Any institutionalised and widespread form of anti-semitism such as we see in England and in the rest of Europe can only be addressed starting from the top. While I have expressed my opinion about this before, this is Denis MacShane writing in the Washington Post of today about this absolutely disgusting phenomena in Europe. And as I have mentioned before, the same applies to Anti-Muslims in Europe and the sad irony is that much of the anti-semitism in Europe is carried out by Muslims. Stupid stupid stupid.
Read and weep!
The New Anti-Semitism
By Denis MacShane
The Washington Post, Tuesday, September 4, 2007; Page A17
Hatred of Jews has reached new heights in Europe and many points south
and east of the old continent. Last year I chaired a blue-ribbon
committee of British parliamentarians, including former ministers and a
party leader, that examined the problem of anti-Semitism in Britain.
None of us are Jewish or active in the unending debates on the
Israeli-Palestinian question.
Our report showed a pattern of fear among a small number of British
citizens -- there are around 300,000 Jews in Britain, of whom about a
third are observant -- that is not acceptable in a modern democracy.
Synagogues attacked. Jewish schoolboys jostled on public transportation.
Rabbis punched and knifed. British Jews feeling compelled to raise
millions to provide private security for their weddings and community
events. On campuses, militant anti-Jewish students fueled by Islamist or
far-left hate seeking to prevent Jewish students from expressing their
opinions.
More worrisome was what we described as anti-Jewish discourse, a mood
and tone whenever Jews are discussed, whether in the media, at
universities, among the liberal media elite or at dinner parties of
modish London. To express any support for Israel or any feeling for the
right of a Jewish state to exist produces denunciation, even contempt.
Our report sent a shock wave through the British government. Tony Blair
called us in and told his staff to fan out throughout government
departments and produce answers to the problems we outlined. To
Britain's credit, the Blair administration produced a formal government
response setting out tough new guidelines for the police to investigate
anti-Semitic attacks and for universities to stop anti-Jewish ideology
from taking root on campuses. Britain's Foreign Office has been told to
protest to Arab states that allow anti-Jewish broadcasts.
We made clear that criticism of actions of Israeli politicians was not
off-limits. On the contrary, we noted that some of the strongest
criticisms of Israeli policy come from Israeli campuses, journalists and
political activists, and from the Jewish intellectual elite of many
countries. American universities have provided a base for Noam Chomsky
and the late Edward Said, among others, to launch campaigns of criticism
against Israel, and the bulk of the West's university intelligentsia
remains hostile to the Jewish state.
Tony Blair's successor as British prime minister, Gordon Brown, recently
said in London that he stood with Israel "in bad times as well as good
times," and one of the remarkable turnarounds of the new Labor
leadership that governs Britain is a strong support for Israel and its
commitment to combating anti-Semitism. The problem is worse in other
European countries. The Polish politician, Maciej Marian Giertych,
recently published a pamphlet under the auspices of the European
Parliament that attacked Jews. No action has been taken against him.
France and Germany have seen anti-Jewish attacks. Some references to
Jews in the Lithuanian press do not bear translating.
Europe is reawakening its old demons, but today there is a difference.
The old anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism have morphed into something more
dangerous. Anti-Semitism today is officially sanctioned state ideology
and is being turned into a mobilizing and organizing force to recruit
thousands in a new crusade -- the word is chosen deliberately -- to
eradicate Jewishness from the region whence it came and to weaken and
undermine all the humanist values of rule of law, tolerance and respect
for core rights such as free expression that Jews have fought for over time.
The president of Iran is the most odious example of this new
state-sanctioned anti-Semitism. But from the Egyptian Writers Union to
the notorious anti-Jewish articles in the charters of Hamas and
Hezbollah, hatred of Jews is an integral element of a new ideology
rising to prominence in many regions of the world.
Democracies always take their time, often too much time, to recognize
and face a totalitarian threat when it is posed in ideological terms. In
prewar Europe, conservatives were soft on right-wing ideologies because
they were seen as being anti-communist and anti-labor. In postwar
Europe, socialists were soft on the Soviet Union because the communists
appeared to challenge capitalism and imperialism. Today there is still
denial about the universal ideology of the new anti-Semitism. It has
power and reach, and it enters into the soft underbelly of the Western
mind-set that does not like Jews or what Israel does to defend its right
to exist.
A counterattack is being organized. My own House of Commons has led the
way with its report. The 47-nation Council of Europe, on which I sit as
a British representative, has launched a lengthy inquiry into combating
anti-Semitism in Europe. The European Union has produced a directive
outlawing Internet hate speech originating within its jurisdiction.
We are at the beginning of a long intellectual and ideological struggle.
It is not about Jews or Israel. It is about everything democrats have
long fought for: the truth without fear, no matter one's religion or
political beliefs. The new anti-Semitism threatens all of humanity. The
Jew-haters must not pass.
The writer is a Labor member of the British House of Commons and has
served as Britain's Europe minister.
All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment