Mideast conflict fuels global anger

The bitter winds of hatred are blowing out of the Middle East into Europe, and as far away as Bangladesh and Indonesia.

The continuing battles between Israeli troops and Palestinian forces sparked violence against Jewish targets in France and Belgium, as well as a wave of protests outside US and Israeli Embassies worldwide.

Israel's assault on the Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, is threatening to provoke wider unrest in the Middle East, and has unsettled world markets that are nervous about world oil supplies.

In three separate initiatives, diplomats are frantically gathering in Luxembourg, New York, and Cairo to find a way prevent the conflict from widening.

European Union foreign ministers held an emergency meeting Wednesday evening to urge Israel to abide by a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for Israel's withdrawal from the Palestinian areas it has occupied. It was the first such gathering since just after Sept. 11, underscoring the depth of European fears about the dangers of the current situation.

"It is clear [that American] mediation efforts have failed and we need new mediation" European Commission President Romano Prodi told reporters in Brussels yesterday. Arab foreign ministers are also gathering in Cairo for an emergency meeting Saturday, and the UN Security Council met in New York yesterday.

There are no signs yet, however, that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is ready to heed rising international pressure to call off his attack on Palestinian controlled towns in the West Bank, which he says is aimed at rooting out terrorists.

The violence has spilled over this week into Europe, where Jewish synagogues, a kosher butcher, and other Jewish targets have been attacked in the worst spate of anti-Semitic assaults for years.

On Tuesday, in Berlin, a group of dark-skinned men beat up two Americans after determining that they were Jews. In the southern French city of Marseille, a synagogue was burned to the ground, and Jewish prayer halls were fire bombed in two other French towns and in Belgium.

Also in southern France, a kosher butcher's shop was sprayed with gunfire.

"Anti-Semitic attacks used to be spontaneous, now they are structured, organized by people of an Islamist tendency," says Patrick Klugman, president of the French Jewish Student Union. "A radical hard core of Islamists are sending a message to their constituency, that they can attack anyone anywhere, and they are using what's happening in the Middle East as an alibi."

Attacks on Jews in Europe, once the preserve of extreme right wing groups, are now more often carried out by young, unemployed men from poor suburbs where immigrant families from North Africa are concentrated, according to Malek Boutih, head of 'SOS Racism', a French anti-racist organization.

"Events in the Middle East set something off in their heads," Mr.Boutih says. "They use what's happening to dress up anti-Semitic acts."

Government officials have reacted angrily to the violence. "There can be differences about how to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict but there can be no question of racism, anti-Semitism or fanaticism," Belgian Secretary of State for Development Eddy Boutmans said in a statement. The French authorities have detailed 1,100 extra policemen to guard Jewish sites.

Elsewhere in Europe, pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside US or Israeli embassies in Athens, Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen, Oslo, and Rome.

In the Arab world, Yasser Arafat is becoming an potent symbol of resolve, while inflamed public opinion is narrowing the options open to regional leaders. Arab leaders, too, are increasingly frustrated by their own inability – and the US government's apparent unwillingness – to rein in Mr. Sharon.

In Cairo, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak earlier this week allowed unprecedented freedom to demonstrators who marched on the Israeli Embassy to demand that Egypt break diplomatic relations with Israel.

Though the demonstrators were kept away from the embassy itself, the tightly controlled Egyptian media gave wide coverage to the protest in a move seen as a government attempt to let off some steam.

Reflecting the popular mood, state-controlled Egyptian television has lauded Palestinian suicide bombers, who have killed over 40 Israelis in the past week, as "self sacrificing heroes."

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