[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 88 (Thursday, June 27, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S6243]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ANTI-SEMITISM IN EUROPE

 Mr. SMITH of Oregon. Mr. President, I rise today to call 
attention to an editorial in today's Washington Post. Anti-Defamation 
League Director Abe Forman has written an excellent piece on the recent 
wave of anti-Semitism in Europe. The Anti-Defamation League today 
released a telling survey on anti-Semitic attitudes in America and 
abroad and the results are nothing less than chilling. I would call on 
all my colleagues to take a look at this important survey and recommit 
ourselves to stopping all prejudice--particularly anti-Semitism both 
here and in Europe.
  I ask to have today's editorial by Abe Foxman printed in the Record.
  The editorial follows:

                      Europe's Anti-Israel Excuse

            (By Abraham H. Foxman--Thursday, June 27, 2002)

       Throughout history a constant barometer for judging the 
     level of hate and exclusion vs. the level of freedom and 
     democracy in any society has been anti-Semitism--how a 
     country treats its Jewish citizens. Jews have been persecuted 
     and delegitimized throughout history because of their 
     perceived differences. Any society that can understand and 
     accept Jews is typically more democratic, more open and 
     accepting of ``the other.'' The predictor has held true 
     throughout the ages.
       During the Holocaust, Jews and other minorities of Europe 
     were dispatched to the camps and, ultimately, their deaths in 
     an environment rife with anti-Semitism. Nearly 60 years later 
     in a modern, democratic Europe that presumably had shed 
     itself of the legacy of that era, Jews have again come under 
     attack. During the past year and a half a troubling epidemic 
     of anti-Jewish hatred, not isolated to any one country or 
     community, has produced a climate of intimidation and fear in 
     the Jewish communities of Europe. Never, as a Holocaust 
     survivor, did I believe we would witness another eruption of 
     anti-Semitism of such magnitude, in Europe of all places. But 
     the resiliency of anti-Semitism is unparalleled. It rears its 
     ugly head in far-flung places, like Malaysia and Japan, where 
     there are no Jews.
       The Anti-Defamation League has been taking the pulse of 
     anti-Semitism in America for more than 40 years. Never did I 
     expect that we would have to do the same in Europe, given the 
     history and our expectation that European anti-Semitism, 
     while not eradicated, would be so marginal and so rejected 
     that it would not be a major concern.
       What we found in the countries we surveyed--Britain, 
     France, Germany, Belgium, and Denmark--was shocking and 
     disturbing. Classical anti-Semitism, coupled with a new form 
     fueled by anti-Israel sentiment, has become a potent and 
     dangerous mix in countries with enormous Muslim and Arab 
     populations.
       More than 1 million Jews live in these five nations, and 
     their communities are under siege. Who would have believed 
     that we would see the burning of synagogues and attacks on 
     Jewish students, rabbis, Jewish institutions and Jewish-owned 
     property?
       While European leaders have attempted to explain away these 
     attacks as a fleeting response to events in the Middle East 
     and not the harbinger of a more insidious and deeply 
     ingrained hatred, the attitudes of average Europeans paint a 
     far different picture. Among the 2,500 people polled in late 
     May and early June as part of our survey, 45 percent admitted 
     to their perception that Jews are more loyal to Israel than 
     their own country, while 30 percent agreed with the statement 
     that Jews have too much power in the business world. Perhaps 
     most telling, 62 percent said they believe the outbreak of 
     anti-Semitic violence in Europe is the result of anti-Israel 
     sentiment, not anti-Jewish feeling. The contrariness of their 
     own attitudes suggest that Europeans are loath to admit that 
     hatred of Jews is making a comeback.
       This view may make Europeans more comfortable in the face 
     of what is happening in their countries, by suggesting that 
     this time around, Jews are not the innocent victims but are 
     themselves the victimizers in the Middle East. But the 
     incredibly biased reaction against Israel seen in the poll--
     despite the fact that Israel under former prime minister Ehud 
     Barak offered the Palestinians an independent state, and 
     despite the fact that Palestinians have carried out a 
     sustained campaign of terrorism against Israeli 
     civilians--speaks to a repressed hostility to Jews that 
     may not be socially acceptable in post-Holocaust Europe. 
     Still, even with such constraints, some 30 percent of 
     Europeans are not averse to expressing their anti-Semitic 
     beliefs openly and directly.
       Meanwhile, the Europeans have been tepid in their support 
     for the U.S. war on terrorism and especially the Bush 
     administration's efforts to broker an end to Israeli-
     Palestinian bloodshed. The Europeans seek to appease Saddam 
     Hussein and other threats to the Western world while blaming 
     Israel, not the Palestinian Authority, for the crisis. All 
     while they minimize the extent of anti-Semitism in Europe and 
     fail to immediately condemn horrific acts of harassment and 
     vandalism. The message to Europe's burgeoning immigrant 
     population is that there is a certain level of acceptance for 
     intolerance.
       It is time for Europe to assume responsibility for a 
     situation of its own making. The combination of significant, 
     openly expressed anti-Jewish bias together with irrational 
     anti-Israel opinions creates a climate of great concern for 
     the Jews of Europe. It is not surprising that in such an 
     atmosphere Muslim residents feel free to attack Jewish 
     students and religious institutions not because they are 
     Israelis but because they are Jews. And it is not surprising 
     that some European officials have begun telling Jewish 
     leaders to advise their numbers to avoid public displays of 
     Jewishness, instead of promising to protect their Jewish 
     communities.
       European leaders and officials must see what is going on 
     for what it is--outright anti-Semitism--and condemn the 
     revival of this ancient hatred that had its greatest 
     manifestations on the same continent.
       They must acknowledge that the anti-Israel vilification 
     across Western Europe is unacceptable. The recent comparisons 
     of Israelis to Nazis, to Jews as the executors of 
     ``massacres'' and even as the killers of Christ--these do not 
     fall into the category of legitimate criticism of a sovereign 
     state. They create the very climate that questions the future 
     of Jewish life in Europe.

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