One Pesach night, a dozen masked Arabs, called just "youths"
by the media, sped through Lyons in three cars, towards the
shul in the La Douchierre neighborhood. One of the
cars smashed through the gates and the shattering glass woke
the neighbors. The Arabs tried to set the shul alight
and fled. Boruch Hashem only the gate burned. The
police are still searching for the perpetrators.
In contrast to this, a shul in Marseilles burned down,
and the five sifrei Torah inside had to be buried. In
Parisian suburbs Arabs attacked shuls and Jews, who
suffered stoning, harassment, spitting, graffiti, and anti-
Jewish articles in the newspapers. In the heart of Paris and
Brussels, joint Arab and French demonstrators shouted "Death
to the Jews!" This and more happened last year in France, a
year of antisemitism and anti-Israel demonstrations, a
situation which is not likely to change this coming year.
Jews throughout Europe were once again pursued by violence
and antisemitic hatred this past year. They felt it in the
streets, in the suburbs, incitement in the newspapers and in
intellectual circles. No Jew could evade the consequences.
The chareidim felt it on their skin. The assimilated Jews
perceived it in the changing attitudes towards them at work
and in society. Jewish intellectuals, doctors and professors
went over to the other side of the divide due to the
extortionate pressure and were enlisted to the antisemitic
Palestinian propaganda in order to maintain their standing
and keep their jobs. Others ignored the situation so that
they could continue living in France in peace.
The appearance of these old phenomena in new forms was not
expected in the era of the European Community, which takes
pride in its progressive and cultured society. The Trotskyist
Left allied itself with the Fascist Right, and both were
joined by the European bureaucracy in Brussels, the European
Parliament and the foreign ministers -- in antisemitic and
anti-Israel incitement. Maybe the Israeli consulate in Paris
burned simply because of all the hatred in the air.
They have not yet solved the puzzle of the mysterious fire
which burned down the Israeli Embassy near the Champs Elysees
during all the incidents. The obsessive preoccupation with
Israel and the Jews is a symptom of an old European illness.
Despite all the progress, the struggle for civil rights and
justice, nothing much has changed.
In response, the authorities were generally silent and the
police regarded these attacks as "gang skirmishes," or
"drunken brawls." They call the perpetrators general names
like "youths" or "marginal juveniles." If they mention the
word "Arab" they will be accused of racism and of being anti-
Arab.
Other incidents also happened because of antisemitism,
although on the surface it seemed as if they had nothing to
do with it. The war waged against Israel, the new friction
between Jews and antisemites, the disgrace and humiliation
from Le Pen's victory in France, the transition to one
European currency and the strengthening of the European bloc
into a world power -- all are happening simultaneously with
an increased hatred of all foreigners, nationalistic feelings
and casting whole sections of the population to the
periphery.
The tendency towards the Right of the political scale and Le
Pen's victory in the first round of the elections in France
are based in the lower socioeconomic layers of French society
who feel neglected.
The government, both the Right and the Left, hate America.
Everything is connected. The Europeans assume that the Jews
have great influence on the American government and see this
as a threat to their becoming a superpower. The previous
French foreign minister, Hubert Vaudrin, said explicitly that
he had an anti-American policy in order to decrease the
influence of the Jewish-Israeli lobby on the American
government.
Maybe because of the shock or the fear from the new
Government, the physical attacks on the Jews stopped. But the
incitement continued. The Jews continued their day-to-day
life. Those who live in difficult areas bypass dangerous
roads, do not go out at night and change cars on the Metro if
there are suspicious passengers. The non-Jews deny the
phenomenon and expect the Jews to suppress it too.
Some Jews from the upper echelons of society like the lawyer
Theo Klein, deny that there are antisemitic attacks. Jewish
philosopher Alain Finkelkraut says that Klein considers
himself a liberated Jew and uses his liberty to say things
that the dominant public opinion wants to hear, namely that
there is no antisemitism. From his office on the Champs
Elysees, antisemitic violence seems like suburban gang
warfare. Perhaps it is a matter of dispute whether this is
new antisemitism or old Christian antisemitism or neither.
Others say that it does not come from within Europe. Europe,
the champion of civil rights, is at peace with itself. The
antisemitism is a side effect of the occupation and the war
waged by the Israelis against Palestinian terror. It is not
their fault; it is Israel's.
