We have the remarkable situation that the U.S., Canada, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, the Arab League, and the GCC, joined most recently by Argentina and the United Kingdom, all agree on the true nature of Hezbollah, yet the EU stands oddly apart.
As a European engaged around the clock with American Jews, I feel a sense of responsibility and urgency to share our experience. With every exhausting debate over what constitutes antisemitism, with every refusal to take into consideration antisemitism from the other side of the political divide, with every glance at the overwhelming amount of antisemitic hate speech online, and every time I see certain politicians in the U.S. fail to find the courage to speak out clearly and unequivocally and come up with a clear plan to combat this cancer, I get more nervous.
The European Union has often condemned Israel in one-sided statements that favor the Palestinians, ignoring the context of Israeli actions and without condemning Palestinian terror attacks on Israel.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the globe, some countries have been more successful in battling the virus than others. Notably, in Denmark, Austria, and Israel the number of new infections has gone down and authorities are now starting ease restrictions.
Through our Paris office, AJC is actively engaging political, civil society, cultural, and religious leaders to grapple with the rise of Islamist radicalism, as well as the extreme right-wing reaction it has triggered in France and several other European countries.