Anti-Semitism In Europe Hit New High In 2009, Says Report

Haaretz :

The worldwide increase in anti-Semitic attacks following Israel's 2009 incursion into Gaza hit the U.K. and France the hardest compared to all other European countries, according to Tel Aviv University's watchdog on anti-Semitism.

Read the whole story: Haaretz

Comments

[david5000]

10:28 PM on 04/16/2010

It was expected considering the savagery of israel's attacks on Lebanon and Gaza.

[MikeDu]

11:47 AM on 04/15/2010

It's apparent right-wing Israel's bullyiing arrogance and disregard for the suffering it inflicts is causing old animosities to rise to the surface. If Israel weren't such an *awful* country I doubt the specter of anti-semitism would be rising. Respect for the state of Israel has been steadily declining ever since Rabin was assassinated by Israel's right wing, November 4 1995.

[Trial Lawyer]

10:11 AM on 04/15/2010

Anti-Semitism long predated operation cast lead or even the existence of the State of Israel. To pretend that those things have any affect is merely a convenient excuse.

[Marco75]

12:04 PM on 04/15/2010

No one's pretending. The spike coincides with Cast Lead, during which internet coverage in real time delivered images of white phosphorus dropping on civilians, schools and UN structures.

Anti-American sentiment has existed as long as America has. It recently spiked when we chose to start a "defensive" war with Iraq, and continued until we took steps to rejoin the community of nations.

[StCuthbert]

01:44 PM on 04/15/2010

Correlation does not imply causation.

[george389]

03:59 AM on 04/14/2010

WOW

One does not need to read the article to understand antisemitism. Just read the comments. It's scary.

[Marco75]

10:22 PM on 04/13/2010

Could the Haaretz blurb above make it any simpler to understand? "The worldwide increase in anti-Semitic attacks following Israel's 2009 incursion into Gaza..."

Zionists. Leaving no stone unturned except for the ones under their butts.

[george389]

03:53 AM on 04/14/2010

what an absolutely disgusting mentality. Should all blacks be persecuted because of the actions of malcom x?

[Marco75]

08:51 AM on 04/14/2010

Don't get mad at me. It was the democratically elected Israeli government with the 5th most powerful army in the world, not one lone radical, that committed the brutal war crimes in Gaza. Get mad at Israel, which identifies itself in its founding documents as belonging to the Jewish nation worldwide. Israel drags all of the world's Jewry into every craptastic decision it makes.

[kentah]

12:11 PM on 04/14/2010

Actions of Malcom X? What, pray tell, are these actions that require theoretical persecution?

[skialethia]

09:47 PM on 04/13/2010

To get the low-down on the hype and the filler or padding that goes into this report, lookie here:

http://mondoweiss.net/2010/04/propagandistic-anti-semitism-report-raises-the-linkage-issue.html#more-17425

It's all part of the "woe-is-me-I-desperately-need-attention-now" campaign to distract from the real victims of oppression.

[courtb]

03:23 AM on 04/14/2010

Shouldn't all innocents count as victims...not just the ones you deem worthy? Compassion is a good thing, Skia...don't let your hatred kill it.

Max Blumenthal has done a lot of really good journalistic work. That being said, when he lives safely ensconced in America...I just feel he should not be quoted as an expert on antisemitism in Europe. As an American girl whose only antisemitic experience was a drunk girl drawing a swastika on my dorm door, I was shocked at what I saw while living in England for two years. Furthermore, there are studies, even non-Jewish ones, who report a rise in antisemitism in Europe.

[skialethia]

12:51 PM on 04/14/2010

Did you bother to read the article. No? No wonder.

[george389]

03:54 AM on 04/14/2010

Truly a disgusting mentality.

[Oleg1]

12:51 PM on 04/13/2010

In U.K. antisemitism is mainly spread around University campuses by islamicst organizations tasked with infiltrate colleges and universities, spreading their intolerance and archaic fantasies including antisemitism and preposterous ideas about building a Caliphate in U.K.
Many of these organizations are banned from campuses but manage to get their people on campus in various guises. London School of Economics and many lower tier colleges in UK are filled with most vile examples of this. Eurabia in action.

[dumbeddown]

09:24 PM on 04/13/2010

Now you're repeating yourself and without any reference.

[eaglewing]

11:19 AM on 04/13/2010

The bombing of Gaza is a war crime subject to prosecution by the World Court. 1948 PaIestine has been stoIen to the PaIestinians and must be returned to them. lt has nothing to do with anti-semitism.

[StCuthbert]

11:23 AM on 04/13/2010

"It has nothing to do with anti-semitism"

That's true. So why are you posting it here?

[Json]

11:35 AM on 04/13/2010

Still off-topic, huh?
Answer this...Is attacking synagogues, jewish cemeteries or jewish people just because they are jewish anti-semitism to you?

