The new Jewish problem By Daniel Ben Simon Haaretz They always...

The new Jewish problem
By Daniel Ben Simon
Haaretz

They always believed that Israel was their shield, and saw it as their country of refuge should a new madness attack the civilized world. Now, for many Jewish European intellectuals, Israeli policy is the cause of their problems.

Chateau de Canisy, France - At one stage, after the Jewish sages despaired of finding a solution that would allow Israelis to exist in an Arab and Muslim expanse, cosmic ideas were bandied about.

"Why shouldn't the Israelis immigrate en masse to Europe?" demanded Ivo Goldstein, a history professor from Zagreb. "Europe is the natural place for Jews," chimed in French philosopher Andre Glucksmann. And as if this were not enough, Susan Neiman urged the Israelis to go back to Germany. "The Germans have a problem of guilt toward the Jews," explained Neiman, director of the Einstein Forum in Berlin. "They also have a problem in that the Jews aren't living in Germany any more. They definitely want them back, so that they can again enjoy the Jewish mind and the Jewish wisdom that had been considered such an asset of German culture."

Dominique Moýsi, a senior advisor at the French Institute of International Relations, who is considered one of the most brilliant minds in Europe, also came to the conclusion that if there is no hope for Jewish life in the Middle East, Europe will accept the Jews with open arms. "The addition of such a strong and developed population to Europe is a demographic contribution whose importance is difficult to underestimate," he said.

Goldstein, a Croatian, warned that, in light of this sweeping desire to renew the old alliance between the Jews and the continent of Europe, if this does not occur, there will be a profound rift between the Jews and the Israelis that could endanger the continuation of Jewish life in Europe. Who will protect them, he asked, from the wave of anti-Semitism inundating Europe? "It's true that Israel has enough trouble with the Palestinians and the Arabs," he added worriedly, "but who has to help in the fight against anti-Semitism, if not the Israelis?"

Neiman, a Berliner who was born in the United States, explained that the situation is not at all simple. How will the Israelis help the Jews if their prime minister is the one who has ignited anti-Semitism throughout Europe and is the one responsible for the ill winds that have been blowing during the past three years in Europe?

Thus, for three long days, several dozen Jewish European and Israeli intellectuals sought an answer to the eternal question of Jewish existence. They always believed that Israel was their shield and always saw it as a land of refuge should a new madness attack the civilized world. Over the years they have donated some money, spent time on a kibbutz, studied Hebrew at an ulpan (intensive language school), nurtured memories of a love affair with an Israeli, taken pride in the military victories of the Jewish state and experienced pain during its difficult moments.

At this encounter, too, the Israeli influence on them was evident. Nearly all of them had at one stage or another in their lives tried to immigrate to Israel and nearly all of them still speak Hebrew, a living remnant of the brief Israeli chapter in their lives. Each in his own accent: Prof. Neiman's American-German one, Jorn Rosenberg's Swedish one, the German accent of Prof. Michael Brenner and Prof. Micha Brumlik, Prof. Goldstein's Croatian accent, the British accents of Prof. Jacqueline Rose and Profs. Jonathan Webber and Tony Lerman, the fluent, decidedly French-accented Hebrew of Prof. Nelly Hansson, the Swiss accent of Prof. Jacques Picard, the Viennese accent of writer and historian Doron Rabinovici and the Hungarian accent of Prof. Andras Kovacs.

Alongside their strong love for Israel, they are struggling with a difficult dilemma. Is there any truth in the charge that is being spread in academic, intellectual and political circles to the effect that the person who ignited the fire of the new anti-Semitism was none other than the prime minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon? Is it possible that the Jewish state, which came into the world in part to protect the Jews of the world from pogroms against them, is what has brought them to the bleak reality in which they are living?

Many of the participants in the encounter, which was held near the beaches of Normandy, cast the blame on Sharon, but they did this in closed forums and in a whisper, lest what they say be exploited by haters, who aim to depict Israel and the Jews as scapegoats for all the troubles of the world.

American Prof. Martin Jay recently related that he had heard a friend saying at a dinner at Princeton University: "Since Hitler, there hasn't been anyone who has caused such great harm to Jews as Sharon has." This same friend added that because of Sharon, anti-Semitism has been given renewed legitimacy, for the first time in 50 years.

"This isn't just anyone," said Jay describing his friend. "This is a person who weighs his words carefully. Not only that, but this person is very proud of his identification with his Jewish tradition."

Implicit in the remarks by his Jewish friend was the assumption that the blame for the Jews' troubles rests on the shoulders of the leader of Israel. That same leader whose actions have led to the very insecurity and anxiety that the establishment of Israel was supposed to heal.

Bad Jews, bad Americans

The distress among the participants was unbearable. They came from all over Europe and shut themselves into an ancient castle more than 1,000 years old in order to examine what has happened to European Jewry during the past three years. Not far from the castle, on the beaches of Normandy, it was possible to see the scars of World War II. This is where the largest sea-borne land invasion in history took place. The tens of thousands of graves strewn over the landscape and the eerie silence there are chilling evidence of what happened in Europe more than 60 years ago.

