Everyone is aware of the rise in anti-Semitic violence in Europe. During the Gaza operation, assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in southwest France. A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, also was attacked by someone who broke a window and threw in something that was burning. A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the liberal synagogue in Brussels, Belgium. Unknown assailants attempted to torch the house of a Jewish family in Antwerp.
Meanwhile, Jewish communities in Britain have reported a significant rise in anti-Semitic attacks since Israel launched its offensive on December 27. These include two serious assaults on Jews, an arson attack on a synagogue in Brondesbury Park, North West London, and death threats to rabbis in Manchester. The Community Security Trust, which advises Jews on security matters, said: A week ago we were getting around 20 reports of incidents each day. This morning it was 30.
A recent survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League found that anti-Semitic attitudes in seven European countries have worsened due to the global financial crisis and Israel's military actions against the Palestinians.
Some 31 percent of adults polled blame Jews in the financial industry for the economic meltdown, while 58 percent of respondents admitted that their opinion of Jews has worsened due to their criticism of Israel.
The ADL polled 3,500 adults - 500 each in Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom - between December 1, 2008 and January 13, 2009.
According to the survey, 40 percent of polled Europeans believe that Jews have an over-abundance of power in the business world. More than half of the respondents in Hungary, Spain and Poland agreed with this statement. These numbers were 7 percent higher in Hungary, 6 percent higher in Poland and 5 percent higher in France than those recorded in the ADL's 2007 survey.
Nearly half of the respondents in each of the countries said that Jews were more loyal to Israel than to their home country. Twenty-three percent said that their opinion of Jews was influenced by Israel's military and political activities.
How do the Zionists react to this? Do they admit that their actions, supposedly undertaken to protect Jews, are only endangering the lives of Jews not only in their state but worldwide? Quite the contrary. In a current opinion piece in Ynetnews, Guy Bechor tells European Jews: Israel is the Solution, Not the Problem.
His article reads:
It's hard to believe that this question is being asked again, but sadly, after 70 years it has emerged nonetheless: Is there room for Jewish existence in Europe? Can Jews continue living as a proud community, in 2009, in that same continent with the terrible memories? The answer, in light of what has been materializing in the past few weeks yet not only because of this is negative.
A Jew can no longer walk the streets while displaying Jewish trademarks, or visit Jewish institutions that are not surrounded by police officers and guards; they must remain behind locks and bars, scared for their lives.
Meanwhile, those who hide any Jewish attributes and assimilate into society will continue to live until they face an unpleasant situation with their colleagues, at school, or anywhere else in life.
In recent months I visited and spoke before several Jewish communities in European countries, including Turkey, France, and Britain even before the Gaza operation. During the trip I saw with my own eyes the miserable Jewish existence. Yes, if they hide the Star of David and the unique dress, and if they agree that their synagogues will look like locked fortresses, like ghettos in fact, and if they are forced to experience threats on the street and hear about the growing number of anti-Semitic incidents well, we can say that there is Jewish existence; scared, embarrassed, and submissive.
But what about feeling secure in their countries? There is none of that.
Anti-Semitism is a European phenomenon, with millions of Muslims sweeping the continent and turning the conflict with Israel and the Jews into a cause that enables them to reinforce their hold on Europe. The global economic crisis is being exploited in order to incite against the Jews and against the investment banks which the world enjoyed for half a century. Yet now, when we see losses, "Jewish money still rules the world," as the South African deputy foreign minister startlingly asserted.
The trend is growing across the world and it has nothing to do with Israel: Israel is the tool used in order to secure achievements. Israel is what the Jews used to be in the past.
When we see, in Turkey or Italy, Jewish-owned stores being marked so the locals refrain from buying there, what kind of future do the children of the 750,000 Jews in Western Europe have? You worked for a country that will always view you as foreigners. Following World War II, you made some countries rich, but now we see a quiet Jewish rally in the Swedish capital being banned because of fears of Muslims violence there. What kind of future do you have in this continent, which is becoming increasingly Muslim?
And what is the difference between 1939 and 2009? Today, as opposed to the past, the Jews have a state; a successful and wealthy state that boasts a standard of living that approaches that of Europe. The per-capita gross domestic product in Britain was $39,000 in December (according to the British Economist,) compared to $29,000 in Israel.
Leave the continent that fondly recalls its anti-Semitism; we in Israel need you. The addition of hundreds of thousands of wealthy Jews will boost Israel, end the illusions of any Israeli Arabs who dream about a demographic victory, and make Israel's economic supremacy absolute. You, who will be arriving in Israel now, will turn it not into one of the world's 20 wealthiest countries - this has already been achieved but rather, one of the 10 richest countries on the globe.
You have a homeland, so why should you agree to be second-class citizens? Why should you be scared to show that you are Jewish? Why should you be attacked at subway stations at night?
This is the big difference. Arrive here not only for the sake of Israel, but for the sake of your identity and for the sake of your children's future.
The Jewish community in Israel always grew during periods of persecution against Jews after all, this is the objective of Zionism, and this way we revert to the simplest ideological basis of the national Jewish movement: Serving as a home for Jews who are persecuted around the world.
As opposed to what you have become accustomed to hearing from the global media, for you, the Jews of Europe, Israel is not the problem; rather, it's the solution.
As this writer admits openly, it is the objective of Zionism for their state to grow during periods of persecution against Jews. What he does not want to admit is that the Zionist state conveniently causes those periods of persecution so that their state should grow. This is what they did in the Arab and Muslim countries in the 1950s, and now they are setting their sights on Europe. They secretly rejoice over these persecutions because now, they hope, the desperate Jews of Europe will come running to them like a hungry animal runs into a trap.
Has Zionism actually saved any Jewish lives? Where else since World War II have 30,000 Jews been killed and countless more wounded? Zionists dreamed of a safe haven for Jews, yet the most dangerous place in the world today for Jews is their state. And whatever dangers Jews face in the rest of the world are due to reactions to their state.
For the problems in their own state they have no solution, and for the problems in the rest of the world their solution is to put all the eggs in the proverbial basket. A tiny basket, surrounded by enemies, where Jews are under fire daily, where every Jew is forced to become a soldier, where war has been a part of daily life for the last 60 years. And this is all worthwhile to them, as long as they can be proud and be one of the 10 wealthiest countries in the world.
What is the real path to safety? We must work on getting Jews out of the Zionist state, not into it. The State of Israel is the problem, not the solution. If the Zionists listened to the Torah, they would give up their sovereignty over the Holy Land now, but as long as they are not listening, we must do what is in our power: rescue Jews from their state. Jews who are able to leave should leave now, and those who cannot leave should at least make it clear that they reject Zionism, have no political goals and wish to live peacefully with their non-Jewish neighbors. The more Jews reject Zionism, the less Jews will be hated worldwide, and the safer we will be. Yes, there will always be some anti-Semitism, but we are obligated to do our part to lessen in, and to trust in G-d, Who promised to protect the Jewish people in exile, as it says in the Holy Torah: When they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them nor revile them to destroy them, to annul My covenant with them, for I am the L-rd their G-d. (Leviticus 26:44)