ANTI-SEMITISM European hate shifts from Jews to Israel

Hate crimes against Jews are increasing.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
ATHENS, Greece -- When the composer of the music for the 1964 film "Zorba the Greek" referred to Jews as the "root of all evil" a few weeks ago, a fierce controversy erupted here.
The debate, however, was not over how a beloved figure like Mikis Theodorakis could have said something so outrageous.
It was about whether he was being unfairly criticized for his legitimate political beliefs.
To many observers, Theodorakis' comments, the reaction to them, and a recent poll calling Israel a threat to world peace are among the latest examples of a new strain of anti-Semitism on the rise in Europe, one that clothes age-old hatreds in the garb of political opposition to Israel's actions in its conflict with the Palestinians. Jewish activists and Israeli officials say they have seen this phenomenon in the utterances of government officials, left-wing intellectuals and the mainstream European press.
"The press was divided into two groups -- one in favor of Mr. Theodorakis and one against," said Moses C. Constantinis, president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, which condemned the composer's remark on behalf of the country's 7,000 Jews. "Many said we were being too harsh in our reaction."
Theodorakis, a 76-year-old leftist who became a national hero after he was imprisoned by the military dictatorship that ruled Greece from 1967-74, argued that he merely had been venting over what he considers the immoral policies of the current Israeli government. Plenty of Greeks -- and plenty of other Europeans -- agree with him. Sixty-one percent of Greek respondents to a recent poll cited Israel as a threat to world peace, joining a similar percentage of other European Union citizens.
Other examples
In December 2001, the French ambassador to the United Kingdom called Israel "that sh---y little country." Last year, the Dutch wife of the president of the European Central Bank said Israel's conduct was worse than the Nazis, having previously blamed the plight of Palestinians on "the rich American Jewish lobby." In Greece last April, major newspapers ran a false story alleging that the Israeli military was selling organs ripped from dead Palestinians.
"Because it is not politically correct to say you hate Jews, you say you hate Israel," Israeli government adviser Raanan Gissin said recently.
The line between opposition to Israel's controversial tactics and anti-Semitism is difficult to pinpoint, and some in Israel have cautioned against bringing the charge of anti-Semitism too casually. Most people in Europe reject the notion that opposition to Israel is a cover for anti-Semitism.
Violence
But more than political rhetoric is at issue: Hate crimes against Jews in Europe are on the rise. Tel Aviv University's latest annual survey of anti-Semitism reported that the recorded number of violent attacks on Jews worldwide increased from 228 in 2001 to 311 in 2002, with most of them happening in Western Europe.
Because many incidents go unreported, that count is almost certainly incomplete: French Jews counted more than 300 attacks between January and May 2001 alone, Vanity Fair reported in a lengthy article in the June issue about anti-Semitism in France.
Physical violence against Jews and Jewish symbols has been particularly acute in France, which has six million Arabs and 600,000 Jews, Europe's largest population of each. Attacks have also been a problem in Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, according to the U.S. Helsinki Commission, a government agency that examines human rights issues. Another trouble spot that has gotten less attention is Sweden, which has a large and growing Arab immigrant population.
Arabs or Muslims have been responsible for most, though not all, of the attacks, according to news reports. That in itself is a sensitive issue in Europe, where governments are grappling with an influx of Arab immigrants whose numbers dwarf the Jewish populations that remain 60 years after the Holocaust.
"Many observers have finally dared to discuss what has long been a dirty little secret -- namely, that the threat of violence [from] millions of impoverished, ill-treated and often unemployed Muslim men in Western Europe has, at the very least, induced governments to temper their reactions to anti-Semitism," U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said this month at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on European anti-Semitism.
Taking action
That may be changing: Intense focus on the issue of European anti-Semitism in the United States and Israel seems to have helped push European governments to act. France, for example, has toughened bias crime laws, and last week President Jacques Chirac issued a stinging denunciation of anti-Semitism in France.
Earlier this month, a German lawmaker was forced to quit his party after blaming Jews for Stalinist atrocities, and the commander of the German army's special forces was fired for writing a letter agreeing with him.
"There is a new kind of anti-Semitism today, a composite one," said Cobi J. Benatoff, president of the European Council of Jewish Communities. "There is the usual one, the old one, that still exists -- plus there is another one, a demonization of the state of Israel."