Jews in Europe are gradually dropping their attachment to the political left and moving to more conservative parties, reports the New York Times (Feb. 20).
Rising concern over anti-Semitism and the left’s embrace of the Palestinian cause has brought increasing numbers of European Jews to parties ranging from the center to the right, and even to the far right. In the last elections in Belgium, approximately five percent of Jews voted for the far right Vlaams Belang party. The far right, with its anti-Muslim and immigrant policies, has sought out and drawn a small but surprising pool of Jewish support in Italy and Denmark, given this movement’s history of anti-Semitism.
More common is the shift from the left to active involvement in the more tolerant parties of the center-right, such as the Conservative Party in England, which draws more Jews than the traditional Labour Party. Some voices on the Jewish right, such as writer Bat Ye’or, charge that Europe has allied itself with Arabs and Islam against the Jews and the trans-Atlantic alliance.