Almost difficult to understand why Malmo's Jews are getting a Nazi vibe from their political establishment. Europe 2010: where sneering anti-Jewish bigotry is fun again:

Representatives for the Jewish Community in Malmö have slammed the city's mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, for his use of the term "Israeli lobby" in a Danish television interview. "I encounter a great many people from what one could call the Israeli lobby, who are not interested in what I say and what I think, but who do want to attribute lots of opinions to me," Reepalu said in an interview with Danish TV2... He has also denied that there had been any attacks on Jews in the city despite police figures showing that violent incidents against Jews have doubled over the last year.

Last month Reepalu also equated Zionism with antisemitism, telling Malmo's Jews that they'd better "distance" themselves from Israel if they know what's good for them. You'd think the money quote from that little would have been "Malmo does not accept anti-Semitism and does not accept Zionism." But in fact the highlight was when he blamed local Jews for violent anti-Jewish hatred. The venomous little bigot is a veritable fount of wisdom.

Punishing and blaming the Jewish victim is actually kind of a thing in Sweden. The Swedish taekwondo federation barred the Israeli national team from playing in the country because "10,000 Muslims" would attack them. Swedish journalist Andrew Bostrom and his editors whined about persecution after publishing their execrable organ theft blood libel. And when Israel pointed out how Sweden's pro-ethnic cleansing resolution on East Jerusalem violated the EU's own diplomatic position, the Swedish government pushed back by - no joke - attacking the the Jewish State for sowing dissent and division in the EU. It's Israel's fault.

Swedish NGOs were also behind one of the major awards Goldstone got for his libelous pamphlet. On account of his brave willingness to scrutinize and attack Israel. Because that's what's lacking in Europe.

References and related after the jump...

In fairness it was probably their parents and grandparents who consummated millennia of Catholic antisemitism by turning over Jews to Nazis, denying supplies to Warsaw Ghetto smugglers, pretending that Auschwitz didn't exist, and so on. But still:

Knesset members visiting Poland for ceremonies marking International Holocaust Day were surprised to see ads against Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni in the city of Krakow on Tuesday evening. Posters hung not far from the Israeli lawmakers' hotel read in English, "Wanted for war crimes," offering the public an award of 10,000 euro in exchange for information on Barak or Livni's expected arrival in Europe... "After 65 years, we once again realize that being right is not enough," said MK Hasson. "We must remember this ahead of the next challenges, like Holocaust deniers, Holocaust cursers and different kinds of anti-Semites."

I especially like the part where they offered rewards for any information on where the Jewish delegation could be found and captured. Cultural traditions are important and it's heartwarming to see that some fin de siecle Polish rituals managed to survive the long night of Communism. And yes, of course Hamas is directly coordinating the "progressive" overseas persecution of Israeli leaders:

The British newspaper The Times spoke with Diya al-Din Madhoun, who heads the Hamas committee set up to coordinate the campaign, in Jerusalem. About a week ago, an arrest warrant was issued against Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni, who served as foreign minister during Operation Cast Lead. It seemed as if the effort to put Israeli leaders on trial was continuing full force ahead. Madhoun told the Times, "All the political and military leaders of the occupation in our sights", although he did not specify its future targets. "This has absolutely become our policy," he said.

There's a joke to be made about how this generation's genocidal lunatics are working with last generation's genocidal lunatics, but I don't really have a punchline for it because it's true.

References:
* Livni, Barak 'wanted for war crimes' in Poland [YNet]
* Hamas admits masterminding arrest warrants of Israelis abroad [YNet]

Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* European Antisemitism
* Global Antisemitism
* Europe

Prove is in quotes because, per the Berekeley professor who launched this hatefest, the decades-old incidents have nothing to do with the Swedish organ theft story. It's a medical ethics disaster - a bunch of messy consent issues and religious sensibilities are involved - but were Palestinians targeted? Scheper-Hughes again: "not by a long shot."

And yet she choose to give succor to mouth-breathing anti-Jewish bigots because - quote - "the symbolism, you know, of taking skin of the population considered to be the enemy, (is) something, just in terms of its symbolic weight, that has to be reconsidered." I'm not sure why she didn't just come out and use the phrase "pound of flesh."

In any case we're officially off on another round of organ theft stories. Iranian Press TV has shifted their ongoing blockbuster coverage of the "international Israeli conspiracy to kidnap children and harvest their organs" from the most recent revelation - "Tel Aviv's plot to import Ukrainian children and harvest their organs" - to Jews who steal Palestinian kids' organs.

