class=”sc-29f61514-0 icZBHN”>
Mr. Friedman, Israel is calling on its citizens to leave Turkey because of the increasing terrorist threat to Israelis abroad. Will the conflict in the Middle East threaten Jewish life in Europe?
Michel Friedman: The number of verbal and physical attacks on Jews has increased alarmingly. Violence is no longer the exception. So yes: Jewish life is objectively threatened in Europe. It must be emphasized that the social climate was influenced by the successes of right-wing extremist parties. Whether in Germany, Italy, Hungary or Sweden.
Anti-Semitism was on the rise even before the Hamas massacres.
Yes, but Hamas’s act of terror has led to a new unrest in violence, especially among Islamist radicals.
Pro-Palestinian protests got out of hand, police had to protect the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, there was talk of arson on a synagogue: how deep-rooted is anti-Semitism in Germany today?
It consists of three parts. The most dangerous and strongest is right-wing extremist anti-Semitism. There is also left-wing extremist anti-Semitism. And now the anti-Semitism of radicalized political Muslims is increasingly coming to the fore. The three parts have a great overlap: hatred of Jews and fantasies of destruction. By the way, this is not just a German diagnosis. It applies wherever Jews live in free societies.
How do you explain this – given German history?
Because people looked the other way for decades, right-wing extremist hatred of Jews felt increasingly safe and uninhibited. With the formation of a party of hatred, this takes on a new dimension and legitimacy.
You’re talking about the AfD.
Anyone who elects this party to parliament supports its inhuman ideology.
Do you see a connection between the rise of the AfD and increasing anti-Semitism?
The AfD makes anti-Semitism more socially acceptable. Although the party was democratically elected, it is not yet a democratic party. The fact that it operates from parliament makes it so dangerous. The AfD is changing the climate for debate: instead of tolerance, intolerance, instead of cooperation, confrontation, instead of fighting against each other.
Michel Friedman (67) is a lawyer, philosopher, journalist and TV presenter. He came to Frankfurt am Main at the age of ten, the child of Holocaust survivors. In the 1990s he was a member of the federal board of directors of the CDU, from 2000 to 2003 vice-chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and editor of the “Jüdische Allgemeine”. In 2003, he resigned from all positions following a cocaine scandal. Friedman went on to obtain his doctorate in philosophy. Since 2016, he has been an honorary professor of real estate and media law at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences.
Michel Friedman (67) is a lawyer, philosopher, journalist and TV presenter. He came to Frankfurt am Main at the age of ten, the child of Holocaust survivors. In the 1990s he was a member of the federal board of directors of the CDU, from 2000 to 2003 vice-chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and editor of the “Jüdische Allgemeine”. In 2003, he resigned from all positions following a cocaine scandal. Friedman went on to obtain his doctorate in philosophy. Since 2016, he has been an honorary professor of real estate and media law at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences.
There is panic in Gaza: Israel strikes back after October 7. What should we prepare for?
Israel does not simply strike back. The country is defending itself, as it is authorized to do by international law and also by the UN. Hamas pretends that it used this violence – this brutal, raw, bestial violence – to do something for the Palestinians. She herself declares that her goal is the destruction of the state of Israel. This is a fantasy that affects more than eight million people. Hamas’ goal is not to establish a Palestinian state, but rather an Islamic Sharia state, in other words, a little Iran.
Where is the Palestinian civilian population?
The Palestinians living in Gaza are a shield for Hamas. Israel has called on civilians to leave northern Gaza. But they cannot escape because they are in a prison that Hamas keeps locked from the inside.
Israel has sealed off the Gaza Strip, is launching massive airstrikes and a ground offensive will follow. Do you think that is an appropriate response?
I know of no state that announces hours or days in advance that a defensive action will take place soon. And what does Europe do? It calls on Israel to be proportionate. In Gaza there are structures with enormous armaments, with a huge logistical infrastructure and with Hamas mass murderers who do not respect the lives of their own Palestinian population. And that also applies to the population of the rest of the world.
Do you think it is inappropriate to call on Israel to maintain proportionality?