The historian Jacob Palmon writes in his book The Myth of
the Nation that the Jews suffered similarly in 1880, with
the resurgence of a new European antisemitism which reached
its terrible zenith in the Nazi era. Today's antisemitism is
not based directly on the Nazi antisemitism, but sprouts from
the same old foundations of the denunciation of the Chosen
People.
Andre Tagieffe researches modern antisemitism and he writes
in the Jewish magazine Laroche, "We find two sorts of
antisemitism: first, the age old extreme right-wing
antisemitism which is flourishing today throughout Europe,
and second, a worldwide anti-Jewish ideology, spread by the
networks of Islam, the Palestinians, and the new Left, anti-
globalization activists, Trotskyites and Communists. They are
both exploiting the Palestinian issue.
Tagieffe could not publish his article in a French newspaper
because the liberals who control the press are the ones
waging the war against the Jews. Human rights and anti-racist
organizations set up by Jews after the war in order to
prevent antisemitism are now in the forefront of the
antisemitism that the founders hoped to get rid of
permanently. This is another perverse innovation: The
accusations against Israel and the Jews are couched as noble
calls for respect for human rights and a "Just Peace."
The young researchers of antisemitism continue to unmask the
hypocrisy of the humanitarian organizations, which have
supposedly recruited themselves to help the Palestinians and
anti-Jewish activists.
Finkelkraut says, "They love the Jews as Holocaust victims
and hate them because of Israel. One can't just hate Jews for
no reason. In order to hate Jews because of Israel they have
to have some good Jews of their own.
Le Monde publishes articles about Nazi crimes and
their French collaborators during the Holocaust, and then,
apparently without any connection, besmirches the living Jews
in Israel and France. Everyone denigrates the Jewish
character of Israel, connecting it with the "apartheid"
policy of the Chosen Nation.
"Paris in a mixture of blacks, whites and Arabs marched
against Fascism," was written. The Jews were left out of both
the supporters or Le Pen and of the anti-Fascists who marched
against him.
The antisemitic coalition in France -- Le Pen, the Greens,
and the extreme Left -- received 35 percent of the vote in
the last elections. All three, present Zionism as Nazism,
demonize Israel and denounce "Zionist-American
Imperialism."
Unfortunately many Jews have joined this coalition. The Jews
are tolerated on condition that they demonstrate
unconditional support for the Palestinians with fanatic anti-
Zionism. Even Jews from Israel come to take part in their
demonstrations.
Edgar Moran, Sammy Nair and Daniella Selanev, three anti-
Semitic intellectuals, wrote the nauseating "Israel-
Palestine, the Cancer." A long time ago Selanev sold herself
to the antisemitic propaganda by supporting the Palestinians
in her writings. The Jews are described as a "nation who
behaves like a master race." In every line of the article the
Jews are depicted as murderers, viruses -- a malignant
disease of humanity.
Le Pen never dared express himself with such appalling
phraseology as these three authors. Finkelkraut says that one
can see the manifestation of Jew hatred in the 21st Century
in their writing. From their point of view, "Jews disrupt the
equality between all human beings." The Shoah is also
depicted as "making the Jewish victims' suffering unique and
thereby minimizing the suffering of the Gulag victims, the
gypsies and the black slaves. The Jews reserve the status of
victims for themselves in order to legitimize their becoming
Nazis and oppressors of the Palestinian Nation." Le Monde
would not publish an article like this about the Arabs or
Islam.
The authorities were calm. They ignored the violence and the
incitement and denied it existed. The official networks and
governmental news channels, are still inciting. President
Chirac reproaches those who say France is antisemitic as
being anti-French. The Jews who came to see him got the
impression that he wanted the Jews to join in condemnation of
the anti-French criticism, as if they should say that nothing
has happened in order to preserve France's public image.
France is not really antisemitic itself although there has no
precedent to the violence of the Arabs and extreme Left
against the Jews since the Second World War.
The Socialists recognized the existence of the sad reality
only after Pesach, when three shuls were burned, in
Lyons, Marseilles and Strasbourg, but they did not do
anything so as not to alienate voters. A month later the Left
suffered its unexpected defeat and Prime Minister Jospin
disappeared.
