The Jewish World / A collective punishment

One of the deepest wounds the Holocaust inflicted on the Jewish people is a distorted view of present and future dangers. Every anti-Semitic incident stirs memories of the horrors that occurred and sabotages any accurate assessment of the severity of the phenomenon, its causes and the solution. One result of this situation is the making of mistakes in the methods of confronting anti-Semitism and its initiators.

Jewish anxiety is understandable. After 2000 years threaded with persecution (and the tendency is not to remember the good periods), the Holocaust came and destroyed one-third of the Jewish people.

The historical solution, the revival of the Jewish State, ostensibly failed - there is a sovereign national homeland, but anti-Semitism in the Diaspora has not stopped. It has even been said that the State of Israel has become the collective target of "new anti-Semitism."

Even if anti-Semitism is "the oldest hatred in the world," it is doubtful whether adding parentheses to the word "new" is justifiable. Because the anti-Semitism we are currently facing is indeed anti-Semitism of a new kind: it did not emerge from a backdrop of religious hatred (even though it is nourished by Islamic fundamentalism) and does not stem from pseudo-scientific theories about superior and inferior races or even from jealously and covetousness for the possessions of others.

It is created primarily by the clash between Islamic fundamentalism and the existence of the Jewish "infidel state" in the midst of a Muslim expanse.

There is, of course concern, that what happened could happen again and clearly the Holocaust hovers in the background, but it is not logical to see every incident as a threat to destroy the Jewish people. In the past year there were indeed numerous serious anti-Semitic incidents, but when talking of a wave of anti-Semitic incidents this can refer to an increase in the number of incidents as well as a decrease, whether it happens at the height of the intifada or in other circumstances and the numbers in the long term must be considered. Furthermore, CRIF, the umbrella organization of Jews in France, the same France that a survey of delegates to the General Assembly of North American Jewish Federations in Jerusalem last week designated as the most anti-Semitic country in the world, stated that the number of incidents against Jews dropped significantly this past summer. The French Interior Ministry reported that in the first eight months of 2003, the number of anti-Semitic incidents dropped to 247 from 647 in the same period last year.

But even when there is an increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents and their severity intensifies, when fighting them, the actual statistics are not important, but the nature of the data is. The decisive factor is that in almost all of the recent incidents, Muslim elements have been involved. It turns out there is no connection between the number of Jews in a given country and the increased number of incidents, but there is a connection between the number of incidents and the number of Muslims (mostly young people) in that country. Other factors are the growth of fundamentalism, especially in poor neighborhoods, the failure to absorb Muslim immigrants in the societies which they have adopted, the aggression that is unique to the younger generation, the close ties between Israel and the United States and also new technologies that make it easier to perpetrate terrorist acts.

But the most important factor is the connection between Muslim rage over what is happening in the territories under the Israeli occupation and the tendency of Muslims to associate world Jewry with the Jewish State. Of course, that is not enough to justify the anti-Semitic acts, just as there is no justification for any terrorist act against those who are totally innocent people and even have no involvement in the conflict. But the reports - and especially the television images - of what is happening in the territories, which the Muslims see on their screens, are not the same ones that the Israeli public sees and hears - for example, about Israel Defense Forces operations, hunger and degradation.

Israelis and Jews in the world are naturally irate when they see blood on synagogue benches in Istanbul or the charred remains of a Jewish school near Paris that was set on fire. Therefore it is not difficult to understand Arab rage when they see, almost daily, pictures of victims of Israeli bombings, including children, women and the elderly (not to mention the incendiary commentary that accompanies the images). The accusations of "Jewish self-hatred" leveled at those who mention these facts do not change the reality.

The dimensions of Palestinian and Muslim hatred of Israel are such that it does not matter what caused what. The main thing is no longer the reciprocal nature of the actions (or the differences between them) but the results of the hatred caused by the images and incitement. And because Israel and the Jewish people have a shared fate, it is not surprising that the Muslim incitement and attacks against Israel are also directed at Diaspora Jewry.

The government of Israel, of course, has no interest in acknowledging that the occupation is a factor in the development of Muslim anti-Semitism around the world. Perhaps it is even convenient for the Israeli government that the incidents in France or Turkey move the spotlight away from Jenin and the settlements and outposts in the territories, the factors that are fueling the new anti-Semitism. This is a dangerous development. There is no way of knowing when Diaspora Jews will be convinced by the Arab argument that they are paying with their security and safety for part of the cost of the Israeli occupation.

As part of its information campaigns in Israel and abroad, the Israeli government occasionally uncovers a new obstacle that is "an almost existential" threat to the state. Once it is Arafat and once it is Damascus, and once it is Muslim fundamentalism. Currently, the rotating threat is nuclear weapons development in Iran. Presumably Diaspora Jews as well, mainly American Jews, will be asked to participate in the political campaign against Tehran.

An Israeli cabinet minister told General Assembly delegates that it is possible that the first nuclear bomb will fall on Tel Aviv, "but the second will explode in New York" (the largest Jewish city in the world). One might ask if it is wise to position the war against Iran at the top of the Israeli agenda, but apart from that, it is doubtful that many American Jews will be enthusiastic about this direction for the shared fate with Israel.

It would be hard to exaggerate the central role of Muslim hatred in the current wave of anti-Semitism. It seems that the remnants of classical Western anti-Semitism have already latched on to Muslim fundamentalist hatred of Jews. They are nourished by the old slogans and ideas, which are aided practically speaking and financially by new, violent movements. Jewish history shows that anti-Semitism is easy to instill but hard to eradicate.

It will now take a long time to break the connection that has already been made, and it will a require a prolonged effort on the part of Israel and Diaspora Jewry that will not be easy.

Clearly, as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict nourishes Muslim hatred and awakens liberal sensitivities in the West, there is no chance of dismantling the new anti-Semitism.

	PROTEST IN MARSEILLES: Muslim rage over what is happening in the territories under the Israeli occupation feeds anti-Semitism.
	Photo by: AP