Eventually that's going to get boring - these kinds of hateful highs only last so long - and so I'm interested what you guys think next "proven" blood libel will be. That there will be a next one is a given. That's how addicts behave when their buzz wears off. They'll go looking for new evidence of some new imagined Israeli atrocity. When they don't find anything genuine - on account of how it exists only in their feverish imagination - they'll lower their standards for what counts as proof and hold their hatefest anyway. Think of it as not being able to score the good stuff and settling for whatever's available.

I've put up a poll on what you think the next media-legitimized anti-Israel canard is going to be. Justify your vote under this post on the Mere Rhetoric Facebook page, or sound off if you think there's an option I didn't include.

Naturally you'll want to consider why some anti-Israel accusations get traction while other don't. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the tenability of the accusations themselves. Until this recent story broke, "Israeli organ theft" were so untenable that the Swedish reporter who published the original libel was in the process of recanting. But the canards were still in broad circulation. Meanwhile Hamas has been trying to get the world to take notice of Israel's plot to dump aphrodisiac gum on Gaza for a while. They seem pretty convinced it's happening. Thus far no journalist has rushed into that particular investigative breach.

A small pogrom - the only victim was a candelabra that the AP is calling a menorah and which I'm assuming was a hanukkiyah - but nonetheless thoroughly charming:

Dozens of people led by an Orthodox priest smashed a menorah in Moldova's capital, using hammers and iron bars to remove the candelabra during Hanukkah, officials said... there was no official reaction from Moldova's Orthodox Church, which is part of the Russian Orthodox Church and counts 70 percent of Moldovans as members. The national government said in a statement that "hatred, intolerance and xenophobia" are unacceptable. Jewish leader Alexandr Bilinkis called on the Orthodox Church to take a position over the priest's actions.

According to Wikipedia, by the by, the word "pogrom" - originally coined to describe a singular kind of historically-rooted anti-Jewish violence, characterized by a distinctive cluster of motivations and behaviors - is now a a term for general violence. Couple this with what's happening to "antisemitism," and soon physical anti-Jewish bigotry will recede into the background. Because that's what happens when you run out of words for describing something distinctive. It just goes away.

Well except in Spain, where what started with individuals hurling antisemitic insults at Israeli ambassadors has now become a crowd thing:

According to referee Alfonso Alvarez Izquierdo, "From the 14th minute and on five other occasions in the first half, (anti-Semitic) chants... were directed at the visiting goalkeeper by the home fans behind the goal, every time he touched the ball," the referee said in his match report posted on the Spanish federation Web site... The fans waved Palestinian flags and also shouted "murderer" at Aouate. Aouate sounded unfazed by the chanting, telling local media that, "This happens to me every time I play here in Pamplona. It really makes me happy that we won." This is not the first time that the Israeli 'keeper has been subjected to anti-Semitic taunts by Osasuna fans. In 2006, while playing for Deportivo La Coruna, he also came in for some untoward treatment.

And also probably except in France, where things have somehow gotten worse since French Muslims first started kidnapping Jews and torturing them for sport: "they cut bits off the flesh of the young man, they cut his fingers and ears, they burned him with acid, and in the end poured flammable liquid on him and set him on fire."

Hating Jews is fun again, ingrained at every level of French public life and throughout most of the EU. We don't actually know how deeply it's ingrained, since the Europeans refuse to keep good numbers on antisemitism:

One Jerusalem Radio's Omri Ceren Show continues in its new later poll-tested time slot, kicking off at 6:30pm PST and running for an hour. You can listen live - which allows you to call in, get on the air, and participate in the chat room - from the TOCS page on Blog Talk Radio. No big interviews or gimmicks today - although, looking ahead, there are a slew of interviews piling up on the other side of the New Year - which is probably good since there's a ton of stuff going on in the Middle East this week.

More than one person in the last 24 hours has described Israel's current diplomatic position as "the worst situation since 1967," which I actually think might be an understatement. Israel hasn't had this much tension with the United States since 1956, and the legitimacy of the Jewish State hasn't been under this much pressure since the birth of the state.

Both segments with Diker today are handed over to that topic, from what why the EU did it to why Israel couldn't stop it to what it means for the peace process. It's a much fuller geopolitical appraisal than, say, the sputtering outrage I was able to muster in posts and segments last week - although there still is something to be said for the basic moral outrage of having the EU sanction Jordan's ethnic cleansing of the Old City in the name of human rights.

In between that: Hezbollah's takeover of Lebanon and what it means for Iran's global expansion (background), the status of Netanyahu's vaunted settlement freeze, how Europe's "humanitarian" spinelessness in the face of political Islam swamps this Swiss minaret gambit, and a bunch more.

