AUSTRIA HIT WHILE WORSE OFFENDERS ARE IGNORED.

Byline: Si Frumkin

Jews, especially Jews who are Holocaust survivors, don't like the Nazis. Obviously, since I am both a Jew and a survivor, I acknowledge my hatred of, and contempt for, the Nazis. I feel a little funny, therefore, to be out of step with most public opinion, and especially Jewish public opinion, on what is happening in Austria and on the world's reaction to it.

I hold no special goodwill toward Austria. It angers me that it has been portrayed as the first victim of Nazi aggression and that eventually the world, and probably the Austrians themselves, forgot that Hitler came to Vienna not as a conqueror but as a liberator. His triumphal motorcade was greeted by 100,000 enthusiastic Viennese trying to catch a glimpse of their hero. Austrians served in his army and his SS. They took part in Nazi atrocities. They were just as German as Bavarians or Prussians.

Austria has not asked for forgiveness, has not acknowledged the part it played and has even had the colossal gall of asking - and receiving - restitution for its losses of currency and gold supposedly plundered from Austria by the Nazis.

I have no soft spot in my heart for Austria.

Neither do I have a soft spot in my heart for Joerg Haider. He is a slick and despicable fascist who preaches the German ethnicity of Austrians and hatred of foreigners, declares that the two greatest villains of the 20th century were Stalin and Churchill, praises the Waffen SS as ``decent people who have character'' and most certainly doesn't like Jews.

He is not a nice guy, and I certainly wouldn't want him to run a country, even if it is as small as the 8 million-strong Austria. And he doesn't run it. His Freedom Party won less than 27 percent of the vote. This means that seven of 10 Austrians voted against it. It is part of the Austrian government but hardly an important part. He and his followers cannot be open Nazis. Nazism is outlawed and punished by a minimum 10-year prison sentence.

Austrian President Klestil is obviously hostile to the inclusion of Haider in the coalition, and there were mass anti-Haider protests throughout Austria.

So why did so many governments and organizations across the entire spectrum of political thought react so vehemently against Austria? Why were ambassadors withdrawn, state visits canceled, tourist boycotts urged and implemented and impassioned accusations of Nazism leveled? Does Haider present a danger to European democracy or even just Austrian democracy?

The answer is that Austria is really no danger to anyone. It is not powerful or economically important. It can be picked on with impunity, and this is exactly what is happening. It is disparaged, boycotted and denigrated by countries that apparently are willing to wink at transgressions by the more offensive but also more powerful malefactors.

There were no boycotts or blackballs against Italy when a neo-fascist party joined its government in 1994. The Iraqi and Syrian dictatorships, which wage chemical warfare against their own citizens and have set records for violations of human rights and anti-Semitic statements, are not denounced in European parliaments.

The Iranian and Saudi discrimination against women, minorities and religions that are not Muslim fundamentalist are apparently invisible. Human rights violations that were so upsetting in South Africa and Rhodesia not so long ago are tolerated when perpetrated by current black dictators.

And in an exhibition of blatant racism, there isn't even a hint of a demand for democracy for the other African countries where innocents are slaughtered daily and thousands are starving or sold into slavery.

During the bloody 20th century, the Communist Party was responsible for 10 times as many deaths as were the Nazis. Nowhere were the perpetrators tried or punished. In Russia, the Communists form the largest bloc in the parliament and are an all-important part of the governing coalition that is led by a former KGB agent and spy. All former Soviet republics are ruled by Communist Party functionaries, usually high- ranking former officials of the KGB.

In China, where the Great Leap Forward accounted for close to 100 million victims, the communists are still in power. In Cuba and North Korea, the communist dictators are alive and well. The slaughter of civilians in Chechnya and the human rights violations there are certainly a worse sin than Haider's 27 percent share of the vote. Why doesn't sanctimonious and hypocritical Europe withdraw ambassadors from these countries?

Europe had little to be proud of as the 20th century ended. It gave us wars, murderous political movements, genocide, colonialism and more. It is not bullying Austria because of high moral considerations; it is doing so because it makes the sanctimonious hypocrites feel and look good and because it is a safe thing to do. It is part and parcel of the European tradition of cowardice, pragmatism, accommodation and appeasement of the powerful.