Europe and the Muslim war against the Jews

The Islamic cocktail of fanatical religious passion, Jew-hatred, and warlike zeal has been further inflamed by the violently anti-Israel coverage in most of the European media

The rising tide of anti-Semitic vitriol across Europe with synagogues burning in Paris, London and Marseilles, and the old pogromist cry of "Death to the Jews!" once more echoing from Brussels to Kiev has shocked many in Israel and the Diaspora. Such hostility has not been seen since the end of World War II and has exposed the dormant genocidal demons still lurking beneath the civilized veneer of Europe, as well as the hollowness of its pretensions to moral superiority. Much less attention has been paid, however, to the massive Muslim contribution to this wave of anti-Semitism which in Europe and the West has found its most enthusiastic supporters among recent Arab and Muslim immigrants. Since October 2000, there has been an alarming rise in the number of anti-Semitic assaults on Jewish communities around the world for which young Muslims have been responsible and nowhere is this more apparent than in France. These new immigrants carry with them anti-Semitic baggage from their mother countries and Islamic culture.

Their hatred is further reinforced by the malevolently Judeophobic sermons heard in their local mosques or the scenes of "martyrdom" continually relayed by satellite TV programs from the Middle East. This highly explosive cocktail of fanatical religious passion, Jew-hatred, and warlike zeal sentiments perfectly encapsulated in the concept of Jihad (Holy War) has been still further inflamed by the violently anti-Israel coverage of the Palestinian intifada in most of the French and European media.

Not only that, but the Muslim war against the Jews, especially in Europe, is also fuelled by their feelings of alienation, exclusion, and marginalization largely the product of an unsuccessful integration into the majority culture. Many Muslims see themselves as victims of European racism and displace their rage against the far more successful Jews whose influence they tend to exaggerate. Their frustrations and resentment have led to an intense though vicarious identification with the Palestinian victims of "Israeli aggression." Meanwhile, the Jews particularly in France with the growing spectre of Le Pen adding fuel to the flames find themselves caught between the new Islamic Judeophobia, the anti-Arab xenophobia (anti-Semitically tinged) of the Front National, and the Israelophobia of much of the European mass media.

ONE OF the paradoxes of the present situation is that only with the electoral success of Le Pen have the Western media begun to acknowledge (though somewhat grudgingly) that anti-Semitism is indeed a problem, though wherever possible it is subordinated to the wider issue of racism and anti-racism. But when it comes to Muslim anti-Semitism, the West inexplicably looks the other way.

The ubiquity of Muslim incitement against Jews from Cairo to Damascus, Baghdad, Teheran, and Lahore is barely commented upon. Its direct connection to the terrorist war of the Islamists against Israel and the West is underplayed, if it is mentioned at all. Even the deluge of venomous Judeophobia widely available in Arab and Muslim bookshops and on video cassettes in Europe itself, is rarely investigated though it clearly amounts to a culture of incitement. Holocaust denial material, when sponsored, promoted, or disseminated by Muslims, arouses only a small ripple of interest yet the same phenomenon when it can be linked to neo-Nazis or neo-fascists is most extensively covered by the Western media.

Another virtually taboo subject is the close resemblance between Nazi and Islamic anti-Semitism. This is apparent in the visual imagery of the Arab press which endlessly indulges in hideous stereotypes of Jews reminiscent of the classic Nazi propaganda rag, Der Stuermer.

Muslims have largely taken over the Nazi conspiratorial view of world Jewry as a giant octopus controlling the world's wealth and mass media, manipulating the US, fomenting wars and revolutions, and seeking to dominate the planet by subverting all rivals especially Islam. Israel, in particular, is portrayed as the incarnation of evil, populated by criminal racists and Shylocks in military uniform, whose policies include spreading drugs, vice, prostitution, AIDs, and the cultural poisons of modernity into Muslim society. From there it is but a small leap to embracing the idea that all the Jews of Israel should be eliminated. Hence the widespread glorification among Palestinians, Arabs, and millions of Muslims of the suicide bombers who deliberately target innocent Israeli civilians. But to discuss these causes and effects would, it appears, be most inconvenient to the good conscience of many self-righteous Europeans. After all, only 60 years ago the unquenchable hatred we are now seeing on the Muslim street was also rampant among the peoples of Europe whose complicity and in many cases active collaboration made the Nazi extermination of Jews possible.

But the impeccably "anti-racist" and humanist Europeans of today prefer not to recognize their handiwork in the perverted and genocidal ideology of Islamist anti Semitism, for which historically they bear considerable guilt.

