Not unsurprisingly, the Times does not allow comments on the article, because they would surely degenerate into nasty anti-Israel and anti-Jew tirades, as is common when discussing Israel. However, the article mostly links the rising anti-Semitism to the current conflict between Israel and Hamas. This is something that has been going for decades
(NY Times) Across Europe, the conflict in Gaza is generating a broader backlash against Jews, as threats, hate speech and even violent attacks proliferate in several countries.
Most surprising perhaps, a wave of incidents has washed over Germany, where atonement for the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes is a bedrock of the modern society. A commitment to the right of Israel to exist is ironclad. Plaques and memorials across the country exhort, “Never Again.†Children are taught starting in elementary school that their country’s Nazi history must never be repeated. Even so, academics say the recent episodes may reflect a rising climate of anti-Semitism that they had observed before the strife over Gaza.
This week, the police in the western city of Wuppertal detained two young men on suspicion of throwing firebombs at the city’s new synagogue; the attack early Tuesday caused no injuries. In Frankfurt on Thursday, the police said, a beer bottle was thrown through a window at the home of a prominent critic of anti-Semitism. She heard an anti-Jewish slur after going to the balcony to confront her assailant, The Frankfurter Rundschau reported. An anonymous caller to a rabbi threatened last week to kill 30 Frankfurt Jews if the caller’s family in Gaza was harmed, the police said.
There are incidents of anti-Semitic behavior occurring in France, in Austria, in Italy, and other countries. Jews are leaving France, particularly the major cities, over the rising anti-Jewish activities. On the bright side, many of the leading politicians in those countries are slamming those who are engaging in the anti-Semitism, and look to prosecute those engaged as fully as the law allows.
Academics who study anti-Semitism say the acceptance of disparaging remarks about Jews has become increasingly common in the educated middle class over the past two decades. Especially on social media, where hashtags such as #HitlerWasRight have appeared, there has been a significant jump in slurs against Jews.
Monika Schwarz-Friesel, a cognitive scientist at Technical University, has spent 10 years tracking anti-Semitic comments from educated Germans in letters to editors, in Internet chat rooms and on social media. She said such comments in public forums had served as kindling for the most recent outbreak.
So, it’s not just the current conflict: this is long term. Not mentioned are two things: first, this certainly coincides with the influx of Middle Easterners to Europe, some legally, some illegally. These people, especially the young, are seriously anti-Israel and anti-Jew, and tend to be supporters of radical Islam. They are also learning these attitudes within their mosques and Islamic schools. These same people are also anti-Western.
Second, there has been a big rise amongst Leftists in the 1st World to be anti-Israel, to the point where it becomes anti-Semitic. Leftists are constantly having to “clarify” their remarks, such as with Penelope Cruz and husband Javier Bardem. Ben Shapiro noted on Twitter “Sad that Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz are anti-Semites, but not unexpected given Spain’s sky-high Jew-hatred.”
So many Leftists see those within one of their favorite institutions engaging in Israel Derangement Syndrome, namely the United Nations, where much of the IDS is Jew hatred. It’s no wonder when you have hardcore Islamist nations sitting on panels like the Human Rights Commission, but, the anti-Semitism goes back decades. Israel is so often treated differently then other nations, and is singled out again and again, while barely ever condemning actors like Hamas, Hezbollah, PLA, Palestinians in general, and other terrorist organizations, which are generally considered to be “freedom fighters” by those at the U.N.
But, don’t think this is just in Europe: it happens here in the New World, too. There’s a long history of many crossing over from Israel Derangement Syndrome. Consider what Jackie Mason recently said
The legendary comic blasted stars like Rihanna, Selena Gomez and Penelope Cruz for their views on the current Israeli/Hamas fighting, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The comments, set to air Sunday on Aaron Klein Investigative Radio on Salem Radio’s AM 970 in New York, put him in company with fellow Israel defenders Joan Rivers and Howard Stern.
[Celebrities] come from these kinds of anti-Semitic, low-class backgrounds where a Jew is the most disgusting thing in the world to them,” Mason answers, according to audio obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “The ironic thing is that it’s Jewish people who own these Hollywood studios … And they all hire these people and they depend on them for a living. Every penny they made is made from Jews and they hate every Jew just by nature.
Head to websites like the Democratic Underground, Daily Kos, Think Progress, and others, and you will find plenty of anti-Semitic comments. On the bright side, I’ll often see DU commenters fighting back against the anti-Semitic comments. You can find the same Jew hatred with the comments at the NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, USA Today, Yahoo News, and others. I’ll see it in newspaper forums, such as those at NJ.com, where you have brawls between those on the Left and those on the Right. It became fashionable to be anti-Israel, and those sentiments turned to anti-Semitism.
There have been anti-Semitic messages and swastikas painted at Miami area synagogues and on cars recently. Much of the same types of anti-Israel/anti-Jew protests that have been occurring in Europe over the past few weeks have been occurring in the United States, too. This is happening in Canada, as well. We even have a Canadian Jew, writing at the Huffington Post, blaming Israel for the rising anti-Semitism
As a Jew, I am concerned by the rise in anti-Semitism worldwide, but I realize that Israel’s actions, brutalizing a civilian population it holds captive, are helping to fuel a revival of anti-Semitic attitudes.
That seems to be an attitude held by many Leftists. Just scroll through so many posts by Zombie, and you can see the hatred in many hotbeds of US Leftism, such as here and here. They are rationalizing their Israel hatred as Jew hatred. Here’s Brenden O’Neill
There has been a lot of talk over the past two weeks about whether it is anti-Semitic to oppose Israel’s attack on Gaza. Radical Leftists and liberal commentators have insisted (perhaps a bit too much?) that there is nothing remotely anti-Semitic about their anger with Israel or their fury on behalf of battered, bruised and bombed Palestinians. And of course they are right that it is entirely possible to oppose Israel’s militarism without harbouring so much as a smidgen of dislike for the Jewish people. Some will oppose the war in Gaza simply because they are against wars in general, especially ones that impact on civilians.
However, it seems pretty clear to me that much of the left in Europe and America is becoming more anti-Semitic, or at least risks falling into the trap of anti-Semitism, sometimes quite thoughtlessly. In the language it uses, in the ideas it promotes, in the way in which it talks about the modern world, including Israel, much of the Left has adopted a style of politics that has anti-Semitic undertones, and sometimes overtones. The key problem has been the Left’s embrace of conspiratorial thinking, its growing conviction that the world is governed by what it views as uncaring “cabalsâ€, “networksâ€, self-serving lobbyists and gangs of bankers, all of which has tempted it to sometimes turn its attentions towards those people who historically were so often the object and the target of conspiratorial thinking – the Jews.
Make sure to read the whole thing. Leftists claim they are against bigotry and hatred, yet they have rationalized a situation where they can hate Jews.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Read: NY Times Notes Rising Anti-Semitism In Europe »
