But once the Vichy leaders had been executed for treason after the Liberation, a different imperative prevailed: to keep France united, to avoid recriminations and to drawaveilover the past.
The whatever-we-did-we-suffered-worse rationale has allowed most Jewish Israelis to drawaveilover the sins of the state's early years, even as their misgivings about the post-1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza have grown.