Europe's anti-Semites
April, 07 2002
(April 7) - A specter is once again haunting Europe - the specter of anti-Semitism. Jewish cemeteries and synagogues are under assault. Fueled by the rising tide of European criticism of Israel, these acts have generated grave concern among Jewish communities worldwide. Though no one, fortunately, has yet been killed in such incidents, it is time for Europe's political leadership to take a far more emphatic, and vocal, stance against anti-Semitism, and to stop stoking its fires by lambasting Israel at every possible turn.
The assaults on Jewish targets have come with increasing frequency and ferocity in recent weeks, with the bulk of the incidents taking place in France, home to Europe's largest Jewish community. The Or Aviv synagogue in Marseilles was burned to the ground last Sunday, shortly after a police patrol of the site had been completed. It's prayerbooks and Torah scrolls all went up in flames. A cemetery in Strasbourg and a synagogue in Lyons were targeted by anti-Semitic vandals, while a gunman in Toulouse opened fire on a kosher butcher shop.
Though President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin both condemned the attacks, they have failed to speak out with sufficient urgency or zeal. Indeed, the French government continues to insist that there is no problem of anti-Semitism at all in France, only a worrisome string of isolated incidents. As Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center rightly noted, "The French government is very good at speaking out against right-wing extremism, but it has laryngitis when it comes to anti-Semitism."
Nor is the problem confined to France. Jews in Belgium and Germany have also come under attack. Synagogues in Antwerp and Brussels were damaged by firebombs last week, while two Orthodox rabbis visiting Germany from America were assaulted after emerging from prayers in a Berlin synagogue. The rabbis were surrounded by a group of six to eight men who, after inquiring as to whether the two were Jews, proceeded to beat and kick them, requiring one of the victims to be treated at a hospital. The attack came just a day after a Holocaust memorial in Berlin had been vandalized, with swastikas spray-painted on it.
It would be premature to suggest these incidents presage a return to Europe's darker days. Over the past half century, Western Europe's nations have built sturdy and robust democracies, each of which grants Jews and other minority groups extensive opportunities to participate in the social, civic, and commercial life of their countries.
Still, it would be equally naive to think that strong undercurrents of anti-Semitism do not remain in place, ready to emerge with renewed vigor when the opportunity presents itself. And with Israel coming under increasingly harsh and unfair criticism from the European Union, that opportunity has in fact arrived. For despite the restraint which Israel showed in the face of intensifying Palestinian terror, the sympathies of Europe's chattering classes remain fully behind Yasser Arafat.
Even now, as Israel acts to defend itself in the wake of the Passover Seder massacre and a string of other Palestinian assaults, the EU has rushed to Arafat's defense. French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, who has consistently been among Israel's most virulent critics, said Israel's counter-terror campaign is "pure repression." His Spanish counterpart, Josep Pique, along with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, flew here unexpectedly last week, insisting they be allowed to meet with Arafat to try to broker a cease-fire. And, of course, it was heavy pressure from the Europeans that reportedly led U.S. President George W. Bush to make his special address regarding the Middle East last Thursday. Worse still, the EU agreed last Tuesday to provide an additional $44 million to the Palestinian Authority, effectively rewarding it for using terrorism.
Tomorrow is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Nobody here can forget the wound that Europe inflicted on the people of Israel. Europe had it's own Remembrance Day in January. But already, it seems, they have forgotten. For while they rush to condemn Israel's actions in the territories, insisting on an immediate IDF withdrawal, they do not show similar alacrity or resolve in castigating Arafat for his sponsorship of terror. If Europe's leaders really want to defend their own Jewish population better, they could hardly do better than by coming to Israel's defense as well.