References:
* The Omri Ceren Show - Martin Sherman Wrap Up, Changes To The Show (POLL!) [MR]
* The Anti-Israel Diplomatic Endgame? [Omri Ceren Show]
* Sweden: It's Time For The EU To Lock In Jordan's Ethnic Cleansing Of East Jerusalem [MR]
* TOCS - 6:30pm PST - Diker On Iranian Expansionism, Sweden's Attack On Jerusalem, Etc. [MR]

Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* The Omri Ceren Show
* Islam In Europe
* European Antisemitism

The sublime thing about sports is how they bring people together, cutting across racial and national lines to highlight the essence of our shared humanity. Unless you happen to represent the Jewish State in modern-day Europe. Then fuck you:

The two Israelis won gold and bronze medals at the European Cup fencing tournament for under 17s. Dana Stralinkov, 14, won gold and Alona Komarov, 13 won bronze. But the Austrian official in charge of arranging the national anthems played when the winners went on the podium said he could not locate the recording of 'Hatikvah'. After a few minutes of silence, the two teens sang the Israeli anthem themselves, with no backing track.

Good for those girls, who knew what to expect after the same thing happened in Sweden. The Austrian official who approached the podium actually said that he had the old Israeli national anthem available, which was an interesting rhetorical gambit insofar as it's the only thing he could have said to decrease his credibility.

You'd think everyday Austrians would be more grateful, given how Israeli engineers have single-handedly boosted their ski season by creating "snow refineries." I can understand how that kind of innovation would fail to sway the country's Muslim population - this is a community where the cause celebre is a teacher who distributed anti-Jewish pamphlets to students and where 44% of teachers believe that Muslims are inherently superior - but shouldn't the rest of the country be appreciative enough to keep track of even one Hatikva recording?

Maybe they lost it in a Swiss bank vault. Have they thought of checking there?

References:
* Israel fencing teens sing anthem lost by Austria [Jewish Chron]
* European sports officials rude to Israeli fencing champions [LA Examiner]
* Israeli snow brings early winter to Austrian ski resort [AFP]
* Muslim community hits back over banned teacher [Austrian Times]
* Austria: Study Finds 8% of Teachers in Islamic Schools Support Spreading Islam Through Violence, 44% Teach Their Kids They're Better Than Non-Muslims.... [Weasel Zippers]

Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* Europe Coverage
* European Antisemitism
* Global Antisemitism

Bouthaina Shaaban is a Syrian Minister, a Warwick PhD, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and was once awarded the Arab League's "Most Distinguished Woman in a Governmental Position" Award, something I'm assuming they rotate among their two or three eligible contestants. She's also kind of an antisemitic cretin, and this week she's particularly excited about that excerable Swedish blood libel:

The investigative report written by Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom... about Israeli occupation forces killing Palestinians with the objective of stealing their organs raised a political and media storm in Israel meant to cover up a horrible crime perpetrated for years... [in 1992] Palestinians started to witness a sharp rise in the number of young Palestinians disappearing and of bodies of Palestinians killed by occupation forces being returned with organs like hearts, kidneys, livers and eyes missing...

Bostrom writes. "On several occasions I was approached by UN staff concerned about the developments. The persons contacting me said that organ theft definitely occurred but that they were prevented from doing anything about it... I traveled around interviewing a great number of Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza... who told of how their sons had been deprived of organs before being killed. One example that I encountered on this eerie trip was the young stone-thrower Bilal Ahmed Ghanam".

Of course those same Palestinian families have reported that they told Bostrom no such thing. And of course the editor of Bostrom's paper, the venerable Aftonbladet, also admits that there's no evidence of organ theft.

None of that matters: conspiracy theories do their persuasive work not by achieving mainstream public acceptance but by bringing something into the realm of acceptable public debate. Done and done.

Shaaban then elaborates on her antisemitic fantasy, breathlessly recounting lurid details that would have made the Nazis roll their eyes. The line "it was clear that Bilal's body was slit from his abdomen up to his chin" is particularly striking, though you won't want to miss her full paragraph about an impromptu Israeli torture scene. It involves IDF soldiers shooting the victim in his limbs and his stomach before dragging him through a field. How that left his organs sufficiently intact for transplant remains unclear, though it's obviously not an operation beyond the means of diabolical Zionist Jew medicine.

The constant repetition of expertise, the whiff of slightly-too-specific details, and the hint of overcompensation in words like "definitely" and "clear" - those are all part and parcel of conspiracy rhetoric. But those verbal tics plus the gruesome obsession with imagined Jewish atrocities is a combination rarely found in such perfect form outside the Arab world. Pay particular attention to how the usual threads of conspiracism - expertise, details, overcompensation - get seamlessly woven into the rest of this feverish antisemitic tapestry:

The article didn't say Jews are harvesting the organs of Palestinian children, ala the most primitive blood libels and the most cutting-edge Iranian TV. It said Israeli Jews are doing it. Even if that's not true - and the reporter who published it in Sweden's largest circulation daily says he's agnostic on the question - that doesn't make it a false antisemitic claim. At worst it's just over-exuberant anti-Zionism.

