Europe must do everything in its power to combat anti-Semitism -- but also help bring peace to the Middle East, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer urged Thursday.
"We must never have a situation where an anti-Semite can threaten Jews without the majority standing up and protesting," he told a Brussels conference called in response to fears that anti-Jewish prejudice is again rising dangerously across the continent.
"But solving the Middle East and developing a real vision of peace is the major, major challenge for a Europe that is uniting," he said.
Evidence from France, Britain, Belgium and elsewhere shows a growing number of verbal and physical attacks on Jews, often by young Muslims, since the second Palestinian uprising began in 2000.
Romano Prodi, president of the European commission, warned against comparisons with Hitler's "final solution" and the extermination of 6 million Jews.
"Today's Europe is not the Europe of the 1930s and 1940s," Prodi said.
The conference has been the subject of bitter controversy. Prodi convened it in response to complaints from US Jewish leaders that European "inaction and indifference" amounted to anti-Semitism. Countries such as France, Germany and Belgium -- the so-called "axis of weasels" opposing US President George W. Bush's war in Iraq -- are seen by many in the US as hotbeds of anti-Jewish hatred.
Meanwhile, some European commentators have caused offense by identifying a "cabal" of largely Jewish neoconservatives driving Washington's unilateralist and pro-Israeli agenda.
Anger mounted last November when a Eurobarometer poll showed that 59 percent of Europeans saw Israel as the greatest threat to world peace. And there was fury over the suppression of an EU report blaming young Muslims for attacks on Jews.
Prodi defended the right to criticize Israel's policies, but said: "I am aware, and I cannot deny, that some criticism of Israel is inspired by what amounts to anti-Semitic sentiments and prejudice. This must be recognized for what it is and properly addressed."
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