[Fein]

12:02 PM on 04/13/2010

I guess you guys are so fanatic you didn't actually read the article.

FYI ; It charted the rise in antisemitic acts after the 2009 Gaza incursion. YOUR posts are off topic not hers.

[MajorKong]

06:02 AM on 04/13/2010

European anti Semitism is not a new thing. There is a long history of it going back to the Middle Ages.

German theologian Martin Luther was vehemently anti Semitic.

[dumbeddown]

06:46 AM on 04/13/2010

That wasn't what the article was about-was it?

[StCuthbert]

07:52 AM on 04/13/2010

....It's about European anti-Semitism, as was MajorKong's post.

[Lozange]

05:13 AM on 04/13/2010

I wish Jews would stop lumping disapproval and anti-semitism together. It's misleading. As is the appropriation of Semite.

[Rand]

11:19 AM on 04/13/2010

1) Disapproval of Jews AS Jews IS anti-Semitism

2) While "Semite" refers to ALL Semitic language-users, the term "anti-Semite" was coined in the 19th Century specifically to describe anti-Jewish bigotry, by anti-Jewish bigots who wanted a name for their favorite brand of hatred. As the term has never meant anything but "anti-Jewish bigotry", the use of the term for its meaning can hardly be called "appropriation"

[Fein]

12:04 PM on 04/13/2010

Nice try misconstruing Lozange's post to fit your agenda.

[DC]

04:02 AM on 04/13/2010

Why would anti Jewish sentiment or acts be called "Antisemitism?"

It seems a distortion, perversion of language, logic and reality.

To refer to people who identify with an ancient religious faith, who are from all over the world, of many groups as Semites.

With this logic, all people who identify with Abrahamic religions "Semites."

[cincinnati]

04:11 AM on 04/13/2010

It should read as you imply, anti-Israel, or anti-right wing Israel.

Few reasonable people are against Jews or an Israel that really seeks peace.

But their strategy is obvious. Drag out peace for decades, take more land, build on disputed area's, so when they finally decide they have enough then they can make a deal. Israel has the strong hand, they play it for all they've got, even if it drags the US into another war.

Israel does not need US money, tell Congress to keep it here where we need it.

[courtb]

04:39 AM on 04/13/2010

Don't be so obtuse. How do you explain all the hatred against Jews before Israel?

The report is about actions against Jews in Europe...not Israelis...not those expressing anti-Israel sentiment. Arson, physical assaults, threats, etc.

But here, don't take my word about how antisemitism still exists.

http://muslimmedianetwork.com/mmn/?p=5541

"But compared to last year’s results (as well as those of 2002), the level of resentment against most minorities declined – sexism and racism even considerably, Islamophobia slightly. There were only two exceptions: Homophobia and anti-Semitism."

[DC]

05:29 AM on 04/13/2010

Please. You are reading that.

Not all Israeli's are Jewish.

Nor are all Jews Israeli's.

I am implying that language should be correct.

So, to be correct, if there are acts or words against Jewish people because of their faith/background, it should be called just that -- Anti Jewish. Call a spade a spade.

[courtb]

04:17 AM on 04/13/2010

Are we going back here...again? Is this what you do when you have nothing to say? Shall we walk you through the history and etymology of the word once again?

[DC]

05:22 AM on 04/13/2010

Well, no need to ridicule.

Yes, please do.

What IS the logic of applying the word "Semite" to people of the Jewish faith, or people that identify themselves as Jewish, or Jewish background.

It makes no sense.

Or, like I said, all people who identify themselves with Abrahamic religion could then be called a Semetic.

What is the logic of this strange semantic???

[Oleg1]

02:08 AM on 04/13/2010

Now if only British pioliticians would heed the warning of Sir Winston Churchhill.

"No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall..."

-- Sir Winston Spencer Churchill (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).

[dumbeddown]

02:15 AM on 04/13/2010

"Well,then, eliminate the people, curtail them, force them to be silent. Because the European Enlightenment is more important than the people."

Dosteovsky

[dumbeddown]

02:27 AM on 04/13/2010

"...they are inviting persecution -- that they have been partly responsible for the antagonism from which they suffer."

Winston Churchill on European Jews, 1937

[TheLonelyGod]

08:27 AM on 04/13/2010

Churchill didn't actually say that. Trying do a bit of research in the future.

[Oleg1]

01:59 AM on 04/13/2010

In U.K major sources of antisemetism are spread by Salafist ideologies like Hizb ut-Tahrir and Al Muhajiroun and its various sub groups and successors,
All of those movements and its adherents .are strongly antisemitic.
These organizations try to infiltrate colleges and universities, spreading their intolerance and archaic fantasies including antisemitism and preposterous ideas about building a Caliphate in U.K.
Many of these organizations are prohibited from preaching on University campuses, but get in nevertheless.
Example:
"Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, a former president of the Islamic Society at University College London, Abdulmutallab is THE FOURTH president of a London student Islamic society to face terrorist charges in three years!!!
One is facing a retrial on charges that he was involved in the 2006 liquid bomb plot to blow up airliners.
Two others have been convicted of terrorist offenses since 2007.
Security sources said that Islamist radicalization was rife on university campuses, especially in London, and that college authorities had “a patchy record in facing up to the problem”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6971098.ece

[dumbeddown]

02:07 AM on 04/13/2010

And now you've managed to go off topic.