The memory of the war was evident on the face of Andre Glucksmann as he spoke about the new Jewish problem. Glucksmann, a renowned French philosopher who has been involved in human rights struggles around the world, lost his father when he was three years old. His parents came to France and Austria as refugees; his father joined the Resistance and in 1940, was killed in battle. Recently the philosopher has come to the conclusion that the anti-Semitic wave in Europe is interwoven with the anti- Israeli and anti-American atmosphere that prevails in Europe and elsewhere. He has an explanation for this, which is derived in part from his observations of the huge demonstrations in the streets of Paris against the war in Iraq. Tens of thousands of activists from radical left-wing movements exploited their hatred of U.S. President George W. Bush in order to express their hatred of Ariel Sharon. They see the two as the true axis of evil, not Saddam Hussein.

"For the French and the Europeans, the Jews and the Americans have become the bearers of evil tidings and the precursors of the end of the world," he explained. "The Europeans hoped that with the fall of the Berlin Wall, they would be able to live in peace and tranquillity. But the attitude toward the Jew has remained as it was. He was depicted as a person who stirs up disquiet and undermines stability. The bad Jew still embodies the end of the world, alongside the bad American.

"For many people in Europe, what happened on September 11 happened because of Bush, and therefore Bush equals Hitler. Likewise, the intifada was because of Sharon, and therefore Sharon equals Hitler. The Europeans hate the Jews and the Americans, because they are perceived as strong and arrogant and as having feelings of superiority."

Glucksmann is one of the few intellectuals in his country who dared to support the war to topple Saddam Hussein. The media swooped down on him from all sides, as did the politicians from all parties. "How is it possible that a philosopher supports the war?" they charged. In his appearances, he argued fervently that the Western world has to deal urgently with the nihilism that has attacked Islam. "Even if Sharon gives back all the territories and there is a Palestinian state, the Islamic anger and nihilism will not disappear."

Force isn't everything

Prof. Moýsi's bleak predictions reverberated in the ears of the participants. The son of the survivor of a death camp and of a mother who hid for two years in a French convent, Moýsi defies himself as a Jew by choice. "This is my answer to the Nazis' failed attempt to wipe my father off the face of the earth," he says.

According to him, in the year 2050, one out every five people in the world will be Muslim. This is why Israel cannot follow a policy that rests only on force. "It urgently needs allies in the Muslim world," he added. "Therefore, its formula for existence - that the Arabs understand only force - is a short-range one. Its existence depends on legitimization and this cannot come from a policy of force."

Moýsi has always considered himself a political dove and has always supported the establishment of a Palestinian state next to Israel as the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Recently he has begun to have doubts about the Arabs' intentions to live in peace with Israel. This is why, unlike other Jewish intellectuals in France, Moýsi has not come out against the Israeli attack in the territories and sees it as a legitimate response to "the new human bombs that have become the most deadly weapon," as he puts it. Contributing to his pessimism were Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's two refusals to come to an agreement, the first at Camp David and the second at the Taba summit at the beginning of 2001.

This is not enough, mused Michael Brenner aloud and related how hard it is to be sympathetic to Israel these days. Like many of his friends in Germany, he also wavers between his desire to protest against Israel's policy and the fear that his protest will be exploited by professional haters of Israel.

"It is true that Jews have not been killed in the new wave of anti-Semitism," he explained, "but all of us are living in an atmosphere of fear. We are afraid to open envelopes for fear that they have been booby-trapped, we are afraid to send our children to the Jewish school, we are afraid to draw attention to our Judaism. There are already people who are exploiting the situation in order to say that they are sick of talking about the Holocaust and that the Jews are exploiting the talk about the Holocaust in order to advance Israel's interests. It used to be that such talk was taboo. Nowadays it doesn't even stir up any public reverberations."

Among all the participants the prevailing opinion was that Israel has not missed an opportunity to exploit, for its benefit, the fears that have attacked many Jews in Europe. Pride of place was taken by Ariel Sharon and by Minister without Portfolio Natan Sharansky, who was described by the participants as an Israeli politician who has fanned fears and anxieties to gain public advantage.

"We must not fall victim to paranoia," warned Moýsi. "It is true that we are living in an encounter between scars from the past and fears from the present, but the situation is not endangering Jews." He said he was worried by a recent survey, especially by the way Muslim students answered two of its questions: To the question of what they most admired, most of them replied soccer. When asked what they most hated, all of them answered: Jews.

"Nevertheless, we have to maintain a balanced approach," he proposed to the participants. "Not to get carried away, but also not to ignore things."

Of one thing Moýsi is certain. He has heard about it from colleagues in the halls of academia and has read about it in learned surveys: Europeans feel that Israel is endangering their existence by the way it is provoking the Arabs and the Muslims in the world.

"They are simply not prepared to die because of Jews or because of Israelis," explained Moisi. "One can understand them, no?"