Meetings focus on concern for Jews

The rise of anti-Semitism in Europe prompted meetings in two capitals Monday.

In Paris, President Jacques Chirac called an emergency high-level meeting to approve measures to stop attacks on Jewish sites, reflecting concern that disaffected Muslim youths are behind anti-Semitic acts in France.

In Rome, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned Jewish leaders that "a great wave of anti-Semitism" is confronting Jews and told them the best way to combat it is to move to Israel.

The Paris meeting, which was attended by Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, approved a package that included tougher policing and prosecution, but also sweeping urban renewal investments to clean up neighborhoods thought to breed Islamic extremism.

"Anti-Semitism is contrary to all the values of France," Chirac told reporters. Noting that Jews had lived in French lands for centuries, he added: "Our Jewish compatriots are at home in France, as is each and every one of our compatriots."

Chirac cataloged measures that the government will immediately implement to try to prevent anti-Semitic acts, including "precise instructions" for police guards at Jewish institutions, in agreement with Jewish community leaders; special magistrates charged with relations with the Jewish community; and accelerated trials and harsh penalties for those convicted of anti-Semitic acts.

Chirac was moved to speak out by the latest attack on a Jewish site in France. Early Saturday, a Jewish school building in Gagny, north of Paris, was destroyed by arson. Raffarin told reporters after the meeting that the government would earmark the equivalent of almost $8-billion for urban renewal in mostly tough areas with large Muslim populations.

In Italy, Jewish groups have worried that threats to Jews across the continent may be growing, with numerous anti-Semitic episodes in the past two years - most recently, car bombings that killed 24 people at two synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey, on Saturday.

"If Israel is weakened ... the Jews worldwide will not be able to live the lives they live today," Sharon told the crowd at a Rome hotel. "We are witness to a great wave of anti-Semitism, and apart from the usual anti-Semitism against Jews, there is today the added hate of the collective Jew, which is Israel."

Sharon added: "The best solution to anti-Semitism is immigration to Israel. It is the only place on Earth where Jews can live as Jews."

Sharon was expected to raise the issue of anti-Semitism with Premier Silvio Berlusconi during talks today. The conservative Berlusconi, who holds the rotating European Union presidency, has been more sympathetic to Sharon's policies than have many other leaders on the continent.

- Information from the New York Times and Associated Press was used in this report.

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