In August 2009, Sweden's largest daily Aftonbladet, a tabloid, published an article implying that the Israel Defense Forces kills Palestinians to provide the Israeli medical establishment with organs. The article was heavily criticized in the Swedish media, and several papers denounced it as anti-Semitic. The Swedish government refused to comment on the article, claiming legal factors prevented them. Swedish-Israeli relations suffered from the affair. A planned visit to Israel by Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was canceled. Since Sweden held the rotating presidency of the European Union, the EU's role as a broker in the Middle East peace process also suffered.
Mainline Canadian churches, like their counterparts in the United States, have addressed petitions seeking commitment to the Durban indictment against Israel. The outcome of contests during the summer of 2009 within two major Protestant denominations in Canada reflects some similarities and some contrasting features in the religious situation in these neighboring countries. These differences are related to differences between the histories of the United States and Canada.
Most Italians think there are many times more Jews in Italy than the thirty-one thousand paying members of the Italian community. Native Italian Jews probably number no more than fifteen thousand. There are sizable communities of Libyan (mainly in Rome) and Lebanese and Iranian origin (mainly in Milan). The false perception of a large number of Jews in Italy results from the fact that several Jews have indeed played key roles in Italian society over the past century and a half. External developments have fostered a sudden reemergence of Italian Jewry. This has made Italian Jews again proud of their identity.
Bassam Tibi examines Islamist expansionism both in Muslim and Western societies, a phenomenon that appears in violent and deceptively peaceful guises. He presents a penetrating and analytical study of the West's inability to comprehend the underlying ideologies of Islamism, which is crucial if it hopes effectively to confront this increasingly dire situation.
These are people whose criticism of Israel, and collaterally of Jews, has a hardly deniable anti-Semitic resonance, yet who almost invariably believe, with as much sincerity as they can muster, that they are anything but anti-Semites, that they are actively opposed to all racism whether directed at Jews or anyone else. This is the phenomenon with which Harrison's book is concerned.
The broad superficial familiarity with the Holocaust makes it prone to a multitude of distortions. Its history and terminology are abused for a variety of purposes, including using it as a tool against one's enemies and, in particular, Jews and Israel. This book analyzes the categories of distortion and the responses to them. Also included are case studies that analyze Holocaust distortion in several European countries and the Muslim world.
The main recurrent motif in Arab cartoons concerning Israel is "the devilish Jew." This image conveys the idea that Jews behave like Nazis, kill children and love blood. The similarity with themes promulgated by the Nazis is evident. Many Arab cartoons praise suicide bombing or call for murder. The collective image of the Jews thus projected lays the groundwork for a possible genocide.
The anti-Zionist narrative probably has greater legitimacy in Great Britain than in any other Western society. Antisemitism of the "anti-Zionist" variety has achieved such resonance, particularly in elite opinion, that various British media are leaders in this field. The UK holds a pioneering position in promoting academic boycotts of Israel. The same is true for trade-union efforts at economic boycotts. There is also no other Western society where jihadi radicalism has proved as violent and dangerous as in the UK.
This article explores the relations between the Catholic Church and the Jews from the middle of the previous century until the present day. It will focus on how the Catholic Church has dealt with memory of the Shoah and how this has affected the Church's relations with the Jews. It will look at the most recent developments in dialogue between the Church and the Jews under Pope Benedict XVI and the impact of his visit to Israel in May 2009.
This article deals with the diverse images of Jews in Germany: which roles they take upon themselves and which symbolic roles German society sees in the Jewish community. The author tries to unfold the origins and the meaning of these roles including Jews as victims, as sensors toward anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism. The symbolic roles of Jews in Germany cannot be compared to those in other countries, as in Germany the real presence of Jews is publicly very important as "proof" that the country has developed into a democracy and a diverse, open society. Nevertheless Jews are also taken as responsible for Israel's policies and as such are targets for condemnation. Therefore, the roles which are put upon the Jewish communities and citizens are exchangeable depending on what German society needs and wants to see in the Jews.
The current relationship between humanitarians and pacifists on the one side, and totalitarians on the other, is a complex one. There are many precedents in Western Europe from before the Second World War of how Philo-Semites turned into anti-Semites and how humanitarians and pacifists became Nazi supporters. To what extent can we learn from this in relation to the present?
Swedish anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism have recently attracted much attention due to the Aftonbladet Organ Affair. During Israel's Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip, around the turn of the year 2008/2009, there were several anti-Semitic attacks in Sweden. There is substantial anti-Israeli media bias in several Swedish papers.
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