Assessing the New Wave of Judeophobia in France
Today, few commentators deny the new wave of hatred against Jews in France. Indeed, many increasingly acknowledge that this is a global phenomenon. Assessing antisemitism in France is not only important for an evaluation of the threat for Jewish communities, but for French society in general. Moreover, the French case, in which this new wave […]
Europe, the Vatican and the Normalization of Antisemitism
On Sunday January 17th, 2016 Pope Francis made his first visit as Pontiff to the Great Synagogue in Rome. This was a significant event, the third such visit by a Pontiff to the Great Synagogue. Importantly, it followed on the heels of the October commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, where the Pontiff […]
Antisemitism in Response to the 2015 Refugee Wave – Case of the Czech Republic
Despite its strategic location in Central Europe, the Czech Republic remains nearly untouched by the Refugee Wave. In Autumn 2015, when the wave started to culminate in Germany, the Czech Republic had more asylum seekers from Cuba than from Syria. Despite this fact, the Czechs read the news on the Refugee Crisis and the Paris […]
ANTISEMITIC INCITEMENT IS STILL ALIVE IN IRAN
On April 10, the Iranian hardliner website Mashregh News affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards published an article entitled “Who Are Human History’s Most Bloodthirsty People?” The article was later republished by other websites, including Alef, which is associated with Ahmad Tavakoli, a conservative member of Iranian Parliament (Majlis), former head of its research center, and […]
Angry Germans, Inept Leaders
German topics rarely make it into American cable news. Recently, however, a leading TV show put Chancellor Angela Merkel into the category of “villain of the week.” The reason given: she allowed an invasion of mostly young men from Arab and North African lands into Germany. Assaults during the Cologne New Year’s Eve celebrations seem […]
The Roots of Anti-Israel Attitudes
Israel is demonized and singled out by the media and international bodies. Israel is accused of excessive use of force, despite its great efforts to minimize collateral damage, while the massacres by the Assad regime or the heavy collateral damage resulting from Saudi attacks in Yemen are hardly mentioned. The EU decided to mark the […]
The Great Failure of the Anti-Racist Intellectual Community: Downplaying Contemporary Antisemitism
In 2003, a survey of the main sociological and psychological research databases returned no published studies focusing on antisemitism in the Muslim world.[i] Last year, I repeated the study to see whether there had been an upsurge in mainstream social scientific research on the topic. Although a small cadre of writers during the past fifteen […]
Journalistic Ethics and Mideast Reporting
In a world at once increasingly chaotic and interconnected, the news media have come to play unprecedented roles both in covering and influencing fast-moving events. The current violence in Israel is all the more disturbing because of the morally ambiguous coverage it receives in the worldwide press. Although this phenomenon is not new – the […]
Arab Minority in Israel: Denouncing the idea of a Jewish State?
On October 15, the eve of the 98th anniversary of Lord Balfour’s Declaration, Sheikh Kamal Khatib of the Islamic Movement in Israel wrote: If Balfour had promised the Jews a state and fulfilled his promise, then Allah praised his name had promised us to shed his light on the entire universe and make Islam victorious […]
The Paris Attacks, Antisemitism and the Elections
The mass terror attacks which took place in Paris and the nearby town of Saint-Denis on the evening of November 13 did not specifically target Jewish individuals, property or events (in fact, the attacks occurred on the Jewish Sabbath in the French capital). Although at least two Jews were killed at the Bataclan concert hall, […]