And after all, isn't rooting out innocent factual errors what the public sphere is all about?

Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Benny Dagan was expected to speak to the Swedish Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to protest the publication of an article in the country's newspaper Aftonbladet that accused IDF soldiers of abducting Palestinians to steal their organs... The Foreign Ministry responded furiously on Tuesday to the story, saying it was a grotesque throwback to the blood libels of the Middle Ages. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor characterized the story as "racist hysteria at its worst. No one should tolerate such a demonizing piece of medieval blood libel that surely encourages hate crimes against Jews," Palmor said. "This is a shame to freedom of expression, and all Swedes should reject it unconditionally."

Stop trying to use charges of antisemitism to stifle legitimate criticism of Israel, Likudniks.

References:
* What's Next? Eating Babies? [MR]
* Israel furious over Swedish newspaper article [AP]
* Israel aghast at Swedish report on IDF [JPost]

Previously:
* One Jerusalem Conference Call With George Gilder: Israel Is The "Crucial Battlefield For Capitalism In The World"
* Human Rights Watch Shill Has Meltdown - Rants About "Sharanskys Of The World," Dares Critics To Find "One Incident" Of HRW Bias (UPDATED: Nasrallah Bragged About Using Human Shields)
* Iran PressTV Blows The Lid Off Anti-Obama Birther Conspiracy Theories. Turns Out: Jews.

As near as I can tell there are a grand total of zero articles about this on Google News. Which I guess is reasonable since religiously-oriented cartoons from small European countries are never newsworthy. This particular controversy goes back to January 2004, when the nationalist rag Respublika - which dominates the Lithuanian press market - printed this cartoon to tease an insert titled "Who Runs The World":

In case you missed the subtle theme buried inside all those complex layers of meaning, the world is apparently run by a Jewish Lobby. A very, very gay Jewish Lobby. But this was 1994. We were still a decade away from Pat Oliphant and John Mearsheimer mainstreaming insinuations about bloodthirsty "Lobbies." So naturally there was a bit of a backlash, particularly against Respublika publisher Vitas Tomkus.

Being the aggrieved anti-Jewish nut that he is, Tomkus responded by with another classical anti-Jewish blood libel. I'm actually surprised he stopped at John the Baptist. Why not just go the whole way and draw yourself getting nailed to a cross by black-hatted Jews in thongs?

Now this cartoon has been printed and reprinted over the years in Tomkus-run newspapers like Respublika and Vakaro Zinios. It's been published multiple times over the last few months in both papers. That's just the kind of thing people get to do now.

In response to scattered criticism, Tomkus and his supporters have defended themselves by - well, check it:

Republica wasn't under fire for "antisemitic cartoons", but for a multi part insert put into the paper titled "Who Runs The World." It wasn't so far from what the US media is now describing in AIPAC lobbying stories, including spies as lobbyists, as well as financial hucksters.

Incidentally, do we know anyone else who helps himself to feverish conspiracy tropes about Jewish control over publishing? Hmm.

Actually that's a little unfair. I meant "... feverish conspiracy tropes about Zionist Jewish control over publishing." (h/t: MR reader LG)

References:
* Hezbollah And Neo-Nazis Agree: Pat Oliphant's Anti-Semitic Cartoon Is Exquisite [MR]
* John Mearsheimer - Not Anti-Semitic. Just Anti-Semiticish [MR]
* Media over all reasonable limits in Lithuania [Wonderland]
* Obama's New Saudi-Funded Spy Chief: "The Lobby" Controls US Publishing, Shuts Down Arguments About How The "Brutal Oppression Of The Palestinians" Caused 9/11 [MR]

Previously:
* University Dean In Tutu Affair Forced To Issue Memo: It's Not Always The Jews' Fault (Plus: Walt And Mearsheimer: Actually, It's Still The Jews' Fault)
* Walt and Mearsheimer's Best Defense For Their Anti-Semitic-ish Accusations Is In Trouble
* Walt and Mearsheimer Publish Insipid Anti-Semiticish Book. MR Officially Takes Back Original "No Way They're Anti-Semites" Position.

Inevitable:

Then came my visit to the Hainburg town hall for birth records to sort out the murkiness of Lenke's paperwork. "Gruss gott!" said the two women... "What is your religion? For example, I am Katholische. And you are ...?" Momentarily stunned, I sat there. Was this necessary? Reading my face, the woman added, "You can leave it empty." No, I calculated, I've got nothing to hide. "Jewish," I said. But it didn't register... The lead official finally reached for her procedural rulebook, turning to the page of recognized religions. And there it was: Israelitische. Yes, I'm an Israelite.

