Weiss dismissed as "ridiculous" fingering European Muslims for anti-Jewish attacks

By Mustafa Abdel-Halim, IOL Staff

CAIRO, December 10 (IslamOnline.net) –  If there is a constant refrain now catching on in Europe it is anti-Semitism, courtesy of recent separate attacks on Jewish targets and a controversial European poll declaring Israel as the greatest threat to world peace.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, anti-Semitism is hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious or racial group.

It was coined in 1879 by German agitator Wilhelm Marr to designate the anti-Jewish campaigns underway in central Europe at that time.

Encyclopedia maintains that though the term now has wide currency, it is a “misnomer, since it implies a discrimination against all Semites. Arabs and other peoples”.

Richard Levy, a professor of History in Chicago, told IslamOnline.net the term is often misused when Jews and others “refuse to see any difference between criticism of Israeli policies and anti-Semitism”.

“Anti-Semitic charges are sometimes employed to stifle objections to anything the Israelis want to do or have done," Levy said.

Now, analysts tend to agree, Israel has gained much from the intensively-used anti-Semitic cliché.

"It better fits the Israeli military agenda to keep eyes distracted from the horrendous scenes of aggression against the Palestinians, using allegations of anti-Semitism," said Stanley Cohen, an American activist and lawyer.

Cohen, himself a Jew, said that soon after the EU Commission survey disclosed that some 59 per cent of Europeans believe Israel is more dangerous than North Korea and Iran, Tel Aviv accused Europe of adopting an "unbalanced policy" in the Middle East.

Before recently succumbing to Israeli and U.S. political offensive, the E.U. had for long resisted banning Palestinian resistance movements such as Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was also careful to dismiss any relation between the results of the survey and his army's almost-daily incursions into and long-standing occupation of Palestinian areas.

Blaming Muslims

Commenting on attacks against Jews in Europe, Sharon argued that the "best solution is immigration to Israel."

However, Rabbi Yisroel Weiss, the spokesman of Neturei Karta - an organization representing hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Jews - described such calls as "an attempt to overcome a demographic threats of becoming a minority against high Palestinian birth rates."

He also dismissed as "ridiculous" fingering Europe's Muslims for the attacks, which include setting a French Jewish school ablaze last month.

These charges "add much fuel to the fire that could plunge the relatively tolerant continent into racial hatred and violence, something that could undermine its general stability and the fact that Muslims and Jews could co-exist anywhere," said Weiss, a distinguished speaker and lecturer on Zionism.

A number of Israeli officials, including Sharon, have repeatedly claimed that the growing number of Muslims in Europe "could endanger life of Jews there" – an allegation vehemently repudiated by Muslims.

"Call it a day to find any evidence of our discriminatory statements written or spoken against Jews," countered Ahmed Versi, editor-in-chief of the British Muslims News.

On the contrary, there's plenty of racism "directed against Blacks, Latinos and Arabs," said Noam Chomsky, a prominent Jewish scholar and thinker, said in a live video link-up to public Scottish meeting last year.

He compared this to "occasional and marginal" cases of anti-Semitism.

'Election Gimmick'

Other analysts said the Israeli right-wing government is to get much benefit in approaching elections through waving anti-Semitism charges.

"Sharon is preoccupied with how to win hearts and minds of voters, now feeling deceived into believing his earlier promises of prevailing security and economic boost," Israeli Affairs Cairo University lecturer Jihad Ouda said.

"It is the same game that secured him sweeping majority in last polls, mixing religion and identity with politics," Ouda said.

Counterproductive

However, some analysts and activists believe the Israeli accusations against Muslim minorities in the West could be counterproductive.

"Regardless of their short-term repercussions on Muslims in Europe, anti-Semitism claims could serve to draw attention to the latter's own cause," said Adli Abu Hajar, Secretary General of the European Islamic Council.

"We now call that halting anti-Jewish remarks be associated with similar serious moves against anti-Arab and –Muslim sentiments, something Sharon or his officials could not make the case against," enthused Abu Hajar.

Echoing similar position, Cohen underlined: "People, including Jews themselves, began to wonder: why we feel sympathy for Israelis? and for how long?"

"Nothing of Israeli crimes now be kept under beds, as all are in public, and pressures on Europeans and other western critics could be undermined on a solid ground," he added.

Rabbi Weiss agreed. "It is no longer win-win situation for Israel and Zionist propagandists of anti-Semitism."

"They must realize this now, or otherwise a bitter future can tell," he averred.

An Irish draft resolution to condemn anti-Semitism was withdrawn from the U.N. General Assembly after getting scant support.

French Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepin declared Wednesday, December 3, that Israel could be taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for building a controversial wall snaking into the Palestinian land.