The Economist’s chief of bureau in Germany, who earlier served as chief of bureau in the Middle East for 15 years as well as in South Asia, says the message to the Israeli government is “enough is enough”.

Max Rodenbeck made these remarks while discussing and analysing the message and impact of the major protests in several European and American cities last weekend.

According to him, the persistence of these public protests in several European and American cities has “taken Western governments by surprise”.

He said that after an initial show of strong support for Israel, when Western heads of government visited Tel Aviv to stand by Prime Minister Netanyahu, they are now “peddling backwards pretty furiously”.

He said two developments, in particular, have added to the size and the scale of the protests we have seen. For instance, around 200,000 people were peacefully protesting last weekend in London.

The two developments are: first, the reach of the social media and the fact that Instagram and TikTok can provide “a gut level of engagement” with what is happening to Palestinians in Gaza as a result of three weeks of airstrikes and the ground invasion.

The second development is the size of the Palestinian diaspora as well as the size of the pro-Palestine sphere of population in European countries.

He also pointed out that a significant number of people protesting, not just in New York and Washington, but also in London and Berlin, are Jewish. This, he suggests, is particularly noteworthy.

He highlighted that there is a marked shift, as you go down the generations, over how the Israel-Palestine conflict is viewed. Young Americans differ, often significantly, from their parents and grandparents.

He added that the Democratic Party’s traditional position of strong support for Israel seems to be weakening, and possibly, fracturing.

In this 35-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Mr. Rodenbeck spoke in detail about Germany and the German government’s very specific attitude to Israel, which is more than just political. It’s almost constitutional. He also spoke about the emerging gap between how the German government views the Israel-Palestine issue and how large sections of the population view this issue.

He also spoke about the impact these protests in America and Europe will have on their respective home governments, on the Netanyahu government and public opinion in Israel as well as the Arab street and, more specifically, leaders like President El-Sisi of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan.

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