Europe and Anti-Semitism

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When the controversy over publication of cartoons of Prophet erupted the main argument forwarded by a considerable section of west in support of the act (i.e the cartoons) was as much offensive the cartoons may be to muslims, the newspaper (or anyone else) was well within its right of free speech,freedom of speech being the bedrock principle of western civilization and hence can not be negotiated.

One of the valid criticism of this stance was that for all posturing about freedom, almost all European counteries had penalties for anti-semitism or in some case even Holocaust denial.
The contradiction in European responses in the two cases can be explained if the European motives are understood.
Simply said, the restriction placed by Europe over anti-semitism is due to guilt.

Earlier the decision to locate jewish nation in Israel, even accounting for historical reasons seemed to me absurd. Surely Europe or America was a much better place to establish a sanctuary for Judaism, as compared to being surrounded by hostile Arabs.

This absurdity can only be grasped by the context. It is a popular misconception that Anti- semitism was limited only to Nazis. There is a long history of discrimination and suppression of jews in Europe.

While in medieval Europe it (the discrimination) was due to religious reasons, in 19th century the ground of discrimination shifted to race. During that period emerging intellectual discourse & social theories (or to be more precise those which were opposed to egalitarianism) were heavily influenced by latest discoveries in genetics. It was proposed (by Nietzche and others) that racial superiority was the basis for civilization and hence vigorous approach to philosophy should have genetic preservation and improvement as its fundamental principle.

This school was very critical of christian influence, however due to historical prejudices it was judaism which was blamed for the corruption and decay.
Therefore the prejudices against jews existed in Europe even at the turn of of 20th century.
To make matters worse Jews, by dint of hard work, constituted a considerable percentage of middle class and leadership of communist and socialist movements and therefore were even more disliked by both common public and intellectuals opposed to communism.

It is a mistake to believe that Nazi came out of nowhere. Hitler was a demagogue who took advantage of widespread disaffectation against commuism to gain power. Europe and to a large extent even USA went along with Nazi oppression of jews. A considerable section of western class saw Nazism as the last hope against communism and for that was ready to overlook other agendas of Hitler.Even when Germany embarked on final solution of the Jewish problem, by and large occupied Europe cooperated with Nazis.

It was only ofter the defeat of the Nazis that the horrible extent of Holocaust was revealed.

It had two effects.

1) In a way what Nazi did, was culmination of Europe long standing hatred for jews.
Europe was horrified by the result of her prejudice. And it is this guilt and shame at indifference (and sometimes support) which resulted in genocide, due to which European counteries are so sensitive about anti-semitism.

2) Before the ascent of Nazis , a considerable section of Jews believed that irrespective of Historical injustices, they had a future in liberal Europe. This was also one of the reasons that Jews participated in liberal movements. However 2nd worlds war changed this. Their delusion was destroyed and they realised that for their survival they can never trust anyone else for survival of Jewish race.

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