Is Europe a lost cause? the European debate on antisemitism and the Middle East conflict

Patterns of Prejudice

Volumn 39, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 46-59

  Klug, Brian ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Anti Americanism; Anti Zionism; Antisemitism; Eurobarometer poll; Europe; Middle East conflict; New antisemitism; Zionism

Indexed keywords

EID: 16244419349     PISSN: 0031322X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00313220500045253     Document Type: Article

References (35)

1. This essay is adapted from a talk given to a seminar on 'The Middle East Conflict and Antisemitism', organized by the German-Israeli Working Group for Peace in the Middle East (DIAK), Arnoldshain, Germany, 29-31 October 2004.
2. Carol Gould, 'An American scapegoat in London', Guardian, 16 October 2004.
3. This discussion might be seen as a follow-up to my earlier article, 'The collective Jew: Israel and the new antisemitism', Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 37, no. 2, June 2003, 117-38.
4. Letter from Dr Michael Schachter (London), Guardian, 18 October 2004.
5. EUMC, Perceptions of Antisemitism in the European Union: Voices from Members of the European Jewish Communities (Vienna: EUMC 2004).
6. Preface, in Werner Bergmann and Juliane Wetzel, 'Manifestations of antisemitism in the European Union', unpublished report commissioned by the EUMC, Vienna, March 2003. The EUMC made this draft report available to the general public in late 2003 or early 2004.
7. EUMC, Manifestations of Antisemitism in the EU 2002-2003 (Vienna: EUMC 2004), 24.
8. Ibid., 25.
9. Wilhelm Marr, Der Sieg des Judenthums ueber das Germanenthum vom nicht confessionellen Standpunkt ausbetrachtet (Bern: Rudolph Costenoble 1879), 30-5, excerpted and translated in Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda. Reinharz (eds), The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995), 332.
10. Wilhelm Marr, Der Sieg des Judenthums ueber das Germanenthum vom nicht confessionellen Standpunkt ausbetrachtet (Bern: Rudolph Costenoble 1879), 30-5, excerpted and translated in Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda. Reinharz (eds), The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1995), 332.
11. Jonathan Sacks, 'A new antisemitism?', in Paul Iganski and Barry Kosmin (eds), A New Antisemitism? Debating Judeophobia in 21st-Century Britain (London: Profile Books 2003), 45.
12. Jonathan Sacks, 'The hatred that won't die', Guardian, 28 February 2002.
13. Helen Fein, 'Dimensions of antisemitism: attitudes, collective accusations and actions', quoted in EUMC, Manifestations of Antisemitism, 307, and (with slight variation) in Bergmann and Wetzel, 'Manifestations of antisemitism', 17.
14. Helen Fein, 'Dimensions of antisemitism: attitudes, collective accusations and actions', quoted in EUMC, Manifestations of Antisemitism, 307, and (with slight variation) in Bergmann and Wetzel, 'Manifestations of antisemitism', 17.
15. Bergmann and Wetzel, 'Manifestations of antisemitism'.
16. I have drawn on various sources in developing this sketch.
17. EUMC, Manifestations of Antisemitism, 130.
18. Ned Temko, 'Satire or anti-Semitism? Anti-Semitism', Independent, 31 January 2003, available at http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/ story.jsp?story = 374144 (viewed 28 December 2004).
19. Dave Brown, 'Satire or anti-Semitism? The cartoonist writes', Independent, 31 January 2003, available at http://news.independent.co.uk/world/ middle_east/story.jsp?story = 374142 (viewed 28 December 2004).
20. Actually, I do not think this is a quibble. It is the basis for a critique of the supposed contrast between the 'new' and 'old' antisemitism.
21. Per Ahlmark, 'Anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, anti-Zionism: is there a connection', speech delivered at the American Jewish Committee Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., 5 May 2004, available at www.ajc.org/annualmeeting/ speechesShow.asp?did = 1164 (viewed 28 December 2004).
22. Iraq and Peace in the World: Full Report, Flash Eurobarometer, no. 151, October 2003.
23. 'Yes, absolutely', 'Yes, rather', 'No, rather not', 'No, absolutely not'.
24. Chris McGreal, 'EU poll sees Israel as peace threat', Guardian, 3 November 2003.
25. Thomas Fuller, 'EU leader attacks poll calling Israel a threat', International Herald Tribune, 4 November 2003.
26. Edgar Bronfman and Gobi Benatoff, 'Europe's moral treachery over anti-Semitism', Financial Times, 4 January 2004.
27. Josef Joffe, 'The demons of Europe', Commentary, vol. 117, no. 1, January 2004, 29.
28. To be fair, Joffe does not rely on the results of the Eurobarometer poll alone. He adduces other evidence for his view that Israel and the United States are 'joint targets of hatred and contempt' (33) and that this animus is antisemitic. For example: 'Echoing a classic indictment of "World Jewry," a poster during an anti-Bush demonstration in Berlin in 2002 read: "Stop Bush's Grab for Global Power!'" (32). Or again: 'Franz Alt, a German author and TV moderator, denouncing Bush as the "greatest enemy of mankind," seemed to be echoing the old Nazi slogan: "Die Juden sind unser Unglück - the Jews are our misfortune'" (33). Perhaps I do not have as good an ear as Joffe. But, to my mind, the fact that he hears these cases as 'echoes' of antisemitism, and therefore thinks they support his position, supports mine. Joffe goes on to offer an explanation for why Israel and the United States are demonized. Ultimately, it is due to their being 'different from the rest of the West' and 'different in the same way' (33). That is, both states are powerful, with a strong sense of national identity and national purpose, and both are willing to assert their strength in (what Europeans perceive as) 'brutish ways' (34). I don't altogether disagree with this assessment. However, Joffe seems to think: (a) given the circumstances in which both countries are placed in the world, these traits are either admirable or necessary or both; and (b) these same traits are the platform for the irrational hatred of the United States and Israel that is endemic in Europe. I am skeptical about (a). As for (b), the overall claim distorts the element of truth it contains.
29. Theodor Herzl, 'First Congress Address (1897)', in Arthur Hertzberg, The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader (Philadephia: Jewish Publication Society 1997), 226-30.
30. The point I am making is not quite the same as the one made by Tony Klug in his writings on the Middle East, beginning with A Tale of Two Peoples (London: Fabian Society 1973), but it is inspired by his approach.
31. I do not mean to imply that the two topics - antisemitism on the left and in the Muslim world - can be lumped together, or to reduce them to a sentence or two. I am conscious of glossing over complex empirical and conceptual terrain.
32. An allusion to the elegant truism attributed to Bishop Joseph Butler (1692-1752): 'Everything is what it is, and not another thing.'
33. 'Hamas: Charter (August 1988)', in Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin (eds), The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict (London: Penguin 2001), 341-8,
34. and see esp. Articles 22, 28 and 32. Article 32 states: "Their scheme has been laid out in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and their present [conduct] is the best proof of what is said there' (347).
35. European Commission and EUMC, The Fight against Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Bringing Communities Together. A Summary of Three Round Table Meetings Initiated by Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou (Brussels/Vienna: European Commission/EUMC 2003).