Anti-Semitism in the guise of intellectualism

The decline in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Europe and elsewhere in recent months is deceiving. In light of international criticism, particularly by the U.S., some European governments undertook aggressive enforcement measures that for the meantime are preventing violent outbreaks against Jews. But the statistics are misleading and hide anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic trends that have taken up a central position among intellectuals and academics worldwide. Instead of burning synagogues and violent harassment of Jewish children or rabbis, a campaign of incitement is underway under cover of intellectualism.

Intellectuals and civil rights activists try to explain that the attacks on Jews and terror against Israel are, in fact, Israel's fault. Their analysis combines delegitimization of the state of Israel with traditional anti-Semitic motifs and stereotypes. According to any objective criteria, this is a new wave of anti-Semitism, unprecedented since the end of World War II, and so far it is difficult to find any sense of responsibility for it among statesmen and intellectuals.

The aggregate effect of violence against Jews, expressions of hatred - including cries of "Death to the Jews" on the streets and campuses of Europe and elsewhere in the world - alongside thundering silence or convoluted explanations that blame Israel for the events, characterize what is now being called "the new anti-Semitism."

Harvard University President Lawrence Summers recently raised a cry about the moral decline of intellectuals. A former Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration, Summers defined himself in the graduation speech at the university as an inactive Jew who had never encountered anti-Semitism in his life. In the past, he explained, he rejected attempts to label criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic. But now, he said, anti-Semitism is no longer the monopoly of the lowest ranks of right-wing extremists, but is taking root among enlightened intellectuals whose anti-Israeli attitudes are characterized by anti-Semitic activity. Summers said he found such anti-Semitism in the growing movement for an economic and academic boycott of Israel, in the deliberate indifference to the fund-raising for anti-Israeli terrorist groups on campuses, and in the left-wing demonstrations that condemn Israel and compare Ariel Sharon to Hitler.

In Paris, a few months ago, Jewish intellectual Alain Finkielkraut claimed that overt French anti-Semitism is now found in the extreme left and not in the extreme right wing represented by le Pen and his supporters on the right. Recent election campaigns in France, Germany and Denmark included anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic rhetoric to appeal to the dark racism of the masses.

An analysis of the anti-Semitic events shows there is a symbiosis between the acts of violent hooligans and the atmosphere in intellectual circles and the media. The United Nation's anti-Semitic fiesta against racism in Durban, South Africa last year was the writing on the wall, from which nobody drew a lesson. Respectable media like the Guardian, the BBC and Le Monde quote intellectuals who challenge the right of Israel to exist. The European press, like civil rights groups and the UN's refugee agency, UNWRA, have yet to apologize or re-examine the blood libel they disseminated about the IDF's operation in Jenin, which resulted in an outbreak of anti-Semitic incidents.

This is the atmosphere now nurturing the public debate in Europe. Under the guidance of Syria, a state that supports terror and currently serves as president of the UN Security Council, Europe is now ready to ignore the definition of responsibility for the murderous terror and to condemn only Israel. And at the UN's Human Rights Commission in Geneva, with member states including "enlightened" countries like Syria, Libya and Sudan, decisions that provide the rationale for killing Jewish Israelis, are being made.

The new anti-Semitism eclipses reason and morality, obfuscating concepts. The unholy alliance between European leftists whose ranks include academics and intellectuals, and fundamentalists and Islamic terror, endangers Israel and the Jews, and threatens the moral strength of Western culture.

arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)