Anti-Semitism, Real
And Exaggerated
By Jacques Schuster
Haaretz.com
12-12 03
Much was revealed by the study of anti-Semitism in Europe that caused
such a controversy when the European Center for Monitoring Racism
decided to shelve the results.
It showed a growing distancing from Israel and from European Jews, the
ostensible representatives of the Jewish state. It exposed the failure
of the immigrant absorption and integration policies adopted by
European countries toward their Muslim minorities. And finally, the
attitude to the report, whose data was not always well-grounded,
showed how much hostility there is to Europe, particularly among
members of the coalition parties in Israel, and the disproportionate
manner in which they use the ghosts of anti-Semitism to distract
themselves and Israeli public opinion in general from their own
domestic problems.
First to the matter of anti-Semitism. Since September 11, it is being
felt the way anger toward America is felt. But this is not the old
style of race hatred against Jews; rather, it is more a general
rejection of everything Israeli. Jews are identified with Israelis,
just as the Israeli public is identified with its government. That
first identification is more grave - it shows that hundreds of years
of life in Europe and the memory of the genocide of the Jews has not
been enough for the Jews to be recognized as citizens of their
countries.
Add to that the criticism of Israeli policy. It can be justified, but
the intensity with which it is expressed discloses not only the extent
to which Germans are unable to put themselves in the place of a people
suffering from constant terror; it also reveals a desire to
disconnect, to get rid of decades' worth of complexes.
There is a lot to say about the Sharon government. However, the talk
about an "Israeli war of destruction" and the frequently expressed
sympathy for suicide bombers exposes a desire to get rid of the burden
of guilt and to blame it on those who bother them with finger-pointing
at the past. This is indeed a new phenomenon and unpleasant, but it is
not threatening.
The real danger comes from the Muslims who have turned extremist. The
torching by Islamic extremists of synagogues and Jewish schools in
France is indicative of this. Europe prefers to ignore this. If it did
not, its governments would have to admit that their multicultural
policies have failed. They did not achieve the integration and
absorption they meant to achieve. They created ghettoes in which
powerful Muslim minorities openly fight against the Western world's
values. Moderate Muslims have long been warning about such groups,
which believe that they can bring the Middle East conflict to Europe.
These groups operate according to the crude simplistic precepts of
Arab dictators. Without the frightening ghosts of America and Israel,
many Islamic intellectuals and clergymen would find it difficult to
explain to their people why their situation is so much worse than that
of other countries in the world. The Islamists adopted strategies of
vagueness and blurred reality and then added a suspicious paranoia of
modern civilization that should be opposed not only in Europe but
everywhere in the world.
Israelis will hurry to agree with this analysis, but many of them
instinctively regard Europe as the source of the problem. The news
from the continent where anti-Semitism flourished can still inspire
fears that are not proportionate to reality. As in the past, Israel
feels itself to be "the Jew of the nations" - shoved aside, isolated
and threatened. This is why Israeli responses often appear so
exaggerated, especially when compounded by the tendency, especially
among Likud politicians, to denounce as anti-Semitic statements and
expressions that are frequently only criticisms of their policies. The
minute something is described as hostile to Jews, it can be shoved
aside without having to deal with the criticism.
But all this has practically nothing to do with the European reality,
which is less threatening than the Israelis believe but more worrisome
than the Europeans want to think. Those who want to see only
anti-Semites in Europe should remember the days of Yitzhak Rabin.
Practically never in its history was Israel so beloved on the
continent as it was in that period.
- The writer is foreign editor of Die Welt, where this article
originally appeared.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/370741.html
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