Patrick Seale: Sharon has ignited the fire of anti-Semitism
| Special to Gulf News | 21/11/2003
Is a new wave of anti-Semitism sweeping the world? Are Jews once again
in danger of becoming the targets of irrational hate and persecution
as they were under the Nazis? Is the deadly virus which caused the
Holocaust – that unfathomable and eternal stain on the conscience and
history of Europe – beginning to reappear?
Many Israelis, as well as Jews in other countries, fear this to be the
case and a series of recent events which have won wide publicity and
condemnation would seem to justify their anxiety.
In a speech last month, shortly before he resigned as the long-serving
prime minister of Malaysia, Muhammad Mahathir described the Jews as a
people who wished to rule the world and who managed to get others to
fight their wars for them - an obvious reference to the American war
in Iraq.
In Germany on October 3, Martin Hohmann, a right-wing member of
parliament from Hesse, was rash enough to complain that Germans alone
should not be made to bear a legacy of guilt. Other people had also
committed atrocities. The Jews, he said, could be considered a "guilty
race" because of the prominent role Jews had played in the violence
and repression against civilians in the Russian revolution of 1917.
Threat to world peace
Such sentiments seemed to echo the results of a recent poll of 7,500
citizens of the European Union. To the alarm of Israeli officials and
of many Jews, 59 per cent of respondents labelled Israel a threat to
world peace, ahead of North Korea, Iran and the United States.
Indeed, on a visit to Rome this week, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon was said to be trying to enlist Italy's Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi, Israel's main European ally, in the fight against
anti-Semitism in Europe.
Political leaders and the general public in several European countries
are beginning to worry at the new trend. In a Paris suburb a few days
ago a Jewish school was firebombed, causing President Jacques Chirac
to vow to punish the perpetrators with the greatest severity and to
increase police protection at all Jewish establishments.
"An attack against a Jew is an attack against France," he declared at
a special cabinet meeting summoned to confront the problem.
But worse was to follow. In Istanbul on November 15, two trucks packed
with explosives and driven by suicide bombers devastated two
synagogues killing 25 people – mainly Turkish passers-by – and
wounding 300 others.
The shock has been very great because Turkey's Jewish community, now
reduced to some 30,000, has lived at peace with its Turkish
neighbours, not only since the emergence of Kemal Atatürk's secular
republic, but for the past 500 years!
Anti-Semitism, indeed racism of any sort, must be condemned
absolutely. There can be no compromise on that score. To discriminate
against someone because of ethnic background, religious belief or skin
colour is to offend against that most noble of ideas, the brotherhood
of man.
But are Jews today truly facing anti-Semitism – that is to say hatred
of Jews because they are Jews – or is it something else? Is it not
rather a response – highly critical in the case of Europeans, enraged
and vengeful on the part of many Arabs and Muslims – to the violence
which Sharon is daily inflicting on Palestinians?
The equation is simple: Sharon kills Palestinians, seizes their land,
demolishes their houses, imprisons them behind walls; so, unable to
hit back at Israel, Muslims vent their anger on Jews. It cannot be
said often enough that criticising and opposing Israeli policies must
not be confused with anti-Semitism.
It is not what Israel is but what Israel does which is the source of
the problem, a distinction recognised by many peace-loving Israelis
who complain that Sharon is exploiting the bogey of anti-Semitism to
cloak his anti-Arab actions.
Great offence
When terrorists struck at the United States on September 11, 2001,
Americans were in a state of shock. Why do they hate us? they asked.
Was it because Arabs and Muslims envied the American way of life? Was
it because they, too, wanted Madonna and McDonalds?
Many, perhaps most, Americans have still not grasped that it is what
America does rather than what it is which causes great offence and
arouse the horror of the world.
Following the attacks on the Istanbul synagogues, Silvan Shalom,
Israel's foreign minister, called on the world to unite against
terrorism. The world is more inclined to unite against the
expansionist policies of the far-right Sharon government in its
foolhardy quest for a Greater Israel – which is itself the major cause
of terrorism.
Let us hope that Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair seizes the chance
to tell President George W Bush that, unless the US uses its powers to
resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict once and for all, terrorism will
flourish – as well as the plague of anti-Semitism.
The writer is an eminent commentator and the author of several books
on Middle East affairs. He can be contacted at:
"life is like a mushroom, they feed you ***** and keep you in the dark"
.
|
