Non-Islamic anti-Semitism in Europe

[Mosby]

BERLIN — The wave of modern anti-Semitism across Europe in July and August revealed a dangerous amalgamation of left-wing, Islamic-animated, and right-wing extremist Jew-hatred.

Mainstream Europeans remained largely indifferent to contemporary anti-Semitism, namely, the hatred of the Jewish State surrounding Israel's Operation Protective Edge. The firebombing of a synagogue in Wuppertal, Germany, along with protestors at mass rallies calling to "Gas the Jews" prompted scant outrage in German society.

"There is a startling indifference in the German public to the current display of anti-Semitism," said Samuel Salzborn, a leading expert on anti-Semitism at the University of Göttingen in Lower Saxony, in early August. The pressing question is, how can one explain Europe's robust tolerance of Jew-hatred?

This essay will begin by describing the social-psychological mechanism, in response to the Holocaust, driving non-Islamic anti-Semitism among Europeans.

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Henryk M. Broder, a German Jewish author and columnist, is arguably the leading expert on contemporary anti-Semitism in the country. He testified at a Bundestag hearing in 2008, and provided a window into the soul of 21st-century German anti-Semitism:

The modern anti-Semite looks entirely different. He does not have a shaved head. He has good manners and often an academic title as well. He mourns for the Jews who died in the Holocaust. But at the same time, he wonders why the survivors and their descendants have learned nothing from history and today treat another people as badly as they were once treated themselves. The modern anti-Semite does not believe in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. But instead he fantasizes about an "Israel lobby" that is supposed to control American foreign policy like a tail that wags the dog.

Broder's characterization of the modern anti-Semite is also relevant for other European countries where there is a relentlessly intense preoccupation with demonizing the Jewish State among many academics and politicians. During Operation Protective Edge, the popular Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo declared, "I'd like to shoot those bastard Zionists."


http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/5426/anti-semitism-europe