http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12260
Op-Ed: A Brit’s View: Goodby Europe, Hello Israel?
Richard Mather, is a freelance journalist based in Manchester.
I am of the firm belief that Israelophobia is a symptom of the resurgent anti-Semitism, not the cause. Anti-Israel sentiment is so irrational, so hyperbolic and so spiteful, that political explanations do not suffice.
The firebombing of a synagogue in the Swedish city of Malmo is another distressing indication that the future of European Jewry is at risk. It seems that only six decades after the Holocaust, Europe is reverting to type.
In response to the explosion, Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, expressed his belief that Europe’s Jews are “under attack” and that not enough is being done to protect Jewish communities.
Indeed, a recent report by the Anti-Defamation League shows that anti-Semitic attitudes in Europe are at “disturbingly high levels,” with Hungary, Spain and Poland the worst offenders. Around half of the population in each of these countries harbor anti-Jewish views. Attitudes in France and the UK are also a cause for concern.
Physical attacks, cemetery desecrations, firebombings, graffiti and the bullying of Jewish children by their Muslim peers are frequent events in countries across Europe. Unfortunately, Europe’s politicians and opinion-formers have spent so long wallowing in post-colonial guilt and cultural relativism, that they lack the political will to tackle Muslim anti-Semitism, preferring instead to castigate Israel.
Attributing anti-Semitism to the Israel-Palestinian crisis is a common mistake. I am of the firm belief that Israelophobia is a symptom of the resurgent anti-Semitism, not the cause. Anti-Israel sentiment is so irrational, so hyperbolic and so spiteful, that political explanations do not suffice.
Europe is a hothouse of Quran-inspired hatred and Christian anti-Semitic tropes in which all the old prejudices about “the Jew” as dangerous, nefarious and disloyal are reinterpreted for a modern audience. Israel-bashing is merely a way of expressing and legitimizing these irrational feelings.
