ö philosophy, the French and many other Europeans tends to side with the Palestinians in the conflict between them and Israel, primarily because they no longer see IsraeliÆs, with their own nation, as needing protection or being ostracized as the ôother.ö They, therefore, feel they should switch their allegiance and support the Palestinians, who they do view as the persecuted ôotherö in need of protection. As one political observer of the situation in France maintains, ôIn recent years the hard line of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, Palestinians have claimed the victimÆs mantle. Now they are the Other, while Israel-warlike, nationalist, racist, in EuropeÆs eyesùembodies everything that Europe has rejected.ö
The specter of anti-Semitism rising across Western Europe i
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