The new antsemitism among European Intelligentsia By Dr. Rivka Shpak-Lissak

The new European antsemitism is a new level of antsemitism and constitutes discrimination against the Jews as a People. This modern antsemitism conceals its true nature by claiming that it is purporting legitimate criticism of Israel's actions in the occupied territories. Antsemitism protrudes from behind anti-Zionism by the negation of the Jewish People's right to a state, and by negating the historic connection of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel, together with the old claim that the Jews control the world by means of their wealth.

There are 3 groups with an antsemitic standpoint in Europe: the extreme right, the 2^nd generation of immigrants from Muslim countries and the intelligentsia class.

Prof. Yehuda Bauer from the Holocaust Studies faculty at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has published a number of studies on the new anti-Semitism. His book "Antsemitism Today: Myth and Reality" was published in 1985. He has also published articles on the subject in various journals.

In his research, Prof. Bauer relates to the waves of antsemitism that swept across Europe after the Second World War. He divides the wave of antsemitism into a number of sub-waves:

The first wave: 1958-1960

The second wave: 1968-1972

The third wave: 1987-1992

The fourth wave: 1999-present

Each one of the sub-waves had a different cause and some were related to economic issues relevant to Europe. Each sub-wave had however a common base. According to Prof. Bauer, there was a covert antsemitism waiting to erupt as the result of an external crisis. Each of the sub-waves is linked to events in the Middle East concerning Israel's relations with its Arab neighbors. The first wave was as a result of the Sinai Campaign , the second began after the Six Day War, the third in the wake of the first Intifada and the first Lebanon War and the last following the second Intifada and its resulting consequences.

In Prof. Bauer's opinion, the common denominator characterizing all the sub-waves is that the new antsemitism is unlike the antsemitism of the past that was rampant mainly among the lower strata of society, but rather that this is antsemitism of the middle and upper classes. This is an intellectual phenomenon present in the media, universities and among academic circles, that is to say the coterie of the European Left.

Two crises gave rise to this new phenomenon, namely the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel. The Holocaust caused a sense of discomfort towards the Jews among Europeans. Prof. Bauer defines the situation as living with 6 million ghosts. This state of affairs created a dangerous and cruel mutation in European culture.

The establishment of the State of Israel allowed for a sense of relief. The Europeans supported the establishment of the State from within an expression of disgust at their antsemitic past and with the intention of atoning for everything that had been done to the Jews in Europe. They hoped that the Jews would find their home in Israel.

The birth of the State of Israel caused however a deterioration in the relations between Israel and the Arab states and an escalation of the Israeli-Arab dispute. This conflict created a genuine tragedy for the Palestinians. One of the foundation stones of the European Left's viewpoint is the support of peoples struggling for their independence. The issue of the refugees was compounded by the problem of the Israeli occupation in 1967, the Left being opposed on principle to occupation.

However anti-Semitism, previously dormant, was now linked to the Palestinian tragedy with the purpose of assigning the Jews with a label of mass murderers and Nazis. This labeling of the Israelis enabled the European intelligentsia to psychologically release themselves from the emotional predicaments posed by the Holocaust. In this context the facts bear no importance. Since the beginning of the second intifada approximately 2000 Palestinians have been killed, one sixth of the number of Jews brought from Hungary to Auschwitz in one day in the spring of 1944. The Left regard the Palestinian terror as a struggle against the occupation, a reaction against Israeli actions and not the opposite. Their support for the cause of the Palestinians, as an oppressed people struggling for independence, has engaged them in increasing rejection of Israel's very existence as a state. The European intelligentsia circle has drawn the conclusion that support for the establishment of the State of Israel was a historic mistake that needs rectifying.

According to Prof. Bauer, the danger of the new antsemitism is in its appearance simultaneous to the advent of the Muslim anti-Semitism. The Muslim media has adopted the Nazi ideology, adapting it for its own purposes. 2 billion Muslims are exposed daily to genocidal incitement against the Jews and Israel, and 2 streams are thus united – both the European and the Muslim antsemitic claims of genocide regarding the Jews. The European Left is, in practice, a companion of the fundamentalist Islam and of Ahmadinejad in openly calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. Needless to say, this destruction of State will also bring about the liquidation of most of its population.

Prof. Bauer does not reject criticism of Israel's policies. Anti-Zionism is not necessarily anti-Semitism. However negating the existence of Israel as a State without demanding the nullification of all national states is indeed antsemitism and racism. Claiming that the Jews alone have no right to independence is anti-Jewish, and, when removing only the Jews from the whole because of nationalist reasons, is racist and antsemitic .

