Israel-Hamas war stokes tensions in Europe

Press quote (NBC News)
13 November 2023

“The war is just deeply polarizing European societies,” Luigi Scazzieri, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think-tank in London, told NBC News. “You have the mobilization of parts of the left, that which starts being in favor of Palestine, but kind of spills over into then being mobilization against the policies that the West is pursuing in relation to the conflict,” he said.

...What happens in Gaza will have an impact throughout the West because it is broadly perceived as being "complicit" in Israel's policies toward the Palestinians, Scazzieri said.

"That in turn ... creates a countermobilization by the right, including anti-immigration sentiment,” he said.

..."I think we’re probably at the beginning of this phenomenon rather than at the end, simply because the conflict doesn’t seem to show any sign of slowing down," Scazzieri said. "And Israel’s aims are what they are."