Posted on 06/04/2009 5:51:13 AM PDT by SJackson
Ask Jews which country they consider to be the European hotbed of anti-Semitism, and you will probably get a variety of responses. Some will no doubt invoke Poland and Germany, in light of the Holocaust, while others will insist that France has become the home of modern anti-Jewish sentiment on the continent. Still others may argue that the Swiss or the Hungarians are competitive candidates for this dubious distinction.
And yet, if three recent studies and a host of nasty incidents are any indication, then the top spot, as it were, would belong to Spain, which is far and away the most rabidly anti-Semitic country in Europe.
Last fall, the Pew Global Attitudes Project published a wide-ranging study on how Jews and Muslims are viewed in various countries. It found that 46 percent of all Spaniards hold negative views of Jews - by far the highest percentage recorded in any non-Muslim country. The runners-up, Russia and Poland, trailed Spain by 10 or more percentage points.
Pew also found that Spain was the only country in Europe where the percentage of those holding negative opinions of Jews exceeded those with a positive view, with just 37% of Spaniards viewing Jews favorably. By contrast, 50% of Poles, 64% of Germans and 73% of Brits have positive views of Jews.
Ample evidence supporting Pew's findings could be found in a study released in February by the Anti-Defamation League on "Attitudes Toward Jews in Seven European Countries." It revealed that more than half of those surveyed in Spain embrace classical anti-Semitic stereotypes regarding Jewish power, loyalty and money.
And then there was a recent poll commissioned by Spain's Education Ministry, which found that more than 50% of students between 12 and 18 said they would not want to sit next to a Jew in school.
No matter how one looks at these figures, they are indisputably harsh, and signify that anti-Semitism in Spain is profound and deeply-rooted.
WHAT MAKES this phenomenon even more troubling is the fact that there are so few Jews in Spain. With just 20,000 out of a population of some 40 million, Jews constitute less than one-tenth of one percent of Spain's citizenry, and the community maintains a very low profile. Clearly, then, Spaniards' firsthand knowledge of Jews is extremely limited, if not nonexistent. And yet they seem to hate us with unbridled passion.
Events in recent months have unfortunately borne this out. In May, Israeli Ambassador Rafi Shotz was a victim of Spanish anti-Semitism. While walking home after attending a soccer game in Madrid, he was accosted by three men who hurled a torrent of anti-Semitic slurs his way, calling him a "Jewish dog" and "dirty Jew."
In mid-January, the windows of Barcelona's Chabad house were smashed by unknown perpetrators, who sprayed anti-Semitic graffiti on the building. Two weeks later, a man wielding a baseball bat was apprehended after striking a Barcelona synagogue and then attacking one of its employees.
And then, of course, there was the outrageous decision earlier this year by Judge Fernando Andreu of Spain's National Court to investigate senior Israeli defense officials for the 2002 assassination of senior Hamas terrorist Salah Shehadeh. The Spanish parliament later took steps to rein in this judicial adventurism.
Various reasons have been offered in an attempt to explain Spain's rising intolerance. These include deep-seated prejudices rooted in the medieval anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church, the rising political power of the far Left which is hostile to Israel, as well as the Spanish media's unbalanced and often biased coverage of the Middle East.
BUT MORE IMPORTANT, perhaps, than the causes behind this phenomenon is the perennial question: What can be done about it? A key part of the answer may lie with the Bnei Anousim (Hebrew for "those who were coerced") - the descendants of Jews who were forcibly converted to Catholicism centuries ago yet continued to cling to their Jewish identity.
Because of their personal background and historical connection with the Jewish people, many Bnei Anousim feel a strong affinity toward Israel. As citizens of Spain, they are perfectly positioned to serve as goodwill ambassadors for the Jewish state, and many of them are more than willing to do so.
Take, for example, Rafael Perez of Zaragoza. He launched a popular Web site in Spanish, Kolisraelorg.net, which promotes Israel and its cause in Spain's often hostile cyberspace. Others, such as Dr. Itzhak Kalafi and his wife Nuria Guash in Barcelona, blog about Israel and work to counter anti-Zionist propaganda in the local press.
