KRAUTHAMMER RESPONSE — Reader Hamish Campbell writes:

That CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER is really overblown. The problem with the idiots over in Europe is they have swallowed the Palestinian propaganda, not some blather about ‘the armed Jew’. Here in Britain, rather than Europe, tales of anti-Semitism are ridiculous. In order to be anti-Semitic, people in Britain would have to actually give a damn about the Jews. We don’t. Most people feel Israel is just another screwed up place ‘over there’.

If anything, the few people who do think about Israel that I know probably agree with that cartoon on Samizdata that at least the Israelis are not hiding in ambulances and behind their children like the Palestinians are. But really, I suspect most people in Scotland at least care as much about Israel as Israelis care about Northern Ireland.

Well, I haven’t noticed Israeli politicians weighing in on the Northern Ireland situation, or threatening boycotts, or sending money to fund IRA “infrastructure.” Though the real problem, of course, is not so much the British as the French and the Norwegians.

If the Euros pick on Israel enough, of course, Israel might start returning the favor by funding and supporting various separatist groups in Europe. And if they do, I think the Europeans will be very unhappy with the results.

UPDATE: Reader John Kluge sends this response to Hamish Campbell:

Hamish Campbell writes “In order to be anti-Semitic, people in Britain would have to actually give a damn about the Jews. We don’t. Most people feel Israel is just another screwed up place ‘over there’.” Yeah that pretty much sums up the attitude of Britain when they were closing their borders and shutting off Palestine to Jewish refugees to placate the Arabs while Hitler was building Auschwitz. Now that the Arabs are busing trying to build nuclear weapons to finish the job Hitler started, once again “Britain would have to actually give a damn about the Jews” to do anything. Well Mr. Campbell, just like Chamberlain found out in 1939, its not so easy to send the Jews to their deaths to placate homicidal lunatics. Those lunatics have a bad habit of turning on the rest of the world. Inadvertently, Mr. Campbell sums up why Europe has ceased to be a credible moral force in the world.