However, my ordeal wasn't over. "And your wife? Her religion?" ... I called [her to ask] "Jewish?" I asked. Her response was strident. "Leave it blank. Yours, too," she said. "This is no time for patriotism. Who knows what the situation will be like in 30 years? Or how this information could be used online."... Lenke's birth certificate now includes the gaping blanks. Later, as I told the story to my father -- who agreed with my wife's rationale, since it was his grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins who were deported to Auschwitz -- I wondered if the Roma who refuse to declare their ethnic identity are justified. Have Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and others surrendered the right to ever again be trusted with such data?

Decades of excusing the most vile anti-Semitism as mere anti-Zionism - of accepting fantasies about cabalistic lobbies and fabrications about well-poisoning as part of public discourse - have destroyed all limits on venom and violence. Nothing is off-limits any more. Truth doesn't matter: people justify their pathological hate with outrageous fabrications. Ethics certainly don't matter: against the Jewish "modern-day Nazis" - the ones who inhabit Israel and the ones who might support them - anything is justified. This is the stuff of mass pogroms.

We've reached a tipping point in Europe. Anti-Jewish fanatics have gone from denying the Holocaust to justifying it. Durban II will be a surreal display of open and unapologetic anti-Semitic incitement. There will be calls for violent "resistance" against a global Jewish enemy of a kind - and in a pitch - that hasn't been heard since the Holocaust.

It's not just the willingness of European protesters to publicly call for Jews to be thrown into gas chambers - something that even five years ago they would have been too ashamed to do...

The impromptu German policy of tearing down Israeli flags to chants of "Alluh akbar" is now official police policy. Synagogues are being vandalized. Holocaust memorials are being trashed. So I dunno, maybe?

I would like to know why pacifism gains so much strength every time it is directed against Israel. How come the newspaper pictures of the war are so one-sided and pro-Palestinian? Could it be that anti-Semitism is again prevalent in Germany, only this time it conveniently disguises itself as being anti-Israel? The answer is complex. I have met anti-Semites in this country, but I also ran into a lot of philo-Semites here. Some people here seem to feel less guilty of the German past when Jews "also" act violently. And, of course, there are also those, who reflexively root for the underdog, the Palestinians.

Luckily Berlin's Center for Research on Anti-Semitism has an ambitious plan to deal with all this: they're going to combat Islamophobia. That should do the trick.

References:
* Israeli Flag Now Functionally Illegal In Germany And Britain Because It "Provokes" Violent Anti-Semitic Mobs [MR]
* German police ban Israeli flags [JPost]
* Vandals break windows at synagogue in Germany [TopNews Law]
* German Anti-Zionists Momentarily Forget That They're Not Anti-Semitic, Trash Anti-Nazi Memorial [MR]
* Is German pacifism ignorant or anti-Israeli?
* 'German center ignores Iranian threat' [JPost]

Previously:
* Germany Keeping Iran Afloat Diplomatically And Economically
* Pictures Of German Students' Anti-Semitic Pro-Palestinian Rampage (Plus: Not At All Anti-Semitic Berkeley Protesters Keep Attacking Jews)
* Mecca Pilgrims' Chants Under-Emphasize Peaceful Nature Of Islam

Yes of course he's Jewish:

A British Labour Party politician Friday likened the behaviour of Israeli troops in Gaza to that of the military of Nazi Germany and said Israel's actions were 'barbaric and stupid.' Gerald Kaufman, a Jewish member of parliament (MP), whose parents fled Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II, said about the rising Palestinian death toll: 'Four Jews against 1,000 Palestinians - that is Nazism.'

He said this on the BBC, a news outlet that as of last week was broadcasting calls by "moderate" British Muslim leaders to kill all Israeli children. Though this is probably a reasonable response since - as the BBC also informs people - the Israelis are "carpet-bombing Gaza". At worst it's probably just over-exuberant anti-Zionism that is in no way playing on anti-Semitic tropes or on Jewish history.

References:
* Middle East News [DPA]
* BBC criticised over broadcast by £19 million Arabic TV station [Telegraph]
* BBC: Israel "Carpet Bombing" Gaza..... [Zippers]

Previously:
* Great News: Pogroms Returning To Europe
* British TV Letting Ahmadinejad Deliver Alternative Christmas Message In Response To The Queen
* I'm Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Britain Hands Itself Over To Radical Islam, Blames Israel

The thing about contemporary British and French relations: notwithstanding centuries of tension they've always been able to unite against common enemies. So in an era where many people are justifiably worried about how large blocs of unassimilated immigrants are eroding traditional Anglo-Saxon culture, it's nice to see that some old traditions are being kept vibrant. Radical French Muslims - a not insignificant portion of the total French population - have apparently joined their British counterparts in bombing synagogues...