Nevertheless, Israel has yet to make use of their talents and commitment. For reasons known only to itself, the Foreign Ministry has done little to reach out to Bnei Anousim, despite their readiness to help. This oversight is a grave mistake. It is simply unthinkable that Israel would fail to tap into this natural pool of support, especially when the overall atmosphere among the Spanish public is so dour.
Clearly, Spain's Jewish problem will not go away overnight. Indeed, 500 years may have passed since it expelled its Jews, but the country still seems to have trouble tolerating even a small Jewish presence.
But that doesn't mean that more cannot be done to improve the situation, and reaching out to the Bnei Anousim seems like a good place to start.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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The ironic thing being that there is more Jewish DNA among the Spaniards than any other European ethnic group.
Of course Spain hates Jews. Spain is al-Qaeda’s bitch.
I’m as Gentile as they get, but I HATE anti-Semitics. I hear that sh!t from my brother sometimes, and I just have to bite my tongue. Jewish people are some of the brightest, most interesting, most creative people on the planet. Who practice stupid politics, unfortunately.
During WWII, Franco gave refuge to more Jews than any other country in Europe (and in fact, more than the US). As for 1492, one of the reasons that the Jews could even be expelled from Spain (which was a highly political thing) was that there were so many of them - many other countries had already expelled their Jews. England, in fact, had expelled its Jews a couple of centuries earlier.
The big problem with Spain now is that it has two things: a hard anti-Semitic left in charge, and a large and ever-growing Islamic population, including large numbers of Muslim converts in Southern Spain. The combination of the left and Islam against Jews is absolutely deadly.
Was this reported in "The DaVinci Code"?
Spain and Jews go back a few centuries. “Spanish Inquisition”, anyone? And Ferdinand & Isabella kicked all of the Jews out in 1492. Long history of Jew hatred in Spain.
Well, the Jews did side with the Moors (the latter of whom had to wait another century to get kicked out, as the Castillians needed their labor in the south. The jihad, er, revolt in the Alpurajas changed that). Unfortunately, by expelling the Sephardim, Spain had to depend on the Genoans for credit (to say nothing of extracting as much gold as possible from the colonies, an untenable situation).
As for the inquisition, it was a power struggle against the newly enriched (and entitled) conversos bythe old gentile families that evolved into a rather tragic witch hunt.
I remember that when Moussauoi (sp?) was on trial here, he said he had three prayers he wished to be granted.
One was the destruction of America.
OK, I can live with that. The germans (twice), the Japanese, the Soviets, and now the Islamists, have had the same prayer.
The second was the destruction of Israel, and of all Jews in the world.
The first part of this I can understand why he might say that, while not agreeing, but isn’t that second part just a little bit RACIST?
The third was “the return of Spain to Muslim rule”.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Sorry, had to do it. Couldn’t help it.
Watching too much Monty Python, are we?
There is no such thing as too much Monty Python.
Of course, The Spanish Inquisition was a tool to remove
property from one group, and give it to the universal church
(gasp - did I say that?!).
Also, it was a handy little purge of people who had too much
money (read power).
I’m wondering what the American Inquisition will look like?
And with current immigration trends, that deadly combination will become more and more common in parts of the US.
Ask Jews which country they consider to be the European hotbed of anti-Semitism, and you will probably get a variety of responses. Some will no doubt invoke Poland and Germany, in light of the Holocaust, while others will insist that France has become the home of modern anti-Jewish sentiment on the continent. Still others may argue that the Swiss or the Hungarians are competitive candidates for this dubious distinction. And yet, if three recent studies and a host of nasty incidents are any indication, then the top spot, as it were, would belong to Spain, which is far and away the most rabidly anti-Semitic country in Europe.
Islamic doctrine is officially imperialistic. This means that wherever Moslems live, they are seen to have the eventual right to conquer.
This works in reverse too, meaning, any region or country FORMERLY Muslim, they see as stolen from them—and must be taken back. The only two areas on earth formerly Islamic are Israel, and, Spain.
Apparently on Arabic language maps too, just as there is no “Israel” there is no Spain—the country is called Andalusia...the old Moorish/Moslem name.
I'm afraid it will be a long time until the coast is clear in most of the world.
Si.
Creo que es “no hay moros en la costa”.
(It’s one of my favorite Spanish phrases!)
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