How to Fight Europe’s Antisemitism Virus

Antisemitic hate speech dominates demonstrations in Austria, Germany and across Europe. In Vienna, an exhibition with portraits of Holocaust survivors is smeared with swastikas and their faces torn apart with knives. Conspiracy theories proliferate on the internet. The yellow Jewish star of the Nazi era becomes a hip accessory.

Sounds familiar? This was 2020, long before October 7. Right-wing enemies of democracy and conspiracy theorists used the coronavirus crisis as a vehicle to unleash the antisemitism virus on Europe, embedded in spooky conspiracy theories. Since October 7, antisemitism turned into a super-spreader. While the Israeli youths celebrating in the festivals were still being shot, raped and mutilated by the Hamas murderers, while small children were still being strangled and abducted, the engine of the Palestinian propaganda machine was already revving at full speed.

Political outcry
It quickly became hip in Germany to shout hate slogans at supposedly pro-Palestinian demonstrations. “From the river to the sea” became the mantra of indoctrinated students who fell in love with their new identity as legitimate Jew-haters. Bloodthirsty terrorists became freedom fighters.

Dancing victims of the Nova Festival became occupiers who deserved no better. Hostages, including women, infants and Holocaust survivors, became prisoners on a par with imprisoned Hamas terrorists. The political outcry, the tears, the appointment of commissioners against antisemitism – all this is honorable. But only that. You cannot fight an aggressive virus with a culture of consternation.

Legally unchallenged
Triggered by the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, 80 percent of Jews in Europe no longer feel safe. More than half of Jews in Germany are thinking of emigrating.

It is by no means just the fear of physical attacks by Palestinian fanatics and their sympathizers, Islamists, left-wing or right-wing radicals. It is not just the shock of the deafening roars of radical students and Islamists in the universities and streets of Europe. It is the convulsion.

Despite the good will, despite all benevolent words – the state has failed. Latent antisemitism has mutated into a brazen, ravenous virus.

Extremists who celebrate dead Jewish babies with baklava on the streets of Berlin remain legally untouched. Antisemitic agitators such as the UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese are allowed to lecture in European universities, twice in Vienna alone, on “Israel’s genocide as colonial extermination”, thereby reinforcing the radical brood in the lecture halls.

Devastating signals
Political statements about de-escalation or spirals of violence that convey equidistance and support Israel’s right to self-defense in theory only, send devastating signals to Israel’s enemies. And thus also to the enemies of democratic values. Because since October 7, there is clarity: Israel is not just fighting for Israel. Israel is fighting for the entire Free World. This world is dividing before our very eyes: democracies on the one side, totalitarian regimes on the other. Anyone who wants to preserve democracy, freedom and human rights in their country must stand on the side of freedom, democracy and human rights – and not alongside them.

But there is another thing that has been unbearable for Jews in Europe since October 7: the silence. The silence of women’s organizations and activists about the mass rape of Jewish women by Hamas and the accompanying mob of Palestinian civilians. The group “Queers for Palestine”, for example, stands for the dumbing down of our world and the success of well-financed radicalization. The silence about the hostages starving and tortured in Hamas terror tunnels by well-fed Hamas terrorists. The silence about the rocket terror of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. The silence about the weapons caches under the beds of Palestinian children. The silence about the UNRWA teachers who held hostages. The silence about the Hamas theft of humanitarian aid, financed by European taxpayers’ money. Silence is acceptance. And acceptance is not only morally unforgivable. It is also a strategic mistake. Because silence fuels the extremist movements in European capitals, which oppress women, threaten homosexuals, despise democracy, suck the state dry financially and infiltrate it ideologically. Since October 7, we have clarity. The different faces of antisemitism have merged. The distinction between left-wing, right-wing, Islamist and Israel-related antisemitism is good for academia. But it is not a good basis for the fight against the virus.

Implemented and evaluated
It must not be academized away or appeased. It must be fought, by all means. From unconditional prosecution – including the overdue closure of Hamas-affiliated NGOs to a drastically smarter immigration policy and overall strategic concepts that are not only formulated but also implemented and evaluated.

Because October 7 also makes this crystal clear: the antisemitic virus in Europe – whether fueled by pandemics or Palestinian hate propaganda – is secondly a problem for Europe’s Jews and firstly a threat to the so bitterly fought for freedoms and values of European democracies.

If Jews in Berlin are asked to hide their Star of David, the day is not far off when young girls in Vienna or Paris will no longer dance freely and fearlessly at festivals. We must do everything we can to prevent both.