Posted on 07/21/2006 7:24:04 PM PDT by quidnunc
This week, the Spanish Foreign Minister felt compelled to defend Prime Minister Zapatero from charges of anti-Semitism.
Zapatero had donned the black-checked keffiyeh that is the symbol of Palestinian determination to destroy the Jewish State and criticized Israel for using “abusive force that does not protect innocent human beings.” [1]
It was all too familiar.
On any given day one can find some eminent European — a university professor, high-ranking churchman, a parliamentarian — gravely explaining to reporters that harsh and disproportionate criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic.
And their protestations sound plausible. After all, this is not your grandfather’s anti-Semitism. Israel’s highly-educated critics do not refuse to dine in restaurants that serve Jews, use epithets like “kike,” or believe that Jews control the international financial markets and are more likely than others to engage in shady business practices.
At least that is what I assumed until someone did the study.
Two Connecticut professors got curious about the constant denials that extremely harsh critics of Israel were anti-Semitic. Edward H. Kaplan, the William N. and Marie A. Beach Professor of Management Sciences, and Charles A. Small, Director of Urban Studies, Southern Connecticut State University, decided to examine the issue in formal way. Their paper, “Anti-Israel Sentiment Predicts Anti-Semitism in Europe,” appears in the August issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution. [2]
Kaplan and Small ask whether individuals expressing strong anti-Israel sentiments, such as the statement by Ted Honderich, Emeritus Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College London, that “those Palestinians who have resorted to necessary killing have been right to try to free their people, and those who have killed themselves in the cause of their people have indeed sanctified themselves,” are more likely than the general population to also support in such old-style anti-Semitic slurs as “Jews have too much power in our country today.”
The correlation was almost perfect. In a survey of 5,000 Europeans in ten countries, people who believed that the Israeli soldiers “intentionally target Palestinian civilians,” and that “Palestinian suicide bombers who target Israeli civilians” are justified, also believed that “Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind,” “Jews have a lot of irritating faults,” and “Jews are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want.”
-snip-
The study’s other interesting finding was that only a small fraction of Europeans believe any of these things. Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism flourish among the few, but those few are over-represented in Europe’s newspapers, its universities, and its left-wing political parties.
For Americans who do not read the European press, the level of raw anti-Semitism in European intellectual circles can be shocking.
-snip-
But if they had included the disclaimer.
We are coming, if you are a civilian you should evacuate asap, otherwise you will be considered the enemy!
How could the enemy then state that they are killing civilians?
I can imagine there are people who love Jews but believe Israel is a terrible thing for Jews and therefore, they hate Israel. I don't know any of them personally, but I have heard of them and I think there may be a few out there.
On the other hand, I know many Jews who hate Jews. I know them personally. They are Jews and they hate Jews. It is hard to explain, but it is a reality. They hate Israel too, of course.
Well, duhh...
I can't get over the satisfaction of the Spanish Left being the great promoter of anti-Semitism in the nation of Franco. Was there ever an irony more delicious?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.