Jewish Group Says European Commission Anti-Semitic
Fri January 02, 2004 05:15 PM ET

http://www.reuters.com/printerFriend...toryID=4067047

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two Jewish leaders accuse the European Commission of encouraging anti-Semitism by releasing a "flawed" poll accusing Israel of being the greatest threat to world peace and then by failing to release a report on the involvement of Muslin minorities in anti-Semitic incidents.
In a piece to be published on Monday in the Financial Times, World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman and European Jewish Congress President Cobi Benatoff said, "Anti-Semitism can be expressed in two ways: by action and inaction. Remarkably, the European Commission is guilty of both.

"First, the Commission released a flawed and dangerously inflammatory poll, which purported to name Israel the greatest threat to world peace. Then, it censored a study commissioned by its own Monitoring Center that reported on the involvement of Muslim minorities in incidents of mounting European anti-Semitism. Let us not mince words: both of these actions were politically motivated."

The poll, released in November, reported that 59 percent of respondents -- citizens of the European Union-- answered yes when asked if Israel posed a threat to world peace, a higher percentage than those who opted for other countries including North Korean, Libya and Iran.

The Commission, an arm of the European Union, disassociated itself from its survey with the EU presidency saying the poll did not reflect the group's position on the Middle East.

The World Jewish Congress, which released a copy of Bronfman's and Benatoff's article on Friday, said it was starting a global campaign soon to secure passage of a stand-alone U.N. resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

"At the last U.N. General Assembly session, Arab states torpedoed an effort on the part of the Irish to introduce such a resolution, WJC executive vice president Elan Steinberg said, adding that the initial step was to seek the resolution's adoption at a conference of European nations next April.

º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°°°º¤º°`°º¤ø

Polls can be made to say anything at all. what do people really think