Arabs would have permitted that right to the Jews should the Arabs have been victorious in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9).

9) Arab Nationalism: Arab Nationalism as a movement crystallized in the 1930s and came to the political fore in the 1960s. Arab Nationalism is a movement that seeks to create an Arab State or multiple Arab States based on common cultural and historical markers. This movement began to make a tether between Arab cultural identity and Islamic religious identity. This was especially keen in places with large non-Muslim communities because those communities typically worked closely with the European colonizers seen to be repressing the Arab identity. Zionism, which is a movement based on a European cultural identity and a Jewish religious identity was antithetical to the Arab Nationalist movement ideologically and claims territory that Arab Nationalists also claim putting them at odds politically.

10) Islamism: Islamism, the political philosophy that Shari'a or Islamic Religious Law should be the grounds upon which a state is ruled (as opposed to Islam, which is the religion), strenuously opposes any Western-style of government because it does not uphold Islamic moral standards (for example: gays and haram meats are permitted). Israel, as a secular, Westernized State is opposed for this reason. Israel, specifically, is also hated by Islamists for two reasons unique to Israel. The first is that the Jews are the ones in power. In the Islamist conception, only Muslims should be in power in the State and any non-Muslim minorities should have a secondary role if they should have one at all. Second, Israel is situated in territory which used to be governed by Muslims for nearly 1300 years (with a century-long break under the Crusader States). As a result, Israel is considered a usurpation of historical Islamic authority whereas European countries (for example) never had Islamic authority before.

11) Anti-Nationalism: In today's world, as things like globalization, cultural diffusion, and mixed ethnicities in major districts become more prominent, the Zionist model of a Nation-State dedicated to one race or religion seems anachronistic. Germany, founded on the same model, now has the issue of integrating Turks (and their children) into the German state, but since Germans always lived in Germany and constituted a majority there, as opposed to being a reorganized Diaspora, nobody suggests that Germans should "return" to a more cosmopolitan type of existence. This is, however, oftentimes suggested by Anti-Nationalists and Post-Nationalists concerning the Jews and their State.

12) Non-Jewish Holy Sites: Since the Holy Land does not only have Jewish Holy Sites, but also has Christian and Muslim Holy Sites, there is opposition in these communities to Jews having a physical monopoly and control of these holy sites. Therefore, these communities opposed the idea of a Jewish Nation State that could do exactly that.