One afternoon in November, Océane Sluijzer, a 13-year-old Belgian Jewish girl, was beaten up after soccer practice by a group of schoolmates. Her tormenters, girls of Moroccan descent, called her a “dirty Jew” and told her to “go back to her own country.”
Two weeks later, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium mentioned the beating in a speech about the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. Howard Gutman, himself a Jew, saw Océane’s plight as symptomatic of a larger problem: Jews and Muslims in Europe are caught in a proxy war that mirrors events in the Middle East, especially between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Every new settlement announced in Israel, every rocket shot over a border or suicide bomber on a bus, and every retaliatory military strike exacerbates the problem and provides a setback here in Europe for those fighting hatred and bigotry,” Gutman said.
Note EU-Digest: unfortunately these incidental Middle East related social disturbances in Europe will only stop after the source of the problem gets eliminated in the Middle East. Instead of talk which has had no results whatsoever, maybe a total weapons embargo for the area, including Israel would be a step in the right direction. Regretfully these are all "pipe dreams", because no one is willing or able to touch the lucrative corporate/state military industrial complex in Israel, Europe, Russia, and the USA. Even Sarah Wildmar of the NY Times should know this.
For more: The New Scapegoats of Europe
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