No search party in Europe

European news outlets were more focused on the World Cup and ISIS than Israel last week.

By ANDREAS BERGGREN
Germany's national soccer player Bastian Schweinsteiger stands beside a dummy during a World Cup 2014 training session in the village of Santo Andre, north of Porto Seguro, on Tuesday. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Germany's national soccer player Bastian Schweinsteiger stands beside a dummy during a World Cup 2014 training session in the village of Santo Andre, north of Porto Seguro, on Tuesday.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The kidnapping of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naphtali Fraenkel was covered in virtually all European newspapers last week – a unique event in this column over the last couple of months. But does this mean the average European is able to say really what, why or when it happened? Despite receiving European and even worldwide attention, the abduction of the three teenagers has simply been swept under the titanic-sized media waves created by the World Cup and the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which apparently completed the quota for Middle East news last week. European media started covering the blitzkrieg launched by the terrorists more than a week ago, and has continued to do so meticulously ever since.
Indeed, news reports of ISIS’s latest atrocities (most likely the richest terrorist group to date, after seizing massive amounts of gold from the state bank in Mosul), outnumbered stories of the kidnapped Israelis approximately 80 to one – coincidentally, the same odds as Iran winning Group F in the World Cup.
Even German media did not devote the full volume of its usually reliable coverage of Israel. The abduction was covered, but to put things in perspective, not nearly as often or as in-depth as the miraculous recovery from a coma of Formula One German racecar driver Michael Schumacher, a state he had been in since December, or Germany’s success in the World Cup.
It would prove difficult for any renegade reader to learn about the kidnapping, as Israel’s reaction against the Palestinians seemed to garner much more attention than the abduction itself. This was particularly conspicuous in the Nordic countries as no matter how articles were assembled, they contained three mandatory parts: 1) A picture showing an Israeli soldier in uniform; 2) The total count of Palestinians apprehended for questioning or imprisonment; followed by 3) A hawkish quote (or what Scandinavian readers usually interpret as such) from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, promising to “swoop down on terrorists.”
In Sweden, this resulted in an outcry in social media, where one person stated: “I hate the way Israel is portrayed in Swedish media. The articles [in the four major dailies] look the same way: Israel has arrested 80 Palestinians, but only mention why towards the very end.”
Another person added: “Yeah, [Swedish dailies] present interviews with Palestinian politicians but fail to mention they represent Hamas… ” As a contrasting example, the four articles featured in the Spanish El País were all different in content and shape. They instead focused on what happened to the abducted teenagers themselves, explaining in detail how they hitchhiked in Area C after attending religious classes, and how they attempted to call the police.
In other news from Europe
The bus stop that voices Israel’s anguish over missing teenagers
The Telegraph, England, June 16
A bus shelter has become a symbol of anguish in Israel, with yellow ribbons and defiant messages. Messages such as “We will bring you back” and #bringourboyshome [the Twitter hashtag that has become the rallying cry of the sympathetic Israeli public], are written on posters. Despite vast publicity in Israeli media, The Telegraph witnessed a woman in her 20s hitchhike at the same bus stop. “Of course I’m scared after all the publicity, but what can I do? I need to get home and there aren’t enough buses,” she said. Netanyahu might have cause to fear the event will trigger additional violence between Israel and the recently formed political entity of Fatah and Hamas.

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“The consequences of the partnership with Hamas must be understood; it is bad for Israel, bad for the Palestinians and bad for the region,” the Israeli leader said.
‘I am a non-Jewish Zionist,’ says Mathias Döpfner
Die Welt, Germany, June 12

Supporting Israel is a rational choice for Germany, as Islamic fanaticism concerns everybody, writes MathiasDöpfner, in an opinion piece for the popular German daily.
He continues that, four years before 9/11, Hamas stated in their political manifest, in Article 13: “Peace negotiations, so-called peaceful solutions and the international conference on solving the question of Palestine, go against the ideals of the Islamic resistance struggle. For the question of Palestine, there is no other solution than jihad. The time will not be established until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, before the Jews do not hide behind rocks and trees, saying: ‘Oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me; come and kill him.’” The research institute Forsa said 59 percent of all Germans have an aggressive attitude toward Israel, 10 percent more than the year before.
How Paris favors French Jews departing to Israel
Le Monde Diplomatique, France, June 16
AMI, an organization facilitating emigration to Israel, is a partner with the French Foreign Ministry.
The organization offers aid to Jews in emigrating from France to different Israeli towns such as Har Homa – an Israeli colony located on occupied territory. This is the same government that criticizes the Jewish state for war crimes! France has become a de facto ally to Israel, which was proven by President Francois Hollande’s visit here last year. When prime minister Ariel Sharon called for French Jews to leave France, the statement was supported by the French government.
Sweden must take a stand against anti-Semitism
Dagens Nyheter, Sweden, June 16
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein visited Stockholm last week and criticized the Swedish government for not explicitly taking a stand against anti-Semitism. Edelstein said that “the prime minister has not made any strong statements against anti-Semitism,” despite the recent election of nationalist parties in the European Parliament.
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s secretary stated in defense: “When the American president was here [the prime minister and Barack Obama] visited the synagogue in Stockholm and acknowledged the efforts of [Righteous Among the Nations] Raoul Wallenberg.”