Europe’s Selective Outrage about Anti-Semitism

by John Rosenthal
There has been much controversy of late about the British Conservative Party’s decision to join the newly formed European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the EU parliament. Most of the excitement has focused on the Polish MEP Michal Kaminski, who was named chair of the ECR group. Kaminski, a member of the Law and Justice Party of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, has been accused of anti-Semitism. For an interview in the Jewish Chronicle in which Kaminski responds to the charges, see here. And for a defense of Kaminski by Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard, see here.
Pollard suggests that the charges against Kaminski are part of a smear campaign designed to associate opposition to an increasingly centralized “federal” Europe à la the Lisbon Treaty with extremism. When one considers that the ECR was founded precisely in order to give greater voice to “anti-federalist” currents within the parliament and that it also includes the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) of the Czech Republic’s famously euro-skeptical President Vaclav Klaus, this account is, prima facie, highly plausible.
More...
pajamasmedia.com