(American Interest) Walter Russell Mead - It's easy and comforting to dismiss the recent wave of anti-Semitic hate crimes sweeping France as a continental outlier - an exception to the rule of European tolerance. It's also wrong. Take Malmo, Sweden, for example, a city whose mayor has taken to blaming Jews for their own persecution. If a gang of white American thugs attacked African-Americans, and defended their action on the ground that they were protesting Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe, the world would laugh at their foolishness even as it condemned their bigotry. This isn't quite how it works when goons around the world attack Jews and Jewish buildings and defend themselves by saying that they are angered by things the Israeli government has done. Efforts are made to "understand" the perpetrators even as their actions are condemned. Somehow these events are seen as justifying, even requiring tough diplomatic measures against Israel - rather than demanding aggressive programs of civic education aimed at confronting the psychology of hate.
2012-04-20 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive