World Summit on Anti-Semitism begins in London

February 16, 4:02 PMForeign Policy ExaminerAimee Kligman

Previous Next

1 comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Foreign Policy Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

If this conference is meant to be kept secret, they're doing a great job of it.   Finding information about the conference and its purpose, topics, and speakers is no easy task. The British and Canadian presses are just about the only ones talking, and it's not much.

It is at times like these that the late Tom Lantos comes to mind. He was an unequivocal champion of human rights, and fought against anti-semitism during his entire career. He was the only member of the House of Representatives to have been a Holocaust survivor. And of course, should he have been alive, there is no doubt he would have been in London right now.

Speaking on behalf of the United States at this conference is Congressman Chris Smith, from the House of Representatives. He has championed human rights in countries like Russia and Vietnam.  He's member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, ranking member of the Africa and Global Health Subcommittee as well as the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee. Could there have been a more judicious choice? That is a sincere question.

For the full program of the conference, please see this link.

It is undeniable that incidents of anti-semitism have risen since Israel's invasion of Gaza. It boggles the mind that conferences such as these continue to exist, to define what constitutes anti-semitism, to chart the rise and fall of incidents, and to appoint committees to lead "wars" on anti-semitism. Why does it escape these fine people that actions of Israel are in great part responsible for heinous acts against Jews worldwide? Here's a quote from the conference's program:

more than 100 lawmakers from 35 countries who will work intensively with leading academics, legal experts and specialists in the field to devise ways by which parliamentary systems can work with governments to combat antisemitism as a global threat.

You can gather all the academics you can find on the face of the earth, every legal expert there ever was, and more specialists on the topic and you will never make a dent in this global problem as long as Israel is allowed to continue its occupation. What and where does the difficulty in understanding this equation lie? The Muslim world is enraged, yes I repeat enraged and outraged by what recently took place in Gaza, while the entire world just watched. And then there were some who were outraged, though they were not Muslims, just humanitarians.

As Dr. Mustafa Barghouti stated during a round-table this weekend with Fareed Zakaria, Yossi Klein Halevi and Yoram Peri, Palestinians want their freedom. Freedom to move, freedom to live in their own state, freedom from occupation in all forms. The discussion was excellent, and should be shown at this World Conference so that people may hear the root causes of anti-semitism. Here it is for your own edification:

The problem begs the question: why? And the answer is not the usual canned responses we have been hearing from the propaganda machines. There is a very fine line between fighting for one's freedom and terrorism. When America fought alongside the Taliban against Russia, we called them freedom fighters. Remember?