“Europe's Four Capitals of Antisemitism"

GENEVA

How many UN resolutions have been passed against Syria? None. How many against North Korea? None. How many against Russia when it annexed the Crimea? One. How many against Israel? Dozens.

There are hundreds of territorial disputes in the world, from Tibet to Cyprus to Papua, but only Israel deserves the UN’s resolutions. And one of the capitals of the new anti-Semitism is in the Palace of Nations in Geneva, the site of the UN Human Rights Council, one of the most anti-Semitic places in the world. The High Commissioner, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al Hussein, is the promoter of a “blacklist” of Israeli and international companies that have ties in Judea and Samaria, this so as to facilitate the boycott against Israel.

Crazy things happen today in the that “parliament of human rights”. The UN envoy for Children in the Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, a Muslim Algerian, has suggested including Israel in the black list of countries and groups that regularly cause harm to children, along with Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, the Islamic State and the Taliban. The UN commission for Economic and  Social Commission of Western Asia recently compared Israel to “apartheid” states and next June the same commission will deliver another report comparing Israel to countries with “slavery”. The UN Commission for Women’s Rights has condemned solely Israel for violating the rights of women. And Unesco, the cultural body of the United Nations, erased the Jewish-Christian roots in Jerusalem and Islamicized the holy sites.

In the next 10 years, the Arab-Islamic regimes will increase their propaganda in these organizations, pressing the democracies to abandon Israel and turning it into the international scapegoat. The only hope there is that the United States under Donald Trump will exert a stronger pressure by forcing European countries to repent, something that didn’t happen under Barack Obama. In that case, other European countries will follow the US.

Cowardice, not courage, is Europe’s distinctive character. It doesn’t matter that the Islamic countries have an automatic majority, Europe must vote against their resolutions and not abstain. Otherwise, Europe will be ready again to betray the Jewish people.

PARIS

Paris is “the future”. It is there that the new street anti-Semitism began and then reached the farthest corners of Europe, from Malmö in Sweden to Hamburg in Germany. It began with the attacks on the Jewish cemeteries and ended with the carnage in Toulouse, where an Islamic suprematist named Mohammed Morah entered a Jewish school and murdered a rabbi and three children.

A few days ago, in Paris, a Jewish woman, Sarah Halimi, was killed by a Muslim neighbour shouting “Allah Akbar”. In Paris you find the largest Jewish community in Europe, there the kippah is disappearing and 40,000 Jews have already fled over the last fifteen years. Think about it: 40,000 Jews, a tenth of the total. From Marseille to Toulouse, the French Jews are living in a state of fear, awe and silence.

Unfortunately, street anti-Semitism will grow and Jews must prepare for difficult scenarios. Even larger Muslim communities will settle in the heart of Europe. It is estimated that in the next 20-30 years, 15-20 percent of the European population will be Islamic, not to mentionthe unprecedented wave of immigration (the Sahel, the poorest region in the world, will host 200 million people who will want to move to the north). It will be a crescendo. Think about France: Ilan Halimi, Toulouse, the Hyper Cacher. And tomorrow?

If Islamic suprematism is defeated in the Middle East there is also hope for Europe. Otherwise, it’s a lost battle. Today in Europe only very few imams denounce anti-Semitism. Why? Ask Hassan Chalgioumi from Drancy, who is protected as a head of state by the French police. The only “moderate Muslims” are the dead ones.

LONDON

The British city is the world capital of the acadebmic and cultural boycott. Some of the leading universities in Britain are becoming “no-go areas” for Jewish students. The idea to boycott Israeli universities was born in the UK on April 6, 2002 and spread all over to the US and South Africa. There are areas of possible intervention but it is up to non-Jews who work in the universities and in the world of culture and are committed against lies and hatred. But how many are out there?

BRUSSELS

Why did I choose the capital of the European Union? On November 11, 2015, the day after the commemoration of Kristallnacht, during the visit to Europe by Iran’s President Rohani and in the middle of the “Third Intifada”, the European Commission approved placing a special mark on Israeli products.

It had not happened since the days of Hitler when the goods of the Jews were discriminated with a special stigma, a distinctive symbol that recalls another more sinister one, The Yellow Star. Unfortunately, Europe has shamefully decided to strengthen in this way those who lead the campaign for the boycott of Israel, but whose goal is to wipe Israel off the map.

What will happen in the future? Europe will continue to be the first commercial partner of Israel, exchanges will continue, but also this blackmail. I think we will continue to see Europe’s low-intensity war against the Jewish State.

CONCLUSIONS

In Europe there is an ongoing campaign to isolate Israel, to denigrate and abandon it to a fate at whose horizon there is only war. It is the same cowardly pacifism, the same “syndrome of Munich” that led Europe into war in the ‘30s. Then it was the Sudetenland, now it is Israel. How is it that Europe’s public opinion came to regard Israel as the symbol of all evil? Through lies.

A lie, repeated many times, eventually becomes truth. This statement, attributed to the minister for the Nazi propaganda Goebbels, has never been as true as it is today.

Ten, twenty years ago there was not all this anti-Semitism in Europe. And I am sad to say it, but it will only grow and get worse. There are moments in history when you can resist with the means available or you can be complacent.

The choice is up to the Europeans. But they must not forget that it always starts with the Jews. But it never stops with them.

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book “A New Shoah”, that researched the personal stories of Israel’s terror victims, published by Encounter and of “J’Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel” published by Mantua Books.. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary.