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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zonder who wrote (10062)	5/5/2004 9:39:36 AM
From: E. T.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

Europe still doesn't get it By DAVID MATAS Last week's OSCE conference on anti-Semitism was historic, productive and strange. Historic because it was held in Berlin, the city where the Holocaust was planned and ordered. Productive because it precipitated a decision to do something practical to combat anti-Semitism -- to collect and report reliable information and statistics about anti-Semitic crimes. And strange because the meeting was silent on the principal cause of contemporary anti-Semitism.. Anti-Semitism has flared up in Europe today because anti-Zionist propaganda attacks the Jewish people. Anti-Zionists demonize Israel. They label the existence of Israel and its every effort at self-defence as the worst crimes known to humanity. The Jewish people are demonized in turn as actual or presumed supporters of the State of Israel and its alleged criminality. A European Union report on anti-Semitism that came out shortly before the Berlin meeting noted that "there is a link between the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents and the political situation in the Middle East," and quoted victims as identifying the perpetrators as "young Muslims," "immigrants," "people of North African descent." The attribution dodges the question, because it appears to suggest that the source of the problem is limited to foreigners, a specific community or a religion. The anti-Semitism that is anti-Zionism is as common in polite European society today as Aryanism was before the Second World War. It permeates respectable political parties and mainstream journals. Yet, in Berlin, virtually none of the 55 states (the countries of Western, Eastern and Central Europe, Central Asia and North America.) wanted to talk about this form of anti-Semitism. The chair's concluding statement made an oblique reference to Israel, stating that "international developments or political issues, including those in Israel or elsewhere in the Middle East, never justify anti-Semitism." That was it. The link between the existence of Israel and contemporary anti-Semitism was never drawn. In Berlin, one state representative after another uttered ringing condemnations of anti-Semitism. But these were more expiations of guilt for the Holocaust than an attempt to address a contemporary problem. Decrying the Holocaust today, while welcome, does not get us very far in addressing the anti-Semitism around us. At the non-governmental meeting held the day before, Brian Klug of the University of Oxford argued that attacks on Jews based on overheated Middle East opinions are not necessarily anti-Semitism. "Some of it is anti-Semitic hatred. The other is hostility between two groups . . . Ethno-religious solidarity is not anti-Semitic bigotry. Jews are at risk today because of the overspill of Middle East tension." The overwhelming majority of attacks on Jews in Europe are of exactly this nature, motivated by anti-Zionism, or what Mr. Klug calls "Middle East tension." Did the silence of states at the Berlin forum hide the perverse view, which Mr. Klug expressed, that many of the attacks on Jews in Europe today are not really anti-Semitic? Was that silence a cover for sympathy with the anti-Zionism that pervades polite European society? If so, all the state denunciations of anti-Semitism at Berlin were hollow rhetoric. At Berlin everyone was prepared to condemn anti-Semitism, but almost no one was prepared to confront it in its main form today. Natan Sharansky, Minister for the Diaspora in the Israeli government, came closest. He explained why and how some criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic; he observed that some of this anti-Semitism is state-sponsored, a phenomenon member states of the OSCE must address. But Israel is not a member of the OSCE, and Mr. Sharansky addressed the meeting only as a guest. In the end, the decision of the permanent council that there be statistical collecting and reporting on anti-Semitism may be the best way to get the OSCE members to face the real world of anti-Semitism around them. Right now, condemning the source of contemporary anti-Semitism is too politically touchy. When the reporting makes what is happening as plain as day, one can hope that the reality of anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism can no longer be denied. globeandmail.ca