Heretics' almanac: The European Question

TOH to document.no for this pointer:

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe met in Berlin these last few days to discuss antisemitism and concluded that there was plenty of reason for concern. The Berlin Declaration is the document intended to make this conference historical.

I am encouraged that the OSCE takes this seriously enough to convene a conference to discuss it, and that they acknowledge that anti-Israelism is sometimes used as a cover for antisemitism. I don't want to belittle what was done.

But it still isn't enough. Here's why:

Antisemitism has been a part of European civilization for about 2000 years. It wasn't just something that flared up in a few eras, but rather a chronic affliction that has - by all accounts - not gone away. Nothing in today's Europe could convince me that another Shoah couldn't occur within the next 100 years.

Am I implacable, suspicious, and obsessive? Maybe, but I don't know why I shouldn't be. As far as I can tell, Europe hasn't come much farther in dealing with antisemitism than saying two things: "We said we're sorry," and "that was our parents, not us." That is the kind of defensive rhetoric that shouldn't reassure anyone.

European intellectuals have had a tendency to encapsulate current affairs into questions: The Jewish Question in the past, and the Palestine Question in the present. In the minds of Europeans, the Shoah was a wrong and disastrous attempt to answer the Jewish Question. And they are on their way to determining that the State of Israel is a wrong, though not quite as disastrous answer to the same question. But there is still a Jewish Question that needs to be solved.

This is my point:

No, there isn't. There is no Jewish Question. But there is a European Question. There is nothing about the Jews that invited - and far less justified - thousands of years of cruel persecution. But there is something about Europeans that makes them/us capable of xenophobic, self-righteous, and sometimes murderous bigotry. It persists to this day, is directed at anything foreign but especially the Jews. It poisons the public debate on any issue of international affairs, inhibits healthy societal development, and puts a bad taste in all the great and wonderful things Europeans contribute to the global civilization.

If you pay close attention, there's an interesting difference between the U.S. and Europe on the issue of past collective crimes.

In the U.S., the genocide of Native Americans and the era of slavery are treated as American crimes. It can certainly be argued that U.S. public policy is insufficient in rectifying past injustices, but there is nobody in the mainstream who asks what Native Americans or African-Americans did to attract the atrocities they suffered. There is constant and lively debate as to what constitutes bigotry and/or perpetuates discrimination.

To paraphrase Anita Shapira, Europeans tend to think of antisemitism as a foreign country - something that others do that is entirely foreign to Europe. The opposite is true: antisemitism is native to Europe.

European leaders should start with the premise that Europe could under certain circumstances allow the Shoah to repeat itself, either by turning a blind eye to it in their own backyards (the Middle East, Kosovo) or by perpetrating it themselves. Then they should ask some very uncomfortable questions, such as:

What are those circumstances? Why are we this way? What must change? Do we have to give up something we really value in order to avoid it in the future? What forces will prevent us from changing?

Asking such questions honestly and persistently will take time - probably generations. And it shouldn't just be about antisemitism, lest Europeans believe that hating and hurting the Jews is an exception to an otherwise benign pattern. But it needs to start now.

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