"Today, non-Israeli Jews feel themselves once again exposed to criticism and vulnerable to attack for things they didn't do. But this time it is a Jewish state, not a Christian one, which is holding them hostage for its own actions."
I'm not going to deal with the fiskee, except to ask one question, though--is the "Christian state" in question Spain, at the time of the Inquisition? It certainly wasn't Germany at the time of the Holocaust, where the religion was National Socialism:
"National Socialism is a religion, born out of blood and race, not a political world-view. It is the new, only true religion, born out of a Nordic spirit and an Aryan soul. The religions still existing must disappear as soon as possible. If they do not dissolve themselves the state has to destroy them."
If the nation in question is Spain, there's certainly a case to be made for its oppression and massacring of Jews. To make a contentious statement, though, the Inquisition was directed at Christians--although chiefly and most violently against those Jewish converts to the religion, who were believed to be practicing their traditional rites.
So, if the nation in question is Spain, the connection seems like rather a leap, ignoring Germany, and if the nation in question is Germany, it seems false. Perhaps Mr. Judt is trying to avoid the embarrassingly recent secular European origin of the perceived need for a Jewish state.
