More than a quarter of Europeans believe that Jews have too much influence in business and finance, while nearly one in four Europeans think that the Jewish people have too much influence in global conflicts. In addition, one in five Europeans said that they believe Jews have too much say in the shapes of media and politics. In a new survey that was published by the American media network, CNN, which interviewed more than 7,000 people across Europe that included more than a thousand respondents respectively in Sweden, Germany, Great Britain, France, Austria, Hungary and Poland; the poll revealed some complicated and sometimes disturbing attitudes about Jews, and a growing trend of ignorance vis-à-vis the Holocaust. The report uncovered a disturbing fact, in which a third of Europeans confessed that they knew just a little or nothing at all about the Holocaust, the genocide of six million Jews by Nazi Germany, in the 1930s and 1940s. The lack of knowledge was particularly grim in France, where one out of five people between the ages of 18 and 34 said they had never heard of the Holocaust – while in Austria, where Adolf Hitler was born, 12 percent of young people said they had never heard of the Holocaust, either.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was interviewed by CNN about the threatening poll, which was commissioned by the American Media giant prior to the deadly attack in the United States last month, at a Pittsburgh synagogue, where 11 Jewish worshipers were brutally murdered by a self-declared anti-Semite. Netanyahu reiterated in his response, during a meeting with the IDF Commando Brigade, “I came here from an interview with CNN, before I arrived here CNN interviewed me. A report was published on the rising aantisemitism across Europe. He (reporter) asked me what do should we do with it, so I told him what needs to be done in Europe. So I told him that the most substantial solution to antisemitism is the state of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).” The Israeli leader underscored to the Israeli troops that while the Jewish people were once “like a driven leaf in the wind and we could be slaughtered. Today we have the power to respond.” He added that “We are on the eve of Chanukah. The spirit of the Maccabees is here – you are the Maccabees. We overcome our enemies with extraordinary strength and the extraordinary spirit that I see here; I see this in the IDF and in all our fighters. I am proud of you and believe in you, and the people of Israel believe in you.” Prime Minister Netanyahu also took the opportunity to observe a multi-scenario exercise of various units of the IDF commando brigade, which is scheduled to last ten-days in various parts of the country. The Israeli leader spoke with the soldiers participating in the exercised and was briefed on its developments and the country’s preparedness by IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot and other senior military officers.