US embassy cable - 04BRUSSELS1806

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRUSSELS 001806 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/ERA, EUR/RPM, IO/UNP, DRL/IRF 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/26/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PHUM, OSCE, EUN, USEU BRUSSELS 
SUBJECT: EU RELEASES ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT 
 
REF: STATE 784 
 
Classified By: USEU POLOFF TODD HUIZINGA, FOR REASONS 1.4(B) AND (D) 
 
 1. (C) SUMMARY: On March 31, the European Monitoring Center 
on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) released its long-awaited 
report on anti-Semitism in the EU.  Its data indicate a 
growing level of anti-Semitic violence in Europe.  Right-wing 
"skin-head" attacks continue unabated, while a growing number 
of attacks by Muslims in Europe account for the overall 
increase.  A comparison with the previous EUMC report reveals 
the EUMC may be inviting a second wave of recrimination -- at 
a time when it has not yet recovered from the storm of 
controversy caused by its initial decision last winter not to 
release the first report.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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REPORT DOCUMENTS INCREASED ANTI-SEMITISM 
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2. (U) At a March 31 press conference at the European 
Parliament (EP) in Strasbourg, EP President Pat Cox, EUMC 
Director Beate Winkler and European Jewish Congress President 
Cobi Benatoff presented the report, "Manifestations of the 
Antisemitism in the EU 2002-2003."  Cox said: "The report 
asks basic questions:  is there anti-Semitism in the EU, is 
it rising, and is it an issue that we have to address -- the 
answers are yes, yes and yes."  Benatoff welcomed the report 
as a step in "preventing the conspiracy of silence," while 
adding that it confirmed his fear that "the cancer of 
anti-Semitism is back in Europe."  All three joined in 
calling for concrete actions against anti-Semitism. 
 
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DIFFERS FROM PREVIOUS REPORT 
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3. (C) The controversy around the EUMC's initial refusal to 
release the previous paper appears to have exerted an 
influence on this new venture.  The just-released report's 
assessment of anti-Semitism in the EU dilutes, with extreme 
care and plenty of equivocation, the most controversial 
findings of last winter's document -- which the EUMC 
characterized as "inadequate" and refused to release (until 
forced to do so by political pressure). 
 
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FIRST REPORT: MUSLIMS AND ISRAEL 
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4. (C) The first report, which covered the first half of 
2002, asserted that Muslim Europeans and European attitudes 
toward Israel were the major cause for the rise in 
anti-Semitic attacks, and that &extremist far-right 
parties((did not play) a decisive role.8  The authors also 
examined anti-Semitic statements of pro-Palestinian groups, 
politicians, and &citizens from the political mainstream8 
and posited a close connection on the political left between 
anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.  The report stated: &it 
could be said that the tradition of demonising Jews in the 
past is now being transferred to the state of Israel.  In 
this way traditional anti-Semitism is translated into a new 
form, less deprived of legitimacy, whose employment today in 
Europe could become part of the political mainstream.8 
 
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NEW REPORT: ANTI-ISRAELI NOT ANTI-SEMITIC 
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5. (C) The just-released report attempts, with extreme care 
and plenty of equivocation, to mitigate those views.  At one 
point, it says, rather clumsily, that "hostility toward Jews 
as 'Israelis'" is not anti-Semitic if it is "not based on ... 
antisemitic stereotyping of Jews."  On the sources of 
anti-Semitism in Europe, the report concludes after a long 
and tedious discourse on &defining anti-Semitism8 
(including a paragraph on why the term should be spelled 
&antisemitism8 and not "anti-Semitism8) that "it is 
problematic to make general statements with regard to the 
perpetrators of antisemitic acts."  Winkler states on the 
EUMC website that "young, disaffected white Europeans, often 
stimulated by extreme right-wing groups" appear to be the 
largest group responsible for anti-Semitic attacks.  The 
report notes, however, that a further source of anti-Semitism 
in some countries was young people of North African Muslim 
extraction, and that they were changing the demographic 
nature of anti-Semitism in Europe. 
 
 
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COMMENT: STORM CLOUDS APPROACHING? 
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8. (C) COMMENT:  Following the criticisms of the first 
report, this second effort is very careful in its arguments 
and in describing its methods and the reasons for its 
assessments.  Cobi Benatoff's presence at the press 
conference announcing its release testifies, both politically 
and substantively, to its quality.  Nevertheless, the way in 
which the EUMC continues to tread gingerly around the subject 
of anti-Semitism in Europe indicates the political volatility 
of this issue and a continuing reluctance to face this 
phenomenon in Europe boldly and with conviction.  END COMMENT. 
 
SCHNABEL