Gerald Scarfe cartoon, “Sunday Times” (London), January 27, 2013 Manfred Gerstenfeld, author the new book, “Demonizing Israel and the Jews,” and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Robert Wistrich, probably the world’s leading authority on the history of anti-Semitism, are like diagnosticians who agree on the grim prognosis for European Jewry, but disagree on the probable cause of death. Gerstenfeld has attracted a headline in “The Times of Israel” (July 10) by extrapolating from a 2012 study conducted by Germany’s University of Bielefeld for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation that asked 8,000 people across eight EU member states whether they agreed that “Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians.” Responses varied from 38 percent in Italy to 63 percent in Poland, but a continent-wide average 40 percent answered “yes.” The population sixteen years and older of EU countries is approximately 400 million. Gerstenfeld’s estimate of “well over 150 million” European anti-Semites comes from dividing 400 million by two fifths. Wistrich, on the other hand, retorts—to paraphrase slightly—that 150 million idiots do not necessarily equal 150 million anti-Semites! Remember that the term “idiot” among the ancient Greeks referred not to mental impairment but to complete political ignorance and ineptitude—a condition generally assumed by them to be beyond remedy. Looking more closely at the University of Bielefeld poll, one finds that the question asking about Israel’s waging genocidal war on the Palestinians was actually one of two outlier questions. The poll’s major analysis was based on answers to four questions. One was phrased positively—have the Jews “enriched our culture”—three negatively: to they have too much influence? do they play the Nazi victimization card? and do they only care about their own kind? The three negative questions again elicited varying responses—significantly higher in eastern than western Europe—but here the overall average (based on many more responses than to one question) was around thirty percent. Thirty percent of 400 million adult Europeans equals 120 million: still a hell of a lot of anti-Semites! How does the Bielefeld poll compare to other recent polls? In Spring, 2008—before the September market meltdown but after the 2000 Second Intifada and 2006 Lebanon War—a Pew poll showed increasingly high levels of anti-Semitism in six countries across Europe: 46 percent in Spain; 36 percent in Poland; 34 percent in Russia; 20 percent in France and 7 percent in the United Kingdom. (The UK percentage—which actually declined from an earlier poll—raised eyebrows.) In February 2009—after the financial meltdown and the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead—an ADL poll surveyed levels of anti-Semitism in seven countries. Respondents were asked whether or not they agree that Jews are more loyal to Israel than their own country, have too much power in business world and international finance, “still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust,” and “are responsible for the death of Christ.” Another question was whether anti-Jewish feelings were the result of anti-Semitism or instead of anti-Israel sentiment. The results showed that: • Europeans viewed Jews as more loyal to Israel than their own country by a range of 64 percent in Spain to 53 percent in Germany, to 37 percent in the UK. • 74 percent of Spaniards believed that Jews have too much power in international finance or the business world—67 percent in Hungary; 33 percent in France and 15 percent in the UK. The percentage of Europeans believing that Jews have too much financial power increased over two years by 7 percent in Hungary, 6 percent in Poland, and 5 percent in France. • Over half of Poles and Hungarians believed that Jews “still talked too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust”—45 percent of Germans and 20 percent the UK respondents concurred. • Many Europeans still believed that Jews were responsible for the death of Christ by a range of 48 percent in Hungary and 33 percent in Poland to 19 percent in France and 11 percent in the UK. • Of all Europeans, 23 percent said that their view of Jews was affected by Israel’s actions. Among these, 58 percent said Israel’s actions affected their view of Jews negatively. In other words, there was still a minimal blowback from Israel’s actions on attitudes toward Jews, while most European anti-Semites would have been anti-Semitic even if Israel didn’t exist. The Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry Data Base for 2012 found “a considerable escalation” of violent acts against Jews in Europe. The ADL—whose surveys show the percentage of hard-core anti-Semites (i.e., those harboring three or more bigoted attitudes) in the U.S. at about half the European rate—has been offering a European estimate of around 30 percent for a number of years. About Gerstenfeld’s estimate, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper says: “I think the statistics that are quoted are alarming; they’re not alarmist. They’re deeply troubling. . . . If we’re going to be honest with ourselves collectively, the statistics that are quoted are probably closer to the reality than many of us really want to admit.”