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To: Enigma who wrote (84628)	4/23/2002 4:24:38 PM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116762

See, they want it to happen again in Europe. Not to worry, the US will stand up & do that which is right. Le Pen Stuns Europe's Left, Right Keeps Distance Sun Apr 21, 7:15 PM ET By Alastair Macdonald LONDON (Reuters) - A strong showing in France's presidential election by a man who once dismissed the Holocaust as a "detail" of history stunned Europe's political left and even many right-wingers are wary of embracing Jean-Marie Le Pen. The British Labour leader in the European Parliament said Le Pen's defeat of Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in the first round, coming after other successes for hard-right parties across a continent anxious about economic malaise and ethnic migration, would "send a shudder across the European Union (news - web sites)." "I hope that all democratic powers will unite against right-wing extremism and xenophobia," Sweden's Social Democrat Prime Minister Goran Persson said as Le Pen headed as outsider into a runoff against conservative President Jacques Chirac. "This is a disturbing result in the light of Monsieur Le Pen's racist past and it should trouble all those with long political memories," Britain's Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks told Reuters. "For the sake not just of France but of Europe, we must hope that the voice of tolerance prevails decisively." And even among some of the right-wing parties that have been on the rise elsewhere, there was a mixed reaction. Filip Dewinter, leader of the Vlaams Blok that took a third of the vote in Belgium's second city Antwerp in 2000, hailed Le Pen's success as part of a trend. "I'm very, very pleased that Le Pen scored such a large victory," Dewinter told Reuters. "We are brothers in arms." "It's not surprising that French voters are moving to a far-right party. They have the same problems of insecurity, of immigration and political corruption...It's the normal situation in Europe after Italy, Austria, Holland." SOME RIGHTISTS WARY But just across the border in the Netherlands, where the new anti-immigrant party of the shaven-headed and forthrightly homosexual Pim Fortuyn is campaigning strongly for next month's general election, a spokesman distanced his leader from Le Pen. "The comparison between us and Mr. Le Pen is very insulting," spokesman Mat Herben said. "I consider them very right wing." And in Germany, the new Law and Order Party of maverick right-wing magistrate Ronald Schill -- "Judge Merciless" to the tabloid press -- was similarly cool as it contemplates tactics for September's general election there. "I have nothing in common with Le Pen. I don't want to have anything to do with Le Pen," Ulrich Marseille, the party leader in the state of Saxony-Anhalt told Reuters as counting in a regional election on Sunday was showing it on 4.6 percent. Marseille said he would rather deal with Chirac. There was no immediate reaction from Austria's Joerg Haider, whose far-right Freedom Party entered a coalition government with mainstream conservatives in 2000 to the horror of the European establishment, which briefly ostracized Vienna. Nor was there initial comment from Italy's National Alliance, which traces its roots back to Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and is now part of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition, or from the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party, which became Denmark's third force last year. CONSERVATIVES CONCERNED A close ally of the conservative challenger in Germany's September election, Edmund Stoiber, warned that mainstream parties must address voters' anxieties about immigration to prevent a rise in extremist politics: "We have to be careful in Germany that we don't get a development in which unpleasant rightist forces suddenly get too strong, if we for example allow too much unregulated immigration, which is why we want it limited, and if we don't fight crime, especially crime by foreigners," Michael Glos said. On the European left, there was simply great alarm. Simon Murphy, leader of Britain's Labour Party group in the European Parliament, said in a statement: "This sends a shockwave down the backbone of Europe's politics. Across Europe, from Austria to Italy, Denmark and Belgium, the far-right is fast becoming a cancer in our political system." In the United States, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, which combats anti-Semitism, said: "Europe has not learned very many lessons from World War Two Holocaust racism and anti-Semitism if a man of Le Pen's political bent could come up number two in an election in the year 2002." story.news.yahoo.com

To: Enigma who wrote (84628)	4/23/2002 4:26:22 PM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116762

Berlin police apologizes after official suggests Jews drop religious symbols to avoid anti-Semitic attacks Tue Apr 23, 3:47 PM ET BERLIN - Police in Berlin apologized Tuesday for a police official's suggestion on Israeli radio that Jews should stop wearing religious symbols in the German capital to avoid anti-Semitic attacks by Arabs. The director of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial called the suggestion offensive. "Perhaps the Berlin police have good intentions, but the proposal points to a basic problem in Germany and Europe in general, a lack of will to fight anti-Semitism," Avener Shalev said in Jerusalem. The Berlin police expressed regret at the suggestion, made by a spokesman identified by Israel's Army Radio as Lars Suenneman. "The Berlin police expresses its great regret if ill feeling has been caused in Israel or the Jewish community by the official's remarks," a statement said, adding that the official had been speaking hypothetically and that his comments were taken out of context. The warning was made in the wake of two recent attacks on Jews in Berlin. In both cases, the targets were identified by religious symbols, in one instance a Star of David and in the other a skullcap. The police statement said the spokesman recognized in the interview that the suggestion would arouse religious sensitivities. "It would be one measure and each must judge for himself whether it is suitable," the official said, according to a transcript of the German-language interview released by police. The police official's suggestion struck a particularly sensitive chord in Germany, which under the Nazis carried out the Holocaust of 6 million European Jews. Germany's Jewish community has more than tripled to nearly 100,000 in the last five years, largely due to immigration from the former Soviet Union. The Berlin city government's top security official, Erhart Koerting, issued a statement saying Jewish life must be allowed to "unfold free and unhindered in Berlin." "It has to be for granted that anyone can display in public symbols of his religious beliefs," Koerting said. story.news.yahoo.com