Attackers launched two cars packed with petrol bombs at a synagogue in France's south-western city of Toulouse on Monday night, causing damage but no casualties, officials said.One car was set on fire and pushed by the other until it hit the door of the synagogue, at a time when about a dozen people were attending a class with a rabbi. The building caught fire but all those inside escaped unharmed. Police found unexploded petrol bombs inside the second car, which did not catch fire. They said they were investigating the attack and had not made any arrests... In recent years, flare-ups between Israel and the Palestinians have been followed by acts of violence against Jewish people or buildings in France, which has large Jewish and Muslim communities. Some analysts have attributed the problem to a build-up of resentment among children or grandchildren of immigrants from Arab countries who feel they are poorly integrated into French society and are victims of discrimination in the job market.

... and targeting prominent Jews for liquidation:

Jewish-French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy was listed by a Belgium-based Islamist group as a target for assassination alongside other leading Jewish personalities in Europe, the Belgian daily La Derniere Heure reported earlier this week. The planned assassination was apparently thwarted after group leader Abdelkader Belliraj, a Belgian of Moroccan ascent, was arrested last February in Morocco, the newspaper reported. Belgian authorities found the list during a raid on homes of local Muslim community members last November, according to the report. The hit list mentioned the names of five other well-know Jewish figures in Belgium and France: Josy Eisenberg, producer of the A Bible ouverte (Open Bible) television program on FR2; Simone Susskind, a leader of Belgium's secular Jewish community; attorney Markus Pardes, president of the International Association of Jewish lawyers and jurists; Belgian writer Jean-Claude Bologne and La Derniere Heure reporter Edmond Blattche.

If only they were better integrated into French society. Because that's the thing about French anti-Semitism: people who are educated, influential, and respectable never become open anti-Semites. It's a socio-economic dynamic that has nothing to do with a cutural history of pathological scapegoating that, having been written off for decades as "anti-Zionism", has now metasticized into genocidal Islamic anti-Semitism. What a relief.

References:
* France arrests 7 suspected of Islamic radicalism [AP]
* British Muslims Doing Their Best To Cleanse Britain Of Jews [MR]
* Cars launched at synagogue [Straits Times]
* Bernard Henri Levy among 6 Jews said targeted by Islamist group [Ha'aretz]
* Antisemitic League of France [Wiki]
* The Dreyfus affair: 100 years on [BBC]

Previously:
* "Youths" Rioting, Burning Police Cars Again In Paris
* French Intifada Continues With 77 Police Officers Injured. Liberal Sophisticates Blame France, Exonerate Youths Of Inscrutable Ethnic Origin [Videos]
* French Police Raiding Housing Projects Filled With Immigrants Of Unknown Religion (Plus: At Least Radical Muslims Are Honest Anti-Semites)

Synagogues are being set on fire. Graffiti advocating the mass murder of Jews is appearing all over London. Literal pogroms - putting Jews in geographically discrete areas and then attacking them there - are happening all over London. And British sophisticates are tsk tsk'ing because a British terrorism expert - who also happens to be a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman who believes that Israeli children are legitimate military targets - says that it's because of Cast Lead:

For the record, this "British terrorism expert" also happens to be Egyptian-born, Muslim brotherhood spokesman, Kamal El-Helbawy, who once questioned whether Israeli children are legitimate targets -- this before Israel's latest "blame-all" incursion. One must wonder, therefore, whether his "expertise" in terrorism is a product of theoretic knowledge or hands-on experience... Gaza, 29 Dec. (AKI) - The latest Israeli attacks on Gaza could promote the growth of 'new Al-Qaeda' terror networks, a British terrorism expert warned on Monday. Kamal El-Helbawy, director of The Centre for the Study of Terrorism, said the raids had provoked widespread anger throughout the Middle East and many people, even children, were now talking about revenge.

Yeah. 4,000 UK Muslim terrorists being tracked by the CIA but Islamist anti-Semitism is Israel's fault. Of course it is. And so is the ethnic cleansing that's being planned for Britain's Jews:

An Islamic extremist Web site is believed to be drawing up a list of prominent British Jews to target over Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza, The Sun reported on Wednesday. According to the British newspaper, Amy Winehouse record producer Mark Ronson and Foreign Secretary David Miliband were among names discussed on the online forum Ummah. The report came as a British Jewish watchdog group, the Community Security Trust, said there has been a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Britain since the upsurge of hostilities in Gaza.

