Mideast Violence Hits Europe

The violence until now confined to the Middle East has apparently burst into Europe’s streets.

Police in Belgium and France are investigating four different attacks against synagogues and two other anti-Semitic incidents that occurred over the Easter weekend. Though the motive isn’t completely clear, investigators said they are not ruling out the escalating violence in the Middle East as the powder keg.

The attacks have unleashed a wave of protest from both Jews and Palestinian sympathizers. A leader of France’s Jewish community warned of another "Kristallnacht," the night in 1938 on which Nazis coordinated attacks on Jewish shops and businesses.

On the other side, thousands demonstrated for the Palestinian cause in five different cities across the country on Saturday.

Demonstrators marched on the European Parliament and Court of Human Rights in the northeastern city of Strasbourg calling for an end to the Israeli army’s isolation of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and European cooperation with Israel and the USA. Other demonstrations in Lyon , Bordeaux and Paris had similar themes.

"This demonstration is not meant to transport the Middle East conflict to France but to show our support for Palestinians," Mohamed Lareche, president of the Party of Muslims in France, told Reuters news agency.

Two nights of attacks

But there was evidence that at least some of the violence drenching the Middle East had begun to rear its head in Europe.

The worst of the attacks occurred in the southern city of Marseilles, where unidentified attackers burned a Synagogue, and its holy scrolls, to the ground. No one was hurt in the attack.

Early Saturday morning, witnesses said about 15 youths stormed a synagogue in Lyon. The group smashed two cars into the synagogue’s walls and set them ablaze. Security cameras caught the group celebrating in the early morning hours before disappearing. Firefighters managed to contain the blaze before it did serious damage.

Hours later, someone opened fire on a kosher butcher’s shop near Toulouse, in the southwest. The bullets hit a metal guard protecting the shop front and didn’t hurt anyone. A Jewish couple was attacked by five youths near Lyon.

Later in the day, arsonists poured oil under the prayer hall door of a synagogue in Strasbourg, on the German border, and set it alight. Again, firefighters were able to contain the blaze before serious damage was done.

Leaders react

Whether France’s government can do the same remains to be seen. The country has the largest Muslim and Jewish populations in all of Europe and anti-Semitic attacks have been on the rise in the last two years, according to a recent report.

"Anti-Semitism is certainly not a general feeling shared by the French, but there are tensions here or there that are very dangerous, that must be taken very seriously and that must be prevented and repressed," President Jacques Chirac told French television. He sent 1,100 police to 10 French cities to keep watch.

Belgian officials had similar strong words following a firebomb attack on a Brussels synagogue early Monday morning. The flames damaged the synagogue’s floor and benches.

"There can be difference about how to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but there can be no question of racism, anti-Semitism or fanaticism," Belgium’s Secretary of State for Development and Cooperation Eddy Boutmans said in a statement. "The principle of an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth cannot be applied in Belgium."