LONDON -- The Jewish lobby and the religious right in the United States have described European critics of the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his government as anti-Semitic. Such comments reveal a woeful ignorance of Europe and the real issues in the Middle East. They also tend to confirm European suspicions that some Americans apply a double standard to the crisis in the Middle East.
The suicide bombings in Israel, which have caused the deaths of innocent civilians, can never be condoned, but they are not the same as the appalling events in the U.S. on Sept. 11. The firm response of the West to the al-Qaeda threat and the military action taken by the Americans and supported by Britain and other countries were fully justified.
The response by the Israeli government to Palestinian attacks, however, seems to many observers to have been disproportionate. Many more Palestinian civilians than Israeli civilians have been killed in the Israeli Army attacks on towns in the West Bank. The devastation caused to the Palestinian infrastructure by the Israeli Army means that the Palestinian authorities are not now, or for some time to come, able to take the kind of action demanded by the Israeli government. This opens the way for further Israeli military intervention that may ultimately destroy any semblance of a Palestinian Authority.