The Return of an Ancient Hatred

New York Times Editorial
April 20, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/20/opinion/_20SAT1.html

When many in the Muslim world blamed Israel and its supposed 
desire to discredit Islam for the Sept. 11 attacks, most 
Americans dismissed the report as a deformed joke. But just 
as the attacks forced Americans to face the fact that there 
are deadly serious groups seeking to destroy us, so some of 
the anti-Semitic actions in Europe in recent months cause us 
to wonder whether, six decades after the Holocaust, we are 
witnessing a resurgence of the virulent hatred that caused it.

Expressions of sympathy for the Palestinians or criticism of 
the Israeli military campaign in the West Bank are of course 
entirely appropriate. What is troubling are hateful statements 
and actions like the bombs thrown at Jewish schools, centers 
and groups in France, or the Orthodox Jews beaten on the 
streets of Belgium and Berlin or the truck bomb driven into 
the ancient synagogue in Tunisia. We worry that such actions, 
largely by Muslim extremists, touch a historic chord in Europe 
that is not being confronted.

Israelis have been too quick, over the years, to view criticism 
of their government as motivated by anti-Semitism. But it is 
hard to think of another word for the way some critics of 
Israel's policy toward the Palestinians are expressing 
their opposition. The dark shadow of Europe's past seemed 
to be reappearing when the liberal Italian daily La Stampa 
depicted a baby Jesus looking up from the manger at an 
Israeli tank, saying, "Don't tell me they want to kill 
me again." Or when a Lutheran bishop in Denmark delivered 
a sermon in the Copenhagen Cathedral comparing Ariel Sharon's 
policies toward the Palestinians to those of King Herod, 
who ordered the slaughter of all male children under the 
age of 2 in Bethlehem.

Political opinion in Europe is certainly one-sided when it 
comes to the Mideast conflict. Members of the Norwegian 
Nobel committee have publicly called for the withdrawal of 
the Peace Prize from the Israeli foreign minister, 
Shimon Peres, but not from his co-winner, Yasir Arafat. 
The European Parliament voted to urge member governments 
to impose trade sanctions on Israel but urged no action 
against the Palestinian Authority. Historically, the far 
right and far left have not agreed on much. These days 
they seem united in their contempt for the Jewish state.

This was evident last summer at the international conference 
against racism in Durban, South Africa, which turned into 
a celebration of Israel hatred. Zionism was once again 
equated with racism and Israel's legitimacy came under 
repeated attack. 

Focusing on the suffering of only one side is also not 
the same as anti-Semitism, although it is distressing. 
Just as there are American politicians who believe they 
have no political room to maneuver when it comes to 
support for Israeli policies, so there are European 
politicians with large Muslim constituencies whose 
voters do not want to see them acknowledging gray areas 
in this fight. There are also other explanations for 
the European mood. Guilt over the Holocaust may be 
salved with the thought that Jews, too, can act with 
cruelty. And given American sponsorship of Israel, 
being fashionably anti-American can easily mean being 
anti-Israel.

But much of Europe has a special responsibility to be 
cautious. Its cultures are drenched in a history of 
anti-Semitism. The mixing of historic European 
anti-Semitism with the more modern version in the 
Muslim world is a dangerous cocktail.

All this does not mean that Israel should be above 
criticism. Far from it. But it does mean that when 
you read of hooded men shouting "Death to Jews" 
attacking a Jewish soccer team in suburban Paris, 
as happened recently, it should prompt some profound 
soul-searching about whether the past has come calling.