It must be said to the European Left: the State of Israel came into existence by virtue of the Jews' right to self definition as every other People. The historical bond between the Jews and the Land of Israel is an undeniable historical fact. It is true that the West's feelings of guilt regarding the Holocaust brought about the UN resolution in 1947 to establish the State, however the process had already begun in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration, the recognition by the League of Nations of a national home for the Jews in the Land of Israel and the establishment of the British Mandate government in 1922. The Holocaust hastened the actual establishment of the State but is not the sole cause responsible for it. The Palestinians missed the opportunity to establish their own state in 1937, in 1948, and throughout the entire period between 1948-1967 while under Arab rule. In 1967 they were also granted a further opportunity when Prime Minister Levi Eshkol proclaimed his willingness for land for peace. The events that followed the rebuttal of this offer can be blamed on both parties.

The new anti-Jewishness

Professor Irwin Kotler is a lecturer of law at Mcgill University and a member of the Canadian parliament. Kotler has published an article titled "Human rights and the new anti-Jewishness – Alert".

In his article, Prof. Kotler explains the main difference between the classic antsemitism and the new anti-Jewishness. Classic antsemitism is discrimination against, or the negation of rights of Jews to live as equal-rights members in a free society. The new anti-Jewishness is the nullification of the right of the Jewish People to exist as a member of equal rights and status among the family of nations. This anti-Jewishness isolates and discriminates against Israel and the Jewish People by isolating and discriminatory treatment in the international arena and points at Israel and the Jewish People as a target for destruction.

Kotler suggests a system of indices for identifying the nature and significance of the new anti-Jewishness. These indices are based on principles of discrimination and equality in national and international law.

Kotler lists 13 indices:

1. Existential or destructive antsemitism – refers to terror organizations publicly calling to destroy Israel and murder Jews, to rulings of law by extremist Islamic religious individuals exhorting the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews as a religious obligation, to Iran who calls for Israel to be wiped off the map and who declares its intention to use nuclear weapons towards this genocide.

2. Political antsemitism – refers to the nullification of the Jewish People's right to self definition, the nullification of the legitimacy and the existence of the State of Israel and to the demonization of Israel, portrayed as a symbol of human rights violations.

3. Ideological antsemitism – expressed by the "Zionism is a form of racism" UN resolution, officially annulled but whose influence is still felt, that condemns Israel as an "apartheid state" and slanders Israel as being a "Nazi state".

4. Theological antsemitism – refers to Muslim antsemitism which views Jews and Judaism as an enemy of Islam and transforms the murder of Jews into a religious commandment, and also to Christian theological antsemitism that regards the Church as the heir of the Jews' position in the eyes of God, and therefore determines that the Land of Israel belongs to the Church and not to the Jewish People and that the State of Israel was established illegally.

5. Cultural antsemitism – refers to the fashion, widespread among academic and intellectual circles, of granting legitimacy to antsemitism by de-legitimizing the State of Israel.

6. European antsemitism – refers to the recent renewed outbreak of antsemitism in Europe, expressed by the attacks on synagogues, schools, Jewish institutions, people identified as Jews and cheap propaganda against Israel and the Jews, while demonizing Israel and negating its right to defend itself against terror. These antsemitic activities are common to both the Right and the Left, who hold demonstrations in which they openly declare: "Death to the Jews".

7. Anti-Jewishness in the international arena: the rejection of Israel's equality in the eyes of the law – Israel has become a type of "collective Jew" and the attitude towards it is similar to the attitude held by the non-Jewish community towards the individual Jew. This discriminatory attitude towards Israel was also expressed at the Durban Conference against racism, but is a permanent phenomenon within various UN organizations and especially the UN Human Rights Council.

8. Administrative Anti-Jewishness – the prevention of Israel's participation and that of non-governmental Jewish organizations in regional federations.

9. Legally "authorized" antsemitism – following the recognition of the UN Resolution equating Zionism with racism as being a front for anti-Semitism, a different approach was adopted and now, the emphasis has been transferred to slandering Israel on human rights issues. The UN is very active in this realm.

10. Economic antsemitism – refers to the Arab boycott. In the past, economic antsemitism was expressed by discrimination against Jews in the fields of housing, education and employment whilst the Arab boycott obligates companies who wish to maintain a commercial relationship with Arab states to sign a contract committing them to boycott Israel, not to employ Jews and not to promote those already in their employment.

11. Holocaust Denial – the Jews are accused of fabricating the Holocaust, of extorting compensation from Germany and of establishing the "illegal" Israel on Palestinian lands. The significance of the latter claim is the attempt to deprive the Jews of their past – the Palestinians are the rightful owners of the land – and to deprive them of their future i.e their right to a State.

12. Racial Terror against the Jews – refers to the efforts of international terror entities to carry out acts of terror against Jews and Israel, for example strikes against Jewish institutions by Hizbollah and Al-Kaeida or the attempt to strike the Azrieli Towers.

13. Officially "licensed" antsemitism – refers to the cultivation of "cultural hatred" against the Jews and Israel by countries through incitement in mosques, schools and in the media. For example, the use of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, blood libels and symbols and subjects from the classical anti-Semitism.

In conclusion, Prof. Kotler emphasizes that he has no expectation of discrimination in favor of Israel, but rather of the cessation of negative discrimination, that is to say, the implementation of different criteria regarding Israel in comparison with other countries.