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David Milliband, whos is himself Jewish, is tipped as a leading candidate for a new EU Foreign Minister job created under the EU’s just-ratified Lisbon Treaty, along with a permanent EU president.
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LONDON (AFP-EJP)---Jewish leaders accused British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Monday of playing "political football" with anti-Semitism, in controversial remarks about a Polish party leader.
Miliband drew criticism last month after attacking the "anti-Semitic, Neo-Nazi" past of Polish MEP Michal Kaminski, leader of the new anti-federalist group European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) in the European Parliament.
Kaminski's right-wing party Law and Justice is in a new bloc in the EU assembly which also includes Britain's opposition Conservatives, whose leader David Cameron hopes to oust the ruling Labour Party in elections next year
"Many people in the Jewish community have noted with concern the recent attacks on David Cameron's allies in eastern Europe," said 27 Jewish leaders in a letter to the Daily Telegraph.
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Polish MEP Michal Kaminski.
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"It has become increasingly obvious that these accusations are unfair, baseless and politically motivated," they said, noting that Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, had defended Kaminski, saying he was a "friend of Israel."
And they added: "Anti-Semitism is far too grave a charge to be used as a political football. We call upon those responsible for making unsubstantiated allegations to withdraw them."
The letter was signed by Jewish leaders including Flo Kaufmann, chairman of the Board of the European Jewish Congress and Howard Leigh, the chairman of Westminster Synagogue, among others.
In an interview with EJP last July, Kaminski rejected what he called "false accusations" of anti-Semitism brought against him by his opponents.
"My work combating anti-Semitism alongside the work I have done with the ‘European Friends of Israel’ has been very important to me,” he said at the time.
Milliband, whos is himself Jewish, is tipped as a leading candidate for a new EU Foreign Minister job created under the EU’s just-ratified Lisbon Treaty, along with a permanent EU president.
Miliband has denied he is running for the EU job, but speculation that he could be named as early as this week has persisted, fuelled by signs that former Prime Minister Tony Blair's hopes of winning the EU presidency job have waned.