The gunman in Toulouse, France, who killed four Jews in cold blood, actually targeted “minorities.”
Unstable “crazies” plague every society, from Norway to Afghanistan, from Columbine to Ft. Hood.
Say what you will, but the killings in France are a chilling reminder: Anti-Semitism is growing in Europe.
The tools of denial are ample. It wasn’t Jews, it was minorities whom the Toulouse gunmen killed: tragic, but it happens everywhere. Or, society has changed:no one is safe anymore. Or, you can’t expect to change human nature. Or, guns are too freely available. Or, the murderer was probably abused as a child. Or, the stresses of war have been too great. Yes, the tools of denial are everywhere.
The ADL recently commissioned First International Resources to conduct a survey of anti-Semitic attitudes in Europe. The survey polled 500 people in each of 10 European countries, for a total of 5,000 people. They were asked three questions: whether Jews have too much power in business; whether Jews are more loyal to Israel than their own country; and whether Jews “talk too much” about the Holocaust.
In most of the 10 countries, the percentage of people who answered “yes” to these three questions went up from 2009 to 2012 (in Hungary, up from 56% to 63% on the question of Jewish power in the financial markets). In some cases, the percentages were already high to begin with (in Italy, 61% believe Jews are more loyal to Israel).
On the various questions, the percentage jumps evinced a pattern:
France: up from 38% to 45%.
United Kingdom: up from 37% to 48%.
Spain: up from 64% to 72%.
There was sporadic good news with a slight drop in anti-Semitic attitudes on one or the other questions in a few countries. But the pattern showed an overall rise.
We may draw these conclusions:
• The Zionist enterprise did not achieve its goal of solving the “Jewish question” in Europe.
• Anti-Semitism remains deeply rooted in parts of the European populace, despite, or perhaps even because of, the Holocaust.
• It is too simple to ascribe these murders simply to Muslims or terrorists, without whom all would be serene and tranquil in Europe today.
• The growth of “soft” anti-Semitism — attitudes, casual comments, displacement of anti-Jewish positions by anti-Israel positions — create conditions for cold-blooded murderers to act. In France, so does the denial of its national role in the “deportation” of tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.
Deportation: Another one of those tools of denial. The French president says he is crying over the deaths in Toulouse — they being so barbaric and all. However, the incident in Toulouse repeated itself in France, piece by piece, thousands of times, during the Holocaust.
This terrible incident in France shows that the Jewish people still have a long way to go before their humanity is universally accepted.
Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News
