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September 6, 2002/Elul 29 5762, Vol. 55, No. 1
Low hopes for Europe in 5763
BARRY COHEN
Editor
During my year of rabbinical study in Jerusalem, after I visited the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv, I had a moment of clarity: There is barely a European country that has not expelled the Jews. While there may have been years of relative security, violence and exile were inevitable.
"We need to fly some charter planes to Europe and say, 'to the right are planes to the United States, to the left are planes to Israel, but you can't stay here,' " I remarked to my classmates.
Looking at the attacks upon European Jews in the year 5762, the punch line remains relevant. The ongoing violence - a strange brew of lingering anti-Semitic stereotypes, Muslim Arab immigrants, the far-left media, the intellectual elite and anti-Americanism - has Jews looking over their shoulders.
As documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, there were hundreds of attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions in the past year, mainly in France, England, Germany and Belgium.
And a recent opinion poll conducted by the Anti-Defamation League reveals chilling data about European attitudes toward Jews. Forty-five percent of the 2,500 surveyed believe Jews are more loyal to Israel than their own country, and 30 percent harbor anti-Semitic stereotypes.
In "The New Anti-Semitism in Western Europe" (www.ajc.org), Murray Gordon explains recent Muslim Arab immigrants have committed the majority of the violence. However, this does not absolve established Europeans.
State-run media whip up animosity against Jews with reports detailing Palestinian deaths while glossing over Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism. But one example cited by Gordon: The Guardian, a British newspaper, morally equates Israeli military action in Jenin with the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States. The same paper is often silent about Palestinian suicide attacks.
Political analysts, Gordon writes, comment that if Muslim Arab immigrants to Europe only had better jobs and educational opportunities, they would not target the Jews. If that is so, he asks, then why are they not demanding a higher quality of life from governmental leaders?
While Muslim Arabs target Jews, they are joined by the radical European left and the intellectual elite, Gordon adds. Viewing Israel as a colonial power, their leaders carry signs at anti-Israel rallies labeling Ariel Sharon as the "New Hitler." But the target of their frustrations extends beyond Israel to Jews: At the same events, they chant, "Mort aux Juifs," (death to the Jews).
Lastly, leaders of Europe's left and the intellectual elite - already anti-American - view the United States and Israel as a unit, based upon their close political and economic relations, Gordon explains. This only intensifies their hatred of Israel, and by association, of Europe's Jews.
Despite centuries of contact with Jewish communities, the Europeans have yet to learn how to live with them.
I doubt much will improve in 5763.
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