Instead they stand by almost silently when they are not actively denying the existence of Muslim Jew-baiting or trying to excuse it as a purely political act of "resisting the (Israeli) occupation." This trivializing response to the Muslim war against the Jews (which has its counterparts in Israel and the Diaspora) reminds me of the failure of the West to effectively counter Nazi anti-Semitism. It smacks of appeasement, cowardice, and a failure to confront Europe's inner demons which have instead been projected with almost hysterical fury against the alleged sins of the Jewish State.

But the "original sin" of European racism will not be so easily exorcised, and deflecting it against Israel is likely to prove as suicidal as the exploding bombers who are wrecking the Palestinian cause.

The writer is Professor of European History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a senior research associate at the Shalem Center.

It continues to amaze me that the Jews in this country cannot see this and align themselves with those that would fight it rather than those that perpetuate it.

T'was a mystery to me also, until I came up with a theory which satisfied me. Maybe you will agree, maybe not.

Due to decades of being accused of being evil, money-grubbing and self-serving, usually by people who envied their success and desired to degrade their accomplishments, Jews embraced liberalism to show others what nice people they really were. Liberalism is the first cousin of Communism, meaning in Arkansas it can also be the father of Communism (sorry for the cheap shot, Arkansas, I just couldn't resist ). The USSR and Nazi Germany were basically at war, despite treaties intended to con each other while preparing for attack, and Germany was openly persecuting the Jews. (Stalin was killing them also but no one knew.) Therefore, in keeping with the theory of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend.", the Jews sided with Communist Russia, or the USSR. There was also a large cadre of Communist supporters and sympathizers in the U.S. at the time, many in top positions of government who helped guide our war effort to the advantage of Stalin. Well, you know the rest but in my opinion that was the beginning of the Jews infatuation with the left, forgetting that NAZI stood for National Socialist _ _.

The left has always been against democracy except when they could use it to over throw it. That is one reason they hate our Constitution and try to subvert it, it prevents the majority from becoming tyrants. The left, whose true goal is to take over the government so that they will have a free hand in imposing their superior values upon us, seduce as many constituencies as they can by championing the cause of the "little people, the oppressed people", most of whom they create and will gladly really oppress once they use them to gain power. Jews naturally want to be on the side of those fighting for oppressed people, real or imagined.

Now what do they liberals have in common with the militant Islamic terrorists? The militant Islamists subjegate women, something the liberals pretend to oppose, the Muslims say homosexuality is against Allah, something the liberals loudly deny but add, "Well, even if it is there is no God anyway, so who cares?. The militant Islamists oppose democracy and want complete power to impose their superior values upon others.

So, at the core, liberals and militant Islamists want the same thing, the power to impose their values upon everyone else, while seeming on the surface to greatly differ.

That brings us back to the theory of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Liberals have never flinched at being hypocritical and they are doing so in this case. Democracy in the form of a Constitutional Republic is the enemy of both liberals and the militant Islamists. Therefore the U.S. is the enemy of both with the democracies of Europe to a lessor extent. The media of both the U.S. and Europe are largely liberal and become the amplifier for liberals in general, greatly exagerating their numbers and support. As a result, large numbers of people in Europe and the U.S. seem to be against Israel and in support of the terrorists.

So, as we ponder why seemingly desparate interest are spouting from the same playbook, remember, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend.", and you, I, conservatives in general, and democracies are the enemy. Were it not so unthinkably disasterous, it would be interesting to see the left and the Islamists fight it out after democracy was destroyed. Would U.S. and European pacifists still be so? Would they approach Ossama, et al. with olive braches? The thought almost makes the prospect thinkable. Almost.

It continues to amaze me that the Jews in this country cannot see this and align themselves with those that would fight it rather than those that perpetuate it.

T'was a mystery to me also, until I came up with a theory which satisfied me. Maybe you will agree, maybe not.

An interesting theory Robot. A lot of what you say I agree with althought I'm not sure I'd arrive at the same conclusion as to why the present day alliance with the left...and all the baggage that goes with it.

I can certainly understand the "image thing" where the Jews wanted to show that they were good people instead of the evil moneygrabbers, etc...But it goes further than that for me.

Jews in general, and the ones that I know in specific, are intelligent, industrious, moral people. I would place their race as second to no other race it terms of those traits.

Yet, having said that, every Jew that I know is a diehard leftist...and it ain't cuz they want people to like them. They actually believe that way.

Baffling...anyway, thanks for your insights and taking the time to respond.

This author is absolutely correct. Israel should not even talk about peace with anyone until her enemies and their European supporters make great strides to stem this kind of bullshot.

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