Putin Defends 'Lawful' Seizure of Ukrainian Ships; Anti-Semitism Reaches Fever Pitch in France; Briefing by Top U.S. Officials over Khashoggi Murder Sparks Backlash
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The new anti-Semitism in France. As the extent of the problem is revealed, many Jews fearing for their safety are packing up and leaving the country altogether. Just a minor border incident: Russia's Vladimir Putin downplays the latest military confrontation with Ukraine and accuses Ukraine's president of planning the clash at sea. Plus giving sanctuary: how a small church in The Hague is trying to save a family from getting deported. Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church and this is CNN NEWSROOM.</s>CHURCH: We begin with "A Shadow over Europe," our extensive investigation into the rise of anti-Semitism on the continent. CNN has spent months looking into the surge in hate crimes and hate speech across Europe. And nowhere is the problem more apparent than in France, home to the largest Jewish population in Europe. CNN's exclusive polling shows 48 percent agree anti-Semitism is a growing problem in France today; 29 percent of those surveyed say they know just a little or have never heard of the Holocaust. And 24 percent believe Jewish people have too much influence over global finance. Rarely does a week pass in France without news of another anti-Semitic attack. The mood in the country is driving some Jews to leave France altogether. CNN's chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward reports from Paris.</s>CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In France today, anti-Semitism is not just a prejudice. Its 26 people held hostage in a Kosher supermarket. Its three children and a teacher gunned down at a Jewish school. It's a Holocaust survivor murdered in her apartment. It's 11 body bags in 12 years. Nathaniel Azuly (Ph) nearly ended in one, too. He says he and his brother were attacked in a Paris suburb by a group of local Muslim kids. One of them armed with a saw. "We were in our car and it happened very quickly," he said. "It happened just because I had the kippah on."</s>WARD: Just because you were wearing a kippah?</s>WARD (voice-over): "His speech changed when he saw the kippah," he told us. "He started hurling anti-Semitic insults. Jew, you're going to die on this road." Azuly (Ph) believes that his knowledge of Krav Maga, the martial art form favored by the Israeli military, saved his life. Instructor Avi Atlan says he has seen an uptick in the number of young Jews wanting to learn to defend themselves. "It's very said but that's where we are," he told us. "There are so many people who hate Jews." According to the French government, the number of anti-Semitic acts here increased by a staggering 69 percent in the first nine months of this year and the nature of the attacks is changing, becoming more violent. Frederic Potier has been tasked with managing the official response. He says the government does not fully understand the reason for the increase.</s>FREDERIC POTIER, HEAD, FRENCH GOVERNMENT OFFICE AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM: We're worried about these figures. But we have decided not to hide these numbers. We decided to face it. And that's very important.</s>WARD: So, what do you say to a young French boy who is too afraid to wear a kippah?</s>POTIER: Don't be afraid to wear it. I need him, I need to fight anti-Semitism. I need him to fight cliche and stereotype. I need him to stand for with the republic saying that, all the French Jews are French.</s>WARD (voice-over): France is now spending nearly $6 million dollars on educational and online initiatives to combat hate speech. But anti-Semitism is a complex issue here. Analysts say the traditional anti-Semitism of the far-right has been compounded by a more recent threat from radical elements in France's Muslim population. Hakim El Karoui has advised previous governments on what some are calling the new anti-Semitism.</s>HAKIM EL KAROUI, SENIOR FELLOW, INSTITUT MONTAIGNE (through translator): We don't speak about Muslim anti-Semitism, which is a reality in which aligns the anti-Semitism from the far-right and from the far-left which is mostly directed --</s>EL KAROUI: -- towards Israel.</s>WARD (voice-over): A CNN poll found that more than a quarter of French people have a somewhat or significantly less favorable opinion of Jews as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. France is home to the largest Muslim and Jewish minorities in Europe with roughly half a million Jews and 4.7 Muslims. But the relationship between the two communities has deteriorated steadily since the first Palestinian intifada in the year 2000. As the politics of the Middle East has lapped up on France's shores. "They're right to be afraid because the conflict in Palestine has reached here. That's why there's this situation." Muslim resident Mallika says, "but for me when I see a Jew next to my place or on the street, I say we are the same family, they have nothing to do with what's going on in Palestine and they're afraid for their children. And that's crazy." France does not identify the religion of those convicted of anti- Semitic crimes. Making it a difficult problem to quantify and a sensitive issue to discuss with the Muslim community that already feels discriminated against and disenfranchised.</s>EL KAROUI (through translator): The perception of the Muslim is that they are the victims. They are the ones who suffered from racism and discrimination. And then the Muslim community is going to tell you, yes, there is an an-Semitism problem but don't our situation. And the problem is that you start comparing victims.</s>WARD: Miriam and her family have considered moving from France, joining the more than 55,000 Jews who have left the year 2000. In the sanctuary of their home, they celebrate Shabbat, a ritual ushered in every Friday night by lighting candles and reciting a blessing.</s>MIRIAM, FRENCH CITIZEN: I'm scared for the future of my baby here, I hope that he will have a future here. And you know, Jewish community is a part of historical France. Really. And so, I think France without any Jews is not any more France.</s>WARD: Miriam's prayers are for a France of tolerance with her little boy can grow up free of fear, but for now, there are no signs that her prayers will be answered -- Clarissa Ward, CNN, Paris.</s>CHURCH: Join us again on Friday, when Clarissa Ward talks with Edith Eger, who survived the Auschwitz death camp and has dedicated her life to educating people about the horrors of the Holocaust.</s>EDITH EGER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: He pointed my mom to go to the left and I followed her. He came after me, grabbed me -- I'll never forget those eyes. He said, "Your mother is just going to take a shower. You'll see her soon."</s>WARD (voice-over): Edie never saw her again. Both her parents were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, along with more than 1 million Jews.