Israel and the Jews: Looking glasses on ugly Europe

Over the past decades, European countries have, almost indiscriminately, let in many millions of Muslims who come from nations where anti-Semitism is rife.

By MANFRED GERSTENFELD
Demonstrators in Brussels hold a giant Palestinian flag and anti-Israel signs (photo credit: REUTERS/FRANCOIS LENOIR)
Demonstrators in Brussels hold a giant Palestinian flag and anti-Israel signs
(photo credit: REUTERS/FRANCOIS LENOIR)
Events of the past summer have once again shown that much is radically wrong with the European Union. The European attitudes toward Israel and the Jews serve as excellent “looking glasses” allowing for a better observation of several major aspects of European society. A few examples will illustrate this.
One of these aspects concerns immigration.
Over the past decades, European countries have, almost indiscriminately, let in many millions of Muslims. These immigrants come from non-democratic nations where anti-Semitism, both in its classic forms and in its anti-Israeli dimension, is rife.
Many of these people are often highly intolerant of any criticism of their own religion and/or culture.
Allowing so many people into Europe from such dictatorial, hateful and discriminatory environments has played a major role in the increase of European anti-Semitism, which has culminated – so far – during the summer of 2014. This rise in anti-Semitism further exposed the existence of the EU’s alter ego, which might be called Ugly Europe (UE). Synagogues were vandalized. Jews were physically and verbally attacked. There were calls to kill Jews and demonstrations reminiscent of the 1930s.
Media reports show that descendants of Muslim immigrants bear a disproportionately large amount of responsibility for current anti-Semitic incidents. This is true for the most violent of these incidents in particular.
Whatever statistics are available confirm this fact. The highly negative outcome of this European immigration policy is a new form of state-enabled anti-Semitism.
Europe’s double standards can be seen by comparing the nature and number of condemnations of Israel with those concerning other countries. The EU frequently employs double standards regarding Israel, which according to the definition of anti-Semitism by the European Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), is an anti-Semitic act. The sudden abolition of this definition by the FRA in 2013 can be considered as an additional European step to facilitate anti-Semitism.
The dubious character of the highly overrated “international law” can also be shown by its application to Israel by the EU. The EU claims that Israeli settlements are illegal. More than a thousand lawyers – among whom are many prominent ones from a variety of countries – signed a document stating that the settlements were legal.
Not only did all these lawyers think that Israeli settlements were legal, so did the Reagan administration. The lawyers’ document was sent to several high officials of the EU. The only reply given was an acknowledgment by a junior EU official that the document had been received.
If the EU believed its interpretation of international law to be solid, it would have given a persuasive answer to the document. Alternatively, it would have gladly organized a conference to put its case strongly forward.
Israel may be used as a proverbial looking glass to closely observe another facet of what is radically wrong with the European Union. The EU has about 400 million citizens of 16 years of age and older. Over 40 percent of them embrace a “demonic” view of Israel. This was shown, inter alia, in a study by the University of Bielefeld, carried out on behalf of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation of the German Social Democrat party, and published in 2011. One of the questions asked those polled was whether they were in agreement with the statement that Israel is carrying out a war of extermination against the Palestinians. It is easy to understand that these opinions, held by large parts of the EU population are based on extreme slander.
If people falsely accuse others of being mass murderers and of being genocidal, it reflects the criminal mindset of the accusers. These hatefilled opinions of Israel echo the mentality of a large minority of the EU population. They not only have a perverse mindset but are also largely irrational. One might argue that they are even more irrational – or backward – in their thinking than their medieval anti-Semitic ancestors. In the Middle Ages Europeans weren’t able to investigate whether the accusations of well-poisoning against the Jews were true or false. Contemporary Europeans can easily verify that what they choose to believe – that Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians – is totally untrue.
These false beliefs concerning Israel provide a perspective on large percentages of Europe’s population. Israel can hardly be the only issue about which so many Europeans are totally irrational and radically wrong. There must be many others.
Using other looking glasses in addition to those of Israel and the Jews increases the effectiveness of the analysis of Ugly Europe. One example is attitudes toward Hamas. One can use this to analyze the statements of various European politicians, organizations and individuals, who express themselves on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Many condemn Israel but remain silent about the genocidal agenda of Hamas concerning all Jews.
Those Europeans can be exposed as indirect helpers of Islamo-Nazi planners of mass murder.
The author’s upcoming book The War of a Million Cuts analyzes how Israel and Jews are delegitimized and how to fight this. He is a former chairman (2000-2012) of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.