Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

118 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 1:95
did not exhibit a comparable concern for “the existence of Israel—which its
enemies want to annihilate, and is ultimately at stake in the conflict.”
Magister added that, in spite of having diplomatic relations with Israel,
“Every time a conflict erupts, the [Vatican’s] judgment is that the Arabs are
the victims. Even Islamist terrorism is traced back to this basic cause.” 76
Magister makes the seldom-discussed point that one reason for the
Church’s pro-Arab stand is that it believes Israel’s existence is “temporary”
and that only its military superiority guarantees its survival.
A similar, if not more hostile, attitude has long pervaded the halls of
the UN with its more than fifty Muslim member states as well as the foreign
offices, media, churches, and relief organizations of most Western European
countries. Implicit in their one-sided complaints is the conviction that
without Israel, there would be no Middle East conflict and the influence of
radical Islam would be greatly diminished. 77
When one compares the inaction of the West and the UN when actual
mass murder and genocide took place in Rwanda, where in 1994 an estimated
800,000 were killed in 100 days, and in Darfur, where 300,000 are
estimated to have been killed and 2,500,000 displaced, with the eagerness
with which Israel has been repeatedly singled out for condemnation and
vilification, it would appear that something other than rational political
behavior is operative. 78 At one level, such behavior seems to reflect the
fact that there are far more Muslims in the world than Jews and that close to
25,000,000 Muslims live in Western Europe.
Sandro Magister’s observation that the Vatican regards the existence
of the State of Israel as a transitory phenomenon may offer a clue concerning
the root of the issue, at least in the predominantly Christian world. I
would like to suggest that there is a religious element in this widespread
bias and that long after literal religious belief has lost much of its credibil-
76. Sandro Magister, “In Gaza, the Vatican Raises the White Flag,” www.
chiesa, January 4, 2008, http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/213171?eng=y.
77. This attitude has often been expressed, but seldom as crudely as it was by
the late Daniel Bernard, former French Ambassador to the Court of St. James, at a
London dinner party in December 2001. The diplomat said, “All the current troubles
in the world are because of that shitty little country Israel.” He added, “Why
should the world be in danger of World War III because of those people?” See Tom
Gross, “Prejudice and Abuse,” National Review On Line, January 10, 2002, http://
www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-gross011002.shtml.
78. For a brief overview on Rwanda, see “Rwanda: How the Genocide Happened,”
BBC News, December 18, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1288230.
stm (accessed January 14, 2009). For the figures on Darfur, see “U.N.: 100,000
more dead in Darfur than reported,” CNN.com, April 22, 2008, http://www.cnn.
com/2008/WORLD/africa/04/22/darfur.holmes/index.html?eref=rss_topstories.