I find the calls hypocritical. And I don’t think this is appropriate in relation to the threat that Hamas poses to all democratic states with humanist and enlightened societies.
You have to explain that.
Let us not fool ourselves: Islamic terror always hits Israel first, geographically speaking. Ultimately, however, Iran’s ideology, which makes all this possible, finances and organizes it, aims to create a different world, an Islamist world. Anyone naive enough to believe that this is none of our business does not understand why we as a free world support Israel. Let’s assume the worst-case scenario that Israel no longer exists: do you really believe that the destabilization that Iran is planning in the Middle East will not continue?
Isn’t Israel fighting just for itself in the war against Hamas?
We are committed to Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. We must do the same for Israel – because it does not matter whether the attacker’s totalitarian ideology is political or religious.
What do you mean?
A religious state, regardless of faith, is an authoritarian state that does not even grant its own people the basic democratic freedom to live as they wish. We saw this last year in Iran’s treatment of women who at least want to remove the headscarf. Autocrats like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping see the 21st century as a century of autocracies and dictatorships and the decline of democracies. The naivety that sometimes prevails in the West makes me sick.
Hamas’ barbaric actions shocked not only the Western world. What does this terrorist militia want to achieve with this?
The cowardice of directing their attacks not on military institutions or soldiers, but on children and women, shows this organization’s contempt for humanity. That is exactly what Hamas wants: to create images – especially on the internet – that cannot be surpassed in their inhumanity. I don’t understand why a three year old child should be an enemy of Islamism. This propaganda, these images brutalize not only the murderers themselves, but everyone who looks at them, and draws no line between the human and the inhuman. We have to say: we as consumers no longer participate in this.
Isn’t it part of Hamas’s calculation to provoke Israel into a strong military response so that images of the suffering civilian population in Gaza are broadcast around the world?
Even if that were the case, no state would accept such a barbaric attack by the self-proclaimed soldiers of the so-called Gaza State; that would be the beginning of the end. A state has the right – no, the obligation! – to defend his people.
Can a country or a population even recover from such atrocities?
As soon as Israel was established as a state in 1948, it was attacked by Arab states. There is no other war aimed at the destruction of the entire state and its people. While Russia pursues its fantasy of destroying Ukraine, Ukrainians must become part of Russia. In the case of Israel, the goal has always been more than the destruction of state unity; it is about the murder of all Israelis. This population has extraordinary resilience because it believes deeply in freedom and democracy. The fact that before the war up to 250,000 people protested against the right-wing extremist government every week shows exactly this. How many people live in Switzerland?
Nine million.
Just as much as in Israel. Do you believe that in Switzerland you bring tens of thousands of people onto the streets every week to respond to parties that are destroying the people, democracy and the rule of law? Israel’s domestic political crisis means just that: Israelis want to live confidently, freely and democratically. But they can only do that in Israel. In every other country in the world, anti-Semitism is destroying the quality of Jewish life.
Where is the West being challenged now, what should we Europeans do?
First and foremost, you need credible empathy. And then we must provide help where support is needed. It’s not just about the military. I remind you that Israel is so well equipped militarily that many Europeans are thinking about buying its missile shield. But another kind of protective shield is also needed. One that prevents the usual narrative that the Israelis are worse than Hamas from gaining a foothold. That’s what the terrorists want, that’s what many Arab states want, that’s what the anti-Semites want.
A solution to the conflict in the Middle East still seems far away. Do you see any perspective at all?
As a philosopher and as a person who studies history and politics, my answer is obviously yes. This conflict hasn’t even existed for a hundred years. In Europe there were hundreds of years of wars, civil wars, border changes, assassinations, mass murders, two world wars and the Shoah. Nevertheless, over the past decades we have learned to interact with each other in a polite manner. There is no more war between democracies in Europe. Why wouldn’t this be possible in the Middle East?
Yes, why not?
The prerequisite for this are democratic states and their populations that live in the spirit of the Enlightenment and according to the principle of the separation of religion and state: human dignity is inviolable and discrimination is prohibited. In Europe this took almost 2000 years. Hopefully things move faster in the Middle East.
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