</s>CHURCH: Clarissa also talks with the chief rabbi of Poland for his thoughts on the fact that many young people know very little about the Holocaust. Don't miss the next report in this exclusive series, "A Shadow over Europe: Anti-Semitism in 2018." That's Friday, only on CNN. Well, a federal judge in Argentina will allow an investigation of Mohammed bin Salman to move forward. The Saudi crown prince arrived in Buenos Aires on Wednesday for this weekend's G20 summit. Human Rights Watch requested the investigation of possible crimes against humanity, citing the war in Yemen and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Argentina's foreign ministry says the crown prince has diplomatic immunity and will not be arrested during his visit. Meanwhile in Washington, U.S. senators got a briefing on the Khashoggi murder from the U.S. secretaries of state and Defense. But many were angry about the top Trump administration official who was not there to answer questions. CNN's Alex Marquardt reports.</s>ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A defiant and determined Mike Pompeo on Capitol Hill today.</s>MIKE POMPEO, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: We talked about U.S. policy in Yemen, the U.S. policy with respect to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.</s>MARQUARDT: After giving a briefing to senators, making the argument Congress should not take action to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led fight in Yemen following the killing of "The Washington Post" journalist Jamal Khashoggi and giving the Saudi crown prince, who is known as MBS, a pass.</s>POMPEO: There is no direct reporting connecting the crown prince to the order of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.</s>MARQUARDT: Pompeo, who is a former CIA director himself --</s>MARQUARDT (voice-over): -- disagreed with the CIA's assessment that MBS ordered the killing, as did Secretary of Defense James Mattis who joined Pompeo on the Hill.</s>JAMES MATTIS, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We have no smoking gun that the crown prince was involved.</s>MARQUARDT: The comments following Pompeo strongly worded and controversial op-ed in the Wall Street Journal where he argued that Saudi Arabia's strategic importance trumps the brutal murder of Khashoggi, dismissing what he called the "Capitol Hill caterwauling and media pile-on," adding that degrading U.S.-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake to the national security of the</s>U.S. SEN.  BOB CORKER, (R) TENNESSEE: I think 80 percent of the people left the hearing this morning not feeling like an appropriate response has been forthcoming.</s>MARQUARDT: There was widespread disappointment and condemnation across the aisle of the briefing by Pompeo and Mattis were CIA director Gina Haspel was a no-show, asked why, Pompeo replied simply--</s>POMPEO: I was asked to be here and here I am.</s>MARQUARDT: Not good enough for many senators.</s>SEN.  LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Yes, I'm not going to be denied the ability to briefed by the CIA that we have oversight of any key vote. Anything that you need me or to get out of town I'm not doing it until we hear from the</s>CIA. SEN.  DICK DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: We were told in this briefing that it was a direction of the White House that she not attends.</s>MARQUARDT: A White House that also disagrees with the intelligence committee's conclusion that in all likelihood MBS was behind Khashoggi's murder. Trump telling the Washington Post that MBS denies it. That the CIA isn't sure. "I'm not saying that they're saying he didn't do it." The president said, "but they didn't say it affirmatively." And the CIA has responded to those allegations from those senators that Haspel was directed by the White House not to show up to today's briefing, the CIA said that they had already briefed the Senate intelligence committee and said in a statement, quote, "the notion that anyone told Director Haspel not to attend today's briefing is false" -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.</s>CHURCH: Vladimir Putin said it was Ukraine's president who provoked a naval confrontation of Crimea to increase his popularity ahead of an election. On Sunday, Russia seized three Ukrainian ships and detained a crew, saying they illegally entered Russian territory. The Ukraine president responded, imposing martial law in border areas. Then he visited troops, warning Moscow could launch a full-scale invasion. But Mr. Putin said the Ukranian president is playing a political game, one that could backfire. Our Fred Pleitgen has more.</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The three Ukrainian ships remain impounded at the other end of the bridge that I'm standing at right now in the port town of a Kerch. And a court in Crimea has also announced that's 24 Ukrainian sailors who were on board of those trips are going to remain in detention for at least two months, awaiting a trial. The Russians, of course, accuse them of entering illegally into Russia's territory. Now Russian president Vladimir Putin he came out on Wednesday and he said that he believed that the incident was what he called "a planned provocation by the Ukrainian government" and its president, Petro Poroshenko, who the Russians say was in trouble ahead of an election in Ukraine. That's one of the reasons why the Russians say they believe that this maneuver was pulled off. The Ukrainians of course, very much denying that. They continue to say that it's the Russians who provoked this incident and are in breach of international law. Now the U.S. special representative to Ukraine he came out and he said those ships need to be given back by the Russians immediately. And the U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis also coming out and blasting the Russians, saying they are showing that their word, quote, "cannot be trusted." The Russians, however, are not feeling as much blowback from the U.S. president. Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, saying he believes that despite this recent standoff that that meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin at the G20 summit -- that's upcoming, of course -- that that meeting is still very much on. And Russia's president Vladimir Putin, he himself came out and he said that he still believes that President Trump is positively inclined to bettering relations between the United States and Russia despite the incident that took place right near where I'm standing right now -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Taman, Russia.</s>CHURCH: Paul Manafort is behind bars right now but for how long? The U.S. president dangles the prospect of a presidential pardon for his former campaign chairman. That's next. And who is the right-wing conspiracy theorist at the center of the Russia investigation? We'll have the details when we come back.