Europe as promise and problem: Interdependent ambivalence in Israeli public discourse

From the 1950s through the early 2000s, Israeli discourse about Europe revealed a persistent ambivalence. Governments pursued trade agreements and institutional ties with the European Economic Community and later the European Union, yet press commentary reflected a conflicted orientation shaped by historical grievance, cultural hierarchy, and unresolved affinity. Europe appeared as both promise and problem: a source of modernization and legitimacy, but also of betrayal and perceived moral condescension. This article traces how Hebrew newspapers across the political spectrum imagined Europe as market, benchmark, and contested moral authority. These representations were shaped not only by foreign policy developments but also by internal divides, especially the marginalization of Mizrahi Jews and the absence of alternative Jewish and Arab trajectories. Alignment with Europe was sought, yet rarely embraced without qualification. To interpret this pattern, the article develops the concept of interdependent ambivalence: a condition in which asymmetric partnerships generate both cooperation and resentment, shaped by contested histories, symbolic hierarchies, and normative friction. While grounded in the Israeli case, the concept also illuminates Euro-Mediterranean dynamics, where inclusion coexists with unease and mistrust. Ambivalence, in this sense, was not transitional but enduring, rooted in tensions at the intersection of power, memory, and belonging.