On Dec. 8, the San Diego Union-Tribune published James O. Goldsborough’s latest inflammatory column, this one entitled “Israel and the rise of anti-Semitism.” The piece blames Israel and Jewish groups for causing anti-Jewish violence, while ignoring the role and responsibility of the mainly Arab/Muslim perpetrators. He writes:
The people of Europe have not turned against Jews, they have turned against Israel’s government….The rise in European ‘anti-Semitism’ is really a rise in criticism of the Sharon government. When governments enflame world passions through aggression, they pay a price. [Emphasis added.]
Amazingly, Goldsborough implies setting synagogues on fire and beating up Jewish kids playing soccer are natural and acceptable expressions of political “criticism of the Sharon government.”
Nor does he bother to explain why an Israeli government defending itself against waves of Palestinian terrorism is considered the aggressor, or why the escalation in terror began when 98 percent of the Palestinian population lived under Arafat’s rule (not under Israeli “occupation”) and shortly after the Barak government offered the Palestinians their own state on 100 percent of Gaza and more than 95 percent of the West Bank.
In France, especially, Jews have been harrassed and assaulted. Synagogues and a Jewish school have been burned and violent attacks on Jews are commonplace, as are the tearing down of mezuzahs and desecration of Jewish homes and cemeteries. Police reports, as well as a recently released EU study on anti-Semitism, indicate that Arab Muslim immigrants are behind most of the violence–but all this is unmentioned by Goldsborough.
He reserves criticism for the groups working to halt the spread of anti-Jewish invective and violence: “If such groups [like the ADL and Simon Wiesenthal Center] adopted a responsible position toward Israeli government policy, instead of blanket approval, what passes as anti-Semitism would not be the issue it has become.”
Omitted too is any reference to the anti-Jewish incitement by Arab groups that fuels the violence. The official media in most Arab and Muslim countries glorifies the killing of Jews, and the hugely popular satellite news network, Al Jazeera, similarly promotes anti-Semitism, demonization of Israel and acceptance of “martyrdom operations.”