[Oleg1]

02:11 AM on 04/13/2010

Fact: Radical of European Muslims is a significant factor to the raise in antisemitic attacks in Europe. All... ALL, without exception. Islamist and/or Salafist movements are rabidly antisemitic.
This is beyond debate.

[cincinnati]

04:15 AM on 04/13/2010

Oleg is consistent. Consistently changing the subject to deflect any real discussion about aggressive Israel. Consistently bringing up things not really relevant, etc.; consistently defending it even after it kills so many civilians or starves Gaza.

I have to wonder if this is not a group of Israeli's, students or whatever, assigned to interfer in US politics. Just like Bibi did.

[shotei]

11:49 AM on 04/13/2010

Hahahaha...you see? You're doing it. You're justifying a rise in attacks against an European minority over a conflict happening in another continent. That is absurd and prejudicial.
You can be all against Israel. This gives nobody the right to attack Jews for being Jews.

[Oleg1]

01:35 AM on 04/13/2010

Here is where majority of antisemetic and anti democratic intolerance comes from:
Center for Strategic and International Studies report:
"…, there is considerable evidence of an ongoing process of radicalization of Muslim minorities in Southeast Asia, Europe, South America, and even in North America and Australia.
Members of the various groups in this movement are united by their sense of occupying a
singular space with little or no connection to the countries in which they live.
Radicalization is not limited, therefore, to regions of the world that are economically
deprived. The movement spreads quite easily among the privileged, particularly in
Europe, where more and more affluent Muslim parents are “losing” their children to
jihadist groups in London, Paris, and other European cities.

However, it is the movement’s loose and evolving organizational qualities that make its
spread so prevalent and worrisome. For example, there is strong evidence that the
movement is mutating inside Europe.
European cells of al Qaeda appear to be motivated
by the same goals, but they differ greatly in leadership, dependence on centralized
networks, recruitment, ideology, and financing. (European jihadist groups tend to rely on
financing of operations through small-scale criminal activities – smuggling, credit card
fraud – The movement is now gaining in operational flexibility thanks to
indigenous activists and relies less and less on veterans of the Afghan jihad.

http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/0408_transatlanticterrorism.pdf

[KIVPossum]

01:45 AM on 04/13/2010

Since you are always so knowledgeable on these matters, give us some Reliable sources that:

Break down the anti-Semitic crimes by Muslims and non-Muslims
Break down the anti-Semitic crimes by Europeans and immigrants
Describes how they define an anti-Semitic crime and separate those from general run of the mill crimes that happen to have Jewish victims.

I'm not noticing any rise in antisemitism in Moldova, though I may be naive. The group that catches it here are the Gypsy.

[Rock Brasiliano]

07:21 AM on 04/13/2010

Look up what is happening to elderly Jews in Malmo, Sweden.....

[shotei]

11:51 AM on 04/13/2010

Anti-semitism are hate crimes against Jews. That's all.
And maybe you haven't checked all the attacks against synagogues in Europe? Or perhaps the elections in Hungary, where a party that blames Jews and Gypsies for the financial crisis came out victorious..

[dumbeddown]

01:47 AM on 04/13/2010

OOOps, you did it again:

Perhaps you could direct me to where anti-semitism is discussed?

[KIVPossum]

01:04 AM on 04/13/2010

The article says = as defined by the institute.

What is the actual definitions they use? Surely every crime against a Jew isn't because of religion, so there has to be some way to separate general crimes and anti-Semitic crimes

[dumbeddown]

01:19 AM on 04/13/2010

If you manage to feel entitled to assume exclusive control of the definition of Semites, they there is no limit.

[shotei]

02:58 PM on 04/13/2010

It is troubling to me how many readers here seem to find countless objections but fail to condemn this worrisome rise in anti-semitic attacks. I haven't seen one word from KIVPossum or many others here of condemnation.
Just so you know, here is the definition of anti-semitism according to the institute.
Go to the end and read "A Working Definition of Anti-semitism". I don't paste it here because it is too long for a post.
Any more objections before you engage in the real problem here?

[KIVPossum]

12:17 AM on 04/14/2010

If you have read me, you know I hate racism and bigotry in any form, that I abhor violence, and that I refuse to believe an entire group of people are responsible for the actions of the a few within their group.

This plays both ways - All Jews aren't pushing down Palestinian homes, all Muslims are suicide bombers.

Antisemitic attacks are wrong - cut and dried. Just as are homophobic and racists attacks.