Probably just overzealous anti-Zionism. Nothing that a strict regime of sensitivity training couldn't fix.

References:
* Synagogue set ablaze and anti-Semitic assaults soar in UK following Israel's invasion of Gaza [Mail Online]
* Great News: Pogroms Returning To Europe [MR]
* 5,000 demonstrators and riots in Londonistan over Gaza [Jihad Watch]
* MEMRI: London Islamist - All Israeli Children Are Legitimate Targets [Solomonia]
* British terrorism expert predicts dire reaction to Israeli incursion [Jihad Watch]
* CIA tracking 4000 UK terror suspects [The Age]
* Report: Islamist site compiling list of U.K. Jews to target over Gaza op [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* I'm Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Anglican Leader Advocates End Of Anglican Church, British Christians Generally Agnostic On Whether Christianity Is True
* Britain Now Fighting Terrorism By Strip Searching Clowns, Implementing Sharia
* British TV Letting Ahmadinejad Deliver Alternative Christmas Message In Response To The Queen

Apologists for political Islam often insist that Muslim anti-Semitism has a uniquely Western flavor to it. That's bullshit on a stick, of course. But even the aggrieved partisans of political Islam are occassionally willing to dabble outside their specialty. Old European trick: put all the Jews in one neighborhood and then keep them inside for their own protection. Conveniently that also means you know where to find them when you want them. And so from Antwerp...

The demonstration that the Arab European League (AEL) in Borgerhout (Antwerp) organized ... has gotten completely out of hand. After the protest disbanded the demonstrators marched towards the Jewish neighborhood in Antwerp, clashing with the police... The police had completely closed off the neighborhood upon which started a cat-and-mouse game. The situation threatened to get out of hand and at about 3:25pm the police arrived with more manpower in order to drive out the protesters... The protesters caused much damage, in particular to car windows but also trams and basses were attacked... Many Jews don't dare anymore to go out on the streets in the area of the demonstrators. They fear vandalism and violence. An internal SMS service of the Jewish community of Antwerp warns Jews to avoid the areas.

... to Britain:

A gang of pro-Palestinian demonstrators rampaged through the heart of the Jewish community on Wednesday evening, attacking businesses and assaulting a motorist. Police and the CST have increased patrols and security following the incidents in Golders Green, North-West London, amid concerns of further trouble during Shabbat. The group of around 15 men had been demonstrating in support of Palestinians in Gaza but then made their way along Golders Green Road, attacking the man as he got into his car. They attempted to gain access to a number of kosher restaurants and Jewish businesses... Despite officers arriving in the area quickly, the gang was able to escape on the Tube.

If only there was a robust system of surveillance in Britain - maybe some kind of network involving cameras sprinkled throughout major cities - that could be used to track down the rioters. That would really be helpful right now.

References:
* The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History [Andrew Bostom]
* Antwerp: Arab riots, Jewish neighborhood sealed (UPDATED) [Islam In Europe]
* Gaza: Gang on rampage in Golders Green [TheJC]

Previously:
* Just A Reminder: Arab Media Is A Cesspool Of Genocidal Anti-Semitic Incitement
* Leftists' "Jews = Nazis" Comparisons Particularly Stupid In The Context Of Gaza
* Breaking: Arab Youths Spray Gunfire At Israeli Mall Workers In Denmark

It's true. I was actually at the meeting where the decision was made. We did it to stop him from blowing the lid off of how we caused the financial meltdown:

he outpouring of ordinary Austrians for the funeral of neo-Nazi Jorg Haider shows that the country is unrepentant regarding its Nazi past. It's actually worse than that. Monday's JPost reports on 'mainstream' Austrian politicians (not from the 'extreme right') praising Haider and that his party has accused the Mossad of assassinating the drunken anti-Semite: "He was a remarkable person" and one should "pay tribute to him," was how Social Democratic Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer described right-wing extremist politician Joerg Haider at Haider's funeral ceremony in Klagenfurt, Austria on Saturday. While local Austrian authorities declared an inebriated Haider to have died as the result a high-speed car crash last week, Karlheinz Klement, a former member of Haider's ex-party, the Freedom Party, asserted that the Mossad had assassinated him. Klement's conspiracy thesis is circulating among Austrian neo-Nazi and right-wing internet forums.

Actually this doesn't make any sense because Haider's death clears the way for reuniting the 30 percent of hard right Austrians currently split between the FPO and the BZO. The financial crisis, though - that was totally us. Not like "Jews transferred $400 billion out of Lehamn" us. More like "Barney Frank personally destroyed the Western financial world" us.

