Israel Matzav

Jew hatred on the rise in England, Germany, Sweden

It's back to the 1930's (God forbid) in England and Germany with England's Community Security Trust reporting a sharp rise in anti-Semitism in 2009 (Hat Tip: Instapundit).

Today the Community Security Trust released its report on antisemitism in 2009. It is the most depressing report ever, with levels of attacks on Jews and and antisemitic harassment – both verbal and physical – at a level not witnessed in this country for generations. Indeed, the 924 cases reported reflect an increase in over 50% from the previous record high in 2006.

You can read the executive summary here (PDF) or download the full report here (PDF).

The Report sites the war in Gaza at the beginning of last year as a “trigger event”. Generally any heating up of hostilities in the Middle East triggers a spike in antisemitic incidents.

Critics of the report will no doubt take the acknowledgement of this link to argue that this is evidence that “criticism of Israel is conflated with antisemitism”. But this is certainly not the case, as the report is very clear about.

I can think of another factor aside from Israel that could be fueling a rise in anti-Semitic incidents: The economy. Traditionally, Jews are blamed whenever the economy goes bad.

Over at Power Line, John Hinderaker reminds us that anti-Semitism isn't just a Muslim phenomenon:

Presumably most incidents were the work of Muslims seeking to bring the war home, so to speak, but at least one outburst reminds us that the anti-Semites have friends in high places:

Rowan Laxton, a Foreign Office official, was convicted of racial abuse after shouting ''------- Israelis, ------- Jews'' in a gym as a news report on the death of a Palestinian farmer was shown on television.

Harry's Place also warns that the numbers are, if anything, understated.

In fact, about one-third of incidents reported to the CST were rejected as being ”antisemitic” because they appeared on investigation, specifically anti-Israeli or merely critical of Israel without the use of antisemitic terms or images. An example of a rejected report was one of a car vandalised because it had an Israeli flag sticker on the back window.

When considering that more than 1 in 3 reports is rejected, we can see how scrupulous the CST has been to avoid allowing people to conflate criticism of Israel or Zionism in general with antisemitism.

Read the whole thing.

While there's no way of judging the CST's criteria, I would argue that most anti-Israel incidents are anti-Semitic. The similarity of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric has been well-documented. And I also wonder how many non-Islamic Facebook groups there are with titles like "We hate Jews for the sake of Allah has he has told us to do in the Koran." Note, no mention of Israel there. I'll bet there are some other such vile groups, but without the references to Allah.

And it's not just England. Pamela Geller cites this article about some of the goings on in Germany.

"You can see that whenever the Israeli-Palestinian conflict gets worse - like when we had the Gaza conflict towards the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 - anti-Semitic views are articulated here more often by residents with a Muslim background," Kassar told Deutsche Welle.

But instead of criticizing the particular aspects of the Israeli government's policies, it's often Jews in general who become the target of verbal - and in rare cases physical - attacks in Berlin.

...

Others say too much fuss is being made about anti-Semitism within Germany's Muslim communities.

While admitting that anti-Jewish sentiments can certainly be found there, Kenan Kolat, chairman of the secular Turkish Community in Germany, says this phenomenon should be placed in a wider context.

"There never was a Holocaust, they say. The Jews capitalized on the 9/11 aftermath, they say. All Jews are rich - you can find all these prejudices among some Muslims here and it is just a reflection of what you find in society here at large," Kolat told public broadcaster ARD.

Pamela adds:

The ignorant though earnest people working against this scourge will never be able to fight Muslim Jew hatred without understanding its origins. In order to fight it, you have to purge it, expunge Islamic anti-semitism from Islam, the koran, the hadiths, sira.

In order to expunge the hate of the Jews from the koran and all Islamic teachings, you have to remove whole swaths of their holy book and wash Muhammad's history of his Jewish massacres and genocidal objectives. In other words, remove the Islam from Islam.

But is the Jew hatred limited to Muslims? Hint: There aren't too many Muslim skinheads out there.

And then there's Sweden where Jews have already started to flee from Malmo.

Violent anti-Semitism has become increasingly commonplace in Sweden’s southern city of Malmö, leading many Jewish residents to leave out of fear for their safety. “Threats against Jews have increased steadily in Malmö in recent years and many young Jewish families are choosing to leave the city,” said Fredrik Sieradzki of the Jewish Community of Malmö.

Last year, 79 crimes against Jewish residents were reported to the Malmö police, roughly double the number reported in 2008. In addition, Jewish cemeteries and synagogues have been repeatedly defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, and a chapel at another Jewish burial site in Malmö was firebombed last January during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. Many Jewish residents of Malmö feel that local anti-Jewish sentiment is linked with negative attitudes towards Israel.

In addition to its small community of roughly 700 Jews, Malmö is home to a growing Muslim population. However, local Jews insist that the majority of anti-Jewish sentiment, although certainly existent in the Muslim community, is coming from local Swedes.

Naive fools. As if there's a difference between anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.

Sieradzki says that the attitudes of Malmö politicians, especially Social Democrat city council chair Ilmar Reepalu, have allowed anti-Semitism to fester. “He’s demonstrated extreme ignorance when it comes to our problems,” Sieradzki explained. “It’s shameful and regrettable that such a powerful politician could be so ignorant about the threats we face.

“If you read between the lines, he seems to be suggesting that the violence directed toward us is our own fault simply because we didn’t speak out against Israel. We’re a non-political, cultural and religious organization, and there are all kinds of Jews in Malmö.”

And if the Jews only condemned Israel, the Swedes would suddenly love them? Don't believe it.

And where are our own warriors against anti-Semitism? Mark Steyn notes (Hat Tip: Instapundit).

But Abe Foxman thinks Rush Limbaugh is the problem...

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:51 PM