Surveying the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe, Dave Rich notes the strong stand taken against it by some leading European politicians and examines some of the implications:
The problem of European Muslims killing European Jews . . . is not explained by anger over Gaza, or by tensions between Muslims and Jews. It is part of the broader problem of extremism that has found purchase within European Muslim communities. . . . This is a problem that Jewish communities cannot solve for themselves, but is one for which European governments need to find the answer.
However, the new politics of anti-anti-Semitism run much deeper than the immediate need to confront the jihadist challenge. In essence, it represents a version of the postwar European settlement, in which nationalism and militarism have been renounced and Holocaust remembrance has become a vehicle for transmitting core European values of tolerance and pluralism to the next generation. . . .
This appropriation of Jewish interests by European elites and nationalist movements has its antithesis in the rejection of establishment Holocaust-commemoration programs by those who feel outside the mainstream of European society. In the UK, for example, a willingness to attend Holocaust Memorial Day ceremonies has become a litmus test of moderation among Muslim organizations. The Muslim Council of Britain’s [refused] to do so for much of the first decade of its existence; . . . its subsequent attendance at the ceremonies since 2010 has itself been criticized by some of its own members.
Some radical left-wing movements and activists are also critics of mainstream Holocaust commemoration, which they see as “Zionist,” in that it reinforces the moral case for the existence of the state of Israel. Increasingly, left-wing groups and their Islamist allies in the UK view the Holocaust as a tragedy whose ultimate victims are the Palestinians, not today’s Jews, and see Israel as the heir to Europe’s nationalist, militarist, and even Nazi past.
Read more on World Affairs Journal: http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/it-good-jews-anti-semitism-and-new-europe