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Aside from all the traditional reasons -- anti-Semitism, oil money, strategic weight of the Arab world, guilt over colonialist pasts, fear of Islamist violence, etc -- there are some very important new ideological reasons for the dislike (or hatred) of Israel by large elements of the Western elite, especially what is called the intellectual elite.

If you understand these factors, it also explains a lot more generally about the (temporarily?) hegemonic ideology that has taken over much of Western academia, media, and politics.

Religion

As a Jewish state, and a country where religion plays an important role, Israel is anathema to Western leftists and intellectuals who are against religion, or at least against Judeo-Christian religions. Incidentally, though, Israel is not a theologically based or defined state. In fact, Jews are a people who happen to have a distinctive religion, something rather common in history. The idea that Jews are only a religious group is a very recent idea in world history.

But the allergy to religion in public life is a powerful force in Western elites today. Why doesn't this apply to Islam? There are a number of reasons, but one rarely mentioned is that Islam isn't "their" religion, meaning that they have never personally or collectively rebelled against it, nor has it shaped elements in their own society that these people hate. Islam may be a repressive religion in Saudi Arabia, but it isn't responsible for Jerry Falwell or the "Christian right." Hence, to a member of the Western elite, it isn't "their" problem.

While this is a simplification, to get across the idea I will use the following phrase: Islam for them is in the class of a "quaint, alien custom" rather than something they viscerally hate or believe their societies have dispensed with for the better. This is especially true, of course, for the anti-religious Jews among them.

Nationalism

As with religion, of course, nationalism is usually only the nationalism of their own people or patriotism toward their country they oppose. As with religion, they think this is a remnant of the "dark ages" of human division and mutual hatred, which should be dispensed with as soon and completely as possible. Just as religion is identified with obscurantism and superstition, nationalism is identified with fascism and national chauvinism.

And, again, for the Jews among them who are assimilationist or believe the role of Jews is to be the most steadfast fighters for revolutionary change, Israel is especially repugnant.

Nation-state/peoplehood

The idea that a country should consist of a distinct people, a central idea during the last two centuries and still dominant in most of the world, has become a sin in the thinking of the hegemonic view in the West, indeed the sin of "racism."

It is important to note that this is true on two different levels:

First, in opposition to the idea that a specific ethnic group be virtually coexistent with the nation-state (the French in France; the Italians in Italy).

But also, second, that the population of a given country should have a coherent culture, identity, and worldview. After all, various countries have absorbed large numbers of immigrants but integrated them into a national community based on common beliefs. Multiculturalism has abandoned this approach.

In other words, it is not enough according to this ideology to have a multi-racial, multi-religious group of people who are "English" or "French" for example, but a multi-racial, multi-religious group that belongs to multiple communities without an overarching identity and a basic common worldview.

Actually, Israel is an example of a country that has absorbed large numbers of immigrants. In proportionate terms there is no nation state in the world that has done this to a greater extent. But Israel is a Jewish state, a state built around a people with a common identity, and this framework, which has been the norm for several centuries in the West, has suddenly been branded illegitimate.

Israel fights revolutionaries

The self-identified revolutionaries of the West, even though they use no violence, see the revolutionaries of the Middle East as kith and kin. The latter are "fighting the man," to use American slang. They want to overturn the system; they hate the West's values and policies. So the parlor radicals of the West embrace them. After all, Che Guevara is dead and there are no Marxist revolutionary movements doing much.

Israel fights to defend itself

If you are under attack because people want to wipe you off the map and deliberately attack your civilians as their main strategy (it's called terrorism), and you defend yourself, there is going to be violence. If there is violence and you are the least bit successful, there will be casualties on the other side. And inevitably in modern war -- no matter how hard you try to avoid it -- some of those casualties are going to be civilians.

"Worse" yet, you might win the war. If the other side refuses to give up and make some kind of equitable peace, the conflict will go on. If you capture their territory and they refuse to make peace, you have to occupy it. All these things are impermissible according the (temporarily?) dominant ideology in much of the West.

Thus, Israel's "sin" is to defend itself and to win.

Israel is involved in conflict

There's a Yiddish proverb that goes: Only a dead man has no problems. The extreme form of this as applied to contemporary views is if there's a conflict caused by Israel's existence, end Israel's existence and there's no more problem.

In addition, however, there is a more moderate version: Since conflict is unnatural, the conflict can and should be quickly ended. By demanding that the conflict only be ended on terms that ensure its security and end the conflict, Israel is being obstructive.

This leads into...

Causes of radicalism

To paraphrase Paul Berman, the new ideology refuses to face the fact that there are deep conflicts in the world and that there are anti-freedom forces seeking to take power and oppress others or even wipe them out. Consequently, there are two ways to deal with this: ignore the threat or insist that it can be wished away. (This one is also prevalent on the Israeli far left.)

Ignore the threat: There are no radicals, just people seeking to be free and materially well off. So the threat to Israel would disappear if only Israel changed its policy or made huge concessions.

Wish away the threat: Be nice to the radicals, apologize to them, engage them, give them what they want, and they will become moderate.

Not the underdog

Reacting against centuries of discrimination and racism, the current idea is not to banish racialism -- as Martin Luther King advocated, to create a color-blind society -- but merely to reverse it. Israel is seen as stronger, whiter, and First World. (In reality, the skin tone test wouldn't work between Israel and some of its enemies.)

So if Israel has "made the desert bloom," produced so many great inventions and innovations that benefit humanity, won the wars and survived, that is all the more reason for those who hate Israel to hate Israel. As Bob Dylan writes, they say, "There's no success like failure." But, in fact, "Failure's no success at all." Or as I wrote years ago about Yasser Arafat, the trouble with having your strategy based on being an underdog is that you have to keep losing.

And so in many ways, Israel is merely a stand-in for everything the elites hate closer to home. This is an important secret that must be kept from its own people because it will lose the anti-Israel mob support. (Reminds me of the Canadian anti-Israel group which talked too much, going from condemning Israel as a settler-colonial state that should be abolished to saying the same thing about Canada. Oops!)

Finally, there is an important other side to this analysis. Those in the West who don't agree with the above list of items tend to be supportive of Israel. This doesn't just mean conservatives but real liberals (in the American sense of that word). And as the extreme left wears out its welcome mainly due to other issues -- a process that is happening pretty fast and steadily -- the pendulum is swinging back. In fact, if one examines public opinion polls and looks beyond the elite mass media this trend is already visible.

Come to think of it, that's a really good reason for the anti-Israel group to hate Israel: It is living proof that they are wrong.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal, and author of many books on the Middle East. To read and subscribe to MERIA, GLORIA articles, or to order books, go to http://www.gloria-center.org. You can read and subscribe to his blog at http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com.