As Hamas fired missile after missile into Israel, the Internet was inundated with celebrity condemnations of the Jewish state and misinformation from the media. Yet one pro-Israel image strikingly stood out: a picture of the Israeli flag flying proudly from the central house of government in Vienna. This was done at the order of Austria s chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, who explained in a tweet that it was intended as a sign of solidarity with Israel while it was under threat. The terrorist attacks on Israel, he further wrote, are to be condemned by the strongest possible terms! Together we stand by Israel s side.
For Benjamin Haddad, writing in Foreign Policy, the raising of the Zionist flag heralded a possible realignment between Europe and Israel. After decades of insisting that only through the peace process could Israeli amity with the Arab nations be achieved, Europe may be realizing that the Abraham Accords suggest another path. Europeans now understand, Haddad further argues, that they too face a terrorist threat and have increasingly associated Israel as a country facing similar challenges, the canary in the coalmine for European democracies.