The new government is not connected to or dependent on the
Leftist antisemitic coalition. The Interior Minister Nikole
Sarkosi sent police to the Arab neighborhoods to enforce law
and order. Since then there have been no more attacks on the
Jews. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Refrain gave a speech to the
community on the 60th anniversary of the Great Roundup of
Jews in Paris during the Nazi regime. He said that anyone who
attacks the Jews attacks France and the "values of the
Republic." But within the Government there is competition
between the pro-Palestinians and pro-Israelis.
The division between Left and Right has changed and now the
pro-Palestinians and antisemites are uniting with their
counterparts on the Right. The Europeans are obsessed with
the details of the conflict as if they are personally
involved.
America's preparation to attack Iraq is heating the
atmosphere and the government is dreading an eruption. The
pro-Iraqis are aiding and abetting Sadam Hussein's
propaganda, while readers' letters to the newspapers defend
Israel and America.
The problems of the French and the Jews remain intact.
Another little spark and the Arabs will begin their assaults
again. The networks and rumors feed their aggressiveness.
Tagieffe cautions about the Islamic and leftist anti-Jewish
danger.
Fanatic Moslems recruit, produce and lure many brainwashed
people for their terror. Their Imams are using the
demagoguery of the socioeconomic injustice accompanied with
Jew hatred to brainwash many in the Arab neighborhoods.
Islam is highly esteemed in the media and one is not allowed
to criticize it. Its antisemitism arouses aversion, as
something that is better off not being mentioned since it
bothers and frightens us.
In France and London the Moslems have united with the Left
against the Jews. They send joint groups of activists to
disrupt the Israelis in the territories and to try to recruit
Israeli militants. When they return they display videos of
their bravery against Israeli soldiers. It is doubtful
whether the Jews will feel as safe in Europe as they have
until now. There was a saying "There is no one happier than a
Jew in France."
"When I walk in the street they mock my beard, they call me
Rabbi Jacob or `Palestinian murderer'," the rov of Lyons,
Richard Vertanchlag, said during the peak of the antisemitic
assaults.
In the suburbs and the rural areas many Jews are considering
aliya -- the Jewish Agency says thousands. But many are not
happy in Eretz Yisroel and return to France. There is
no work, there is no community life like there is in France,
and the children are in danger of deterioration in the cities
where the olim live.
Especially in these difficult times the yeshivos and
talmudei Torah are flourishing in France. Rav Aharon
Yehuda Leib Shteinman this year visited yeshivos in Paris,
Rancy and Aix-les-Bains, Strasbourg and St. Louis. He brought
about the reawakening and chizuk of the bnei
Torah and helped the traditional Jews to strengthen
themselves with Torah and learn more.
In a gathering of 8000 people he told them not to give up the
gift Hashem gave them and to send their children to
yeshivos ketanos and not to non-Jewish schools where
they think their children will get a better education for
parnossoh. A Jew was not created only to eat and
sleep. Today many Jews are sitting and learning in yeshiva
and everything else is not worth anything.
The yeshivos ketanos have grown. In the Avi Ezri
Yeshiva in Paris there are 55 boys. A floor below them there
are dozens of bochurim and avreichim in Nishmas
Yisroel. The beautiful sound of Torah learning is heard above
the roofs in the Jewish Quarter in contrast to the tumult
below, far away from the antisemitic coalition. In the Ohr
Yosef yeshiva in Armantiers, in the heart of fields and
forests, 40 youths sit with their roshei yeshivos, HaRav
Yechezkel Rotter and HaRav Meir Aharoni.
Rav Chaim Halperin, his sons and sons-in-law support a lonely
village of avreichim with great mesirus nefesh.
There is nothing there but Torah. In a booklet of
sichos by the founder of the Ohr Yosef institutions
and the Armantiers settlement, HaRav Gershon Liebman
zt"l, one of the great baalei mussar from
Novardok, he writes as follows: "In this world we see only
Hashem's patience so we assume that He is lenient and we
therefore are lacking in yiras shomayim. But if we
wold realize that there is a din vecheshbon of govi
dilei, we would be seized with fear. If someone does not
investigate and strive to know the ways of Hashem, he is led
to think that Hakodosh Boruch Hu is lenient (a
vatran) and the same thing happens to him. We all
stood on the Day of Judgment and prayed for ourselves. We
only see Hashem's patience. So far we have come out
successful from the judgment, but who knows if we are not
chas vesholom coming closer to the din
vecheshbon of govi dilei.
