| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
Anti-Semitism is it a by-product of the EU? What now?
Almost fourteen years ago I marked the first birthday of my first blog with the following post, copied and pasted as it first appeared, as it is no longer readily accessible on line:
Sunday, February 22, 2004
A First Anniversary look at Europe
Ironies will be one year old tomorrow. Time to consider why I blog and whether or not I should continue?
As the European Union broadens and deepens, and refuses to confront
the consequences of its non-democratic structures; instead substituting
individual freedoms and pride in national achievements with a false
sense of 'Europeanness' and affection for symbols and anthems that
strike no chords in peoples' hearts, a strange tendency towards unspoken
and therefore hypocritical intolerance is in danger of being fostered
among its people.
Lack of accountability from its leaders, with the blurred edges of
responsibility between national and european bodies, allows festering
sores to grow within society as exampled by the decision last week to
expel 25,000 failed asylum seekers from Holland. Politicians both
national and european are therefore inevitably being seen as the cause
of the problems and increasingly also sickeningly corrupt.
In a church in Toulouse, the Christmas before last, I saw around a
nativity scene and in various other parts of the church, supposed
Christmas decorations in the form of drawings and paintings from
school-children, who I would guess would have been aged between seven
and twelve, depicting in gruesome detail scenes from the Middle-East
that could only be described as 'bloodily anti-semitic'. I was
horrified and the memory and fear of the consequences of such subliminal
propaganda has no doubt been sometimes reflected in the postings to
this blog.
The following report is taken from “The Times” and must serve as a warning to us all:-
***
EU challenged to stamp out anti-Semitism
From Rory Watson in Brussels
JEWISH leaders challenged the European Union yesterday to begin a
campaign to remove the 'monster' of anti-Semitism from the Continent.
Cobi Benatoff, president of the European Jewish Congress, told a meeting
of political, religious and community leaders that the history of
prejudice and persecution that had afflicted Jews through the centuries
was repeating itself. “We bring a warning cry. We European Jews are not
able to live our daily lives like other European citizens. Anti-Semitism
and prejudice have returned,” he said. “The monster is here with us
once again and what most concerns us is the in- difference of our fellow
European citizens.” He insisted that the EU could not allow
anti-Semitism to survive and grow. The call for action came against the
background of an increase in attacks on Jews and their property in
countries including France, Italy, Belgium and Britain. Elie Wiesel, the
1986 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, yesterday accused left-wing groups of
fuelling the climate of hate with provocative language against Israel.
“No country, no region and no person is above criticism. But what the
extreme Left is saying about Israel is couched in the language of the
Holocaust,” he said. In a newspaper article last month, Mr Benatoff and
Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, had attacked the
European Commission for not doing more to confront the problem.
“Anti-Semitism can be expressed in two ways: by action and inaction.
Remarkably, the European Commission is guilty of both,? they wrote. In
particular they criticised the Commission for publishing a survey
indicating that European public opinion believed that Israel was a
greater threat to world peace than the 'axis of evil' trio of Iran, Iraq
and North Korea. They also accused it of preventing publication of a
study by the Vienna-based monitoring centre on racism and xenophobia,
which linked Islamic minority groups to the rise of anti-Semitism.
Romano Prodi, the Commission President, whose first foreign visit after
taking office in 1999 was to the remains of the Nazi death camp at
Auschwitz in Poland and who has developed close links with Jewish
leaders, was outraged by the criticism. Mr Benatoff praised Signor Prodi
yesterday for his 'courage, vision and wisdom', and urged him to lead
the fight. Speaking at the meeting, Signor Prodi condemned attacks
against synagogues, desecration of Jewish cemeteries and physical
assaults on Jews. But he spoke forcefully against the danger of equating
recent incidents with the organised policies pursued by Hitler and
Stalin.
The number of anti-Semitic attacks in Britain increased by 7 per
cent last year. There were 375 incidents recorded, compared with 350 the
previous year.The worst month of 2003 was October, when 57 incidents
were recorded, the second highest monthly total since records began in
1984.
***
The EU is taking Europe in a direction that its citizens are
increasingly showing signs of not wishing to go. The history of the
continent stands witness to the lack of importance European leaders are
inclined give to the wishes or best interests of its citizens. It also
shows that its peoples can periodically be led in directions for which
they later feel great shame.
I do not hold that any one religion has greater truths or worth than
any other, nor do I believe that any race or nation nor any colour of
person has a monopoly or preponderence of virtues or vices than any
other. I support the nation state not from nationalism or excess of
patriotism, but rather because history has so far demonstrated that the
presently existing nation states have generally speaking proved to be
the largest units able to uphold the democratic rights and freedoms of
their individual citizens. I believe therefore that the nation state
needs protecting and that the open threats now being mounted against its
structures, particularly by the European Union, represent the greatest
possible danger to all European citizens, their individual rights,
democratic liberties and the fundamental decency that can only flow from
the maintenance of such values through an open democratic system, where
the real rulers can at regular set intervals be bloodlessly approved or
removed!
I do believe the revolution in information technology provides huge
opportunities to extend the democratic element of major policy making
and decision taking, and am dismayed that no attempt is yet being made
to apply those opportunities in the growing intranational bodies that
are becoming an increasingly burdensome part of everyday life due to the
demands of globalisation.
Tomorrow, the first anniversary of my first post, I will review the past year on this blog!
posted by Martin at 2/22/2004 05:09:00 AM
Source: http://ironiestoo.blogspot.com/2015/02/anti-semitism-is-it-by-product-of-eu.html
