The war raging between Israel and Hamas is horrifying much of the world, but European left-wing leaders have an extra reason to wish for the bloodshed to come to an end as soon as possible: The conflict is proving a political hot potato that’s exacerbating internal rifts, jeopardizing already fragile alliances, and threatening to exact a heavy price in the next elections.
With the progressive electorate torn between shock at the slaughter of 1,400 people by Hamas militants inside Israel in early October—the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust—and outrage at the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians by Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, in countries like France, Britain, and Spain, left-wing parties find themselves mired in damaging rows over how to qualify Hamas’s actions and how forceful Israel is entitled to be in its military response.
The conflict “is highlighting the differences between the radical left and the social democrats,” said Luc Rouban, a political scientist from Sciences Po university in Paris. “It’s blowing up the left,” he said.
