President Moshe Katzav departs today for an official four-day visit to Austria - the first time an Israeli President is visiting that country. He will meet with senior Austrian government leaders and will, along with Austrian President Heinz Fischer, attend a special ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Theodor Herzl. President Katzav and his Austrian counterpart will also visit the Mathausen concentration camp.
The visit follows Israel's appointment of an ambassador to Vienna earlier this year, which ended four years of no diplomatic relations between the two countries. Israel withdrew its ambassador in 2000 when the anti-Semitic Freedom Party headed by Jorge Haider joined Austria's coalition government.
Historian Anat Perry, who specializes in Austrian history and anti-Semitism in that country, told Arutz-7 today that "a review of the simple facts alone will show how bad anti-Semitism is today in Austria." She said that when the ruling party recently decided to break off its alliance with the Socialists and "form a new alliance with Haider's party, this wasn't only a political move, but also an ideological one. Haider is very extremist right-wing; at first we didn't want to describe his party as neo-Nazi, but in light of its publications and articles and the like, we have no choice but to use this term.
"They have an educational program, for instance, in which is stated that 'only a third of European Jewry was killed in the Holocaust.' This is of course not only a wrong statement - a third of all of world Jewry was killed in the Holocaust! - but also the tone is one of trying to minimize the Holocaust - and this is in fact one of their main goals. The ruling party is much more moderate and even fair towards Israel, but the very fact that they included the Freedom Party in the coalition is significant...
"Much of the neo-Nazi press in Austria has ties of one type or another with Haider's party. They publish articles saying things like that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks, and instigated the war with Iraq in order to destroy the Palestinians, and the like... Germany, too, has much neo-Nazi media, but it's private - whereas in Austria, with Haider in the government, it's now semi-official."
Historian Perry said she not only objects to Katzav's visit, "but I even objected to the restoration of diplomatic relations. Maybe the Austrians will be less anti-Semitic and more Holocaust-aware for a few days, but it won't change anything in their basic anti-Semitic attitudes; on the contrary - visits like this strengthen their belief that the Jews run the world and that they therefore have to be nice to us. Even more significant, however, is the fact that they misinterpret our reason for restoring relations. They consider us the 'Nazis' in our treatment of the Palestinians, and so they'll say that the reason we are now restoring relations with Austria is because, as Nazis ourselves, we realize we have no right to criticize the Nazi behavior of Austria during the Holocaust. Israel has not done itself a favor with this visit."
The visit follows Israel's appointment of an ambassador to Vienna earlier this year, which ended four years of no diplomatic relations between the two countries. Israel withdrew its ambassador in 2000 when the anti-Semitic Freedom Party headed by Jorge Haider joined Austria's coalition government.
Historian Anat Perry, who specializes in Austrian history and anti-Semitism in that country, told Arutz-7 today that "a review of the simple facts alone will show how bad anti-Semitism is today in Austria." She said that when the ruling party recently decided to break off its alliance with the Socialists and "form a new alliance with Haider's party, this wasn't only a political move, but also an ideological one. Haider is very extremist right-wing; at first we didn't want to describe his party as neo-Nazi, but in light of its publications and articles and the like, we have no choice but to use this term.
"They have an educational program, for instance, in which is stated that 'only a third of European Jewry was killed in the Holocaust.' This is of course not only a wrong statement - a third of all of world Jewry was killed in the Holocaust! - but also the tone is one of trying to minimize the Holocaust - and this is in fact one of their main goals. The ruling party is much more moderate and even fair towards Israel, but the very fact that they included the Freedom Party in the coalition is significant...
"Much of the neo-Nazi press in Austria has ties of one type or another with Haider's party. They publish articles saying things like that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks, and instigated the war with Iraq in order to destroy the Palestinians, and the like... Germany, too, has much neo-Nazi media, but it's private - whereas in Austria, with Haider in the government, it's now semi-official."
Historian Perry said she not only objects to Katzav's visit, "but I even objected to the restoration of diplomatic relations. Maybe the Austrians will be less anti-Semitic and more Holocaust-aware for a few days, but it won't change anything in their basic anti-Semitic attitudes; on the contrary - visits like this strengthen their belief that the Jews run the world and that they therefore have to be nice to us. Even more significant, however, is the fact that they misinterpret our reason for restoring relations. They consider us the 'Nazis' in our treatment of the Palestinians, and so they'll say that the reason we are now restoring relations with Austria is because, as Nazis ourselves, we realize we have no right to criticize the Nazi behavior of Austria during the Holocaust. Israel has not done itself a favor with this visit."