References:
* Haider's party claims Jews assassinated him [Israel Matsav]
* 'Financial crisis sparks anti-Semitism' [JPost]
* Sudden death of Haider may hasten merger of far-right parties in Austria [Irish Times]
* Conspiracy theory faults Jews for Lehman Brothers' collapse [Ha'aretz]

Previously:
* State Department's Arab TV Station: Israel Conducting "Holocaust Against 1.5 million Palestinians"
* British Anti-Semites Poison Israeli Food Exports, Get Israel Blamed For It
* Arab and Muslim Conspiracy Theories - Iranian Holocaust Denial Edition

Israel apparently treats Palestinian doctors and patients so badly that Israeli doctors - often at the bleeding edge of medical techniques and technology - deserve to be shunned by either all of Britain or the entire world. This despite the fact that Israeli medical professionals put themselves and their hospitals at risk by treating even the most vicious Palestinian patients. But the boycotts actually make some sense, because Israelis really are causing the Palestinian medical system to grind to a halt by kidnapping and kneecapping Palestinian doctors.

Oh wait, it's the Palestinians who are kidnapping and kneecapping Palestinian doctors:

Can you imagine the global shitstorm that would erupt if Israeli soldiers ever fired on a Red Crescent vehicle during a firefight? As the kids used to say, the din would rise to heaven itself and disturb the gods themselves - even though those vehicles really are used to transport terrorists and bombs. We're sure that there's a very subtle distinction that allows the leaders of anti-Israel medical boycotts to distinguish between what the Palestinians are doing to Palestinian doctors and what they claim Israelis are doing to Palestinian doctors. Something like "the Israelis are Jews". But whatever the subtle version of that is.

References:
* British Doctors Don't Like Israeli Doctors Because... Well, For Some Sort Of Reason [MR]
* That Can't Be True - Oh Wait, It Is [MR]
* Gaza hospital medics walk out to protest abduction, shooting of doctor [Ha'aretz]
* Israeli Magen David Adom has to Get Approval - From Palestinian Red Crescent [MR]

Previously:
* Palestinian Civil Society Watch - They're Murdering Nurses and Shooting People Against Walls
* Bibi: "This Is Not One Of Britain's Finest Hours" [Video]
* Britain Has the Highest Number Of Anti-Semitic Attacks In Europe: "Are You English Or A Jew"? [Video]

If we were in charge of Poland's public image, here's what we wouldn't do. We wouldn't demand that an Israeli newspaper elaborate on the precise extent to which Poland's citizens participated in the Holocaust:

Maybe the way media works has changed in the last 12 hours, but doesn't raising public objections about this just ensure that there are going to be dozens of stories that use the word "Poland" in close proximity to the word "Holocaust"? Let's say that this is a slam dunk in Poland's favor. Let's pretend that there's no evidence, for instance, that Poles refused to sell weapons to Jews in the Warsaw ghetto due to a thousand year history of anti-Semitism. There will still be dozens of stories using the word "Poland" in close proximity to the word "Holocaust". In reality, of course, there will be stories like that - and stories about how Poles refused to sell weapons to Jews in the Warsaw ghetto due to a thousand year history of anti-Semitism. Good job, Polish embassy.

References:
* Israeli cartoon raises Polish protest [JPost]

Previously:
* How many Poles does it take to save democracy...
* The Nation: So What If Europe Demographically ...
* The Red Line is Somewhere Behind You

"Like most Europeans, I am an anti-Semite".

It's funny 'cause it's true. Which is also why it's sad.

References:
* Israel

Previously:
* Video: Across The Universe Trailer
* This Congress Is Being Run By Lunatics And Idiots
* Video: Giant Sword Armed Wii Controlled Robot. What Could Go Wrong?

They were probably just expressing their "legitimate criticism of Israeli policies:

These guys too - just your average anti-Israel activism:

At least the first one is being investigated as a hate crime. With the second one, gosh we just don't know - could be any explanation, really.

And it's not that we think that all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism, or that all anti-Semitism is tried to opposition to Israel. It's just that the last few years' wave of anti-Israel invective sounds like hate, feels like hate, and keeps resulting in hate crimes. So we're beginning to think that the distinction between the two is a little bit academic. Not like good, rational academic. More like sophistic excuses for vicious anti-Semitism academic.

References:
* FBI Offers Reward In Bomb Scare
* Crude bomb targets Montreal Jewish community centre

Previously:
* Reminder: Hysterical Anti-Zionism Doesn't Get You Off The Hook For Bigoted Anti-Semitism
* Anti-Semitism as Anti-Zionism
* Even 40 Years Ago, Anti-Zionism was Already Anti-Semitism