November 24, 2003

Twisted logic

The Independent warns that talking about the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe could lead to more attacks against Jewish targets.
One can sympathise with the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' anguished concern that anti-Semitism is on the rise around Europe. In purely factual terms, regarding the number of attacks on synagogues and Jewish schools and institutions, he may well be right. But in lumping together the bombing of the two synagogues in Istanbul with the daubing of cemeteries in Germany and Britain and the firebombing of a school in Paris, he's in danger of fuelling the very conflict between Islam and Judaism which the perpetrators want.
It's the European approach to anti-Semitism: ignore it in case it gets worse.