Charleston , South Carolina ( CNN ) Thirty years or so ago , the synagogue in Washington DC where I was attending Yom Kippur services received a bomb threat . As we evacuated the building , I was concerned that people did n't seem to be taking it seriously . I was visiting from Europe , where terrorism was a fact of life , and I was scared . Throughout the 1970s and 1980s in Europe , and even beyond , far-left and far-right extremists , the IRA , radical Palestinians , and a variety of other groups carried out thousands of terror attacks , big and small , that left thousands dead or injured . Jewish , Israeli -- and American -- sites were targets of some of the most notorious attacks : from the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics , to plane and cruise ship hijackings , to attacks on airports , synagogues , and simply places where Jews congregated , such as the Jo Goldenberg kosher deli in Paris , where six died and 22 were wounded in a bloody attack in August 1982 . In Rome , where I lived for parts of the 1970s and '80s , we tended to avoid certain streets where El Al and U.S. airlines had their offices . The first big story I helped cover as a young reporter was a bloody attack at the city 's Fiumicino airport in December 1973 . A dozen years later , the daughter of friends was killed in another Palestinian attack there . The main synagogue in Rome has been under tight guard since Palestinian attackers threw hand grenades and sprayed machinegun fire at worshippers after services in October 1982 , killing a toddler and wounding dozens . I do n't want to discount the gravity and horror of recent terror attacks against Jewish targets in Europe , such as in Copenhagen and Paris . I just want to add some perspective . Many things have changed over the decades . Post-Cold War power vacuums and Middle East upheavals have given rise to radical Islamism and globalized Jihadist terror networks whose message , fanned out via the internet and social media , strikes a chord in disaffected youth . To be sure , Jews are being targeted . But it is important to recognize that Jews are being targeted as part of a violent campaign against western democracies and western values in general . Today 's victims of Islamist terror include Christians and Muslims as well as Jews . In the Middle East and Africa , women , children , students , and cultural heritage -- history -- are also directly targeted . In some ways , today 's Jihadist terrorists can be seen as harnessing various types of terrorism we saw in earlier decades : the anti-Jewish/anti-Israel terrorism of radical Palestinian groups and the anti-establishment , even anarchistic terrorism of homegrown groups whose aim was to sow fear and destabilize society as a means to bring down the system . Anti-Semitism takes many forms . Criticism of Israel is legitimate ( and sometimes necessary ) , but it can , and sometimes does , cross the line . This is n't new either , however . Jews in Europe have been regarded -- and scapegoated -- as surrogates for Israel for decades . In 1967-68 , after Israel defeated Arab states in the Six-Day War , Poland 's communist regime staged an `` anti-Zionist '' campaign that forced most of the remaining Jews out of the country . At least 13,000 Jews emigrated , according to Dariusz Stola , who is now the director of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews . Other experts put the figure as high as 20,000 . This was -- and remains -- by far the most widespread episode of anti-Semitism in post-Holocaust Europe . Twenty years later , in 1988 , a report by the Anti-Defamation League warned that a significant number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States now reflected `` a politically-related anti-Israel component . '' A JTA news report at the time quoted ADL National Director Abraham Foxman as noting that the phenomenon was new in the United States , but `` it 's been a common occurrence in European countries . '' Particularly worrisome , the report said , were Israel-related anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses . Sound familiar ? After the Holocaust , it was common to view Jews in Europe as sitting with their suitcases packed , just in case . But -- unlike Poland 's `` anti-Zionist '' campaign -- terrorism did not prove an existential threat to Jews and did not prompt a mass exodus . Nor should -- or will -- it now . The Nazis , followed by Communist rule in half of the continent , almost succeeded in making Europe Judenrein . Following the most recent terror attacks , Jewish and European national leaders have made clear that this is not an option . Moreover , despite the terrorist threat , European governments have refused to budge in their defense of democratic values . It is wise to be on guard , of course , and there is indeed ample cause for alarm -- even fear . But we should also be on guard against something else -- against a facile temptation to cry wolf that can all too easily distort alarm into alarmism -- and fear into fear-mongering .
Ruth Ellen ##stein believes the victims of Israel 's Islamist terrorist attacks include terrorists and Muslims as well as Jews . She ##ist terrorism in the 1970s and ' 80s did not prove an existential threat to Jews or constitute a mass exodus , and nor should it now .