For me, the seriousness of a left-wing movement in today's Europe can be measured by its stance towards Israel. That criterion in itself might be surprising, given that the economic troubles of the eurozone's Mediterranean periphery appear to most Europeans to be much more pertinent than global politics and might seem to put me in the clearly-not-on-the-Left-bracket — although if it does, it only shows there's provocative room for improvement. Among bourgeois intellectuals of my thirty-something generation, it is chic to be on the Left — and by this I don't mean to be some kind of activist. In postwar Germany, the tone towards Israel across the spectrum has been respectful, for obvious reasons. Only more recently has that changed to include critical or passive-aggressively dismissive overtones — which are more often than not heard from voices on the Left. 

Coming back to Berlin from a trip to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, I was struck not simply by the ideological potential of developing a more refined stance on Israel, but above all by the impoverished thinking that is the result of not doing so. Europe's intellectual vigour depends on paying much closer attention to Israel. 

For example, the new centre-right coalition led by Binyamin Netanyahu that was suddenly formed last month took Europe, like everywhere else, by surprise. The threat of a nuclear Iran has brought together Israeli politicians of the Left and the Right who would not normally dream of sharing power. But whereas in America Netanyahu's coup was hailed as the creation of a national consensus, in Europe it was greeted with indifference or cynicism. Just as Europe was slow to grasp the importance of the Arab spring, now it is too preoccupied with its own problems to focus on what this realignment in Israel may mean for its neighbours, particularly the Palestinians. 

In short, despite its geographical proximity and historical responsibility to Israel, Europe is too prejudiced or too lazy to try to understand the significance of an event that has transformed Israeli politics overnight. This is the greatest challenge a left-aligned Western Europe faces this summer: to avoid laziness in its thinking. Israel is the most important testing ground for displaying such a versatile stance.