Yes.
Europe is in the thralls of the worst anti-Semitism since the 1930s. Every day brings new desecrations, new attacks, new instances of European governments caving in to anti-Jewish demands.
Look at the widget to the left. This documents but a small bit of the rabid anti-Jewish sentiment which is on the rise in Europe. Click it, follow the instructions, and put it on your own site — I get no money and no links from it.
I saw this the other day and it really hit me hard.
At my dinner table on Friday night, a holocaust survivor admits that she is trying to persuade her son to take his family out of Europe to America, Canada, Australia, Canada, Australia, Israel…’They say they can’t leave me, but I tell them: “Go, get out. My parents left my grandparents behind in Berlin and brought me to safety in England. Now I want you to leave so that my grandchildren will be safe.”’ There is an unbearable desperation in her plea. But she has a point.
As tens of thousands of demonstrators march through the streets of Europe, the chants are modified but the message remains substantially intact: ‘Hamas, Hamas, Hamas — Jews to the Gas’. Or, more simply: ‘Death to the Jews’. Many European Jews, even well-established, affluent Jews, have been checking the suitcase they keep packed under the bed. They have been here before and many are (albeit reluctantly) reading the writing on the wall.
To some extent I thought I was inured. I grew up in postwar apartheid South Africa where a subtle undercurrent of anti-Semitism was a fact of everyday life. So while I was disturbed by manifestations of mob anti-Semitism, I was also less vulnerable to shock. That’s just how people are. Living in genteel, leafy Hampstead Garden Suburb provides an additional layer of protection from such crass outbursts.
But my sanguine state ends abruptly when I am out walking on Saturday. A hundred yards from my front door, I encounter the slogan, freshly painted in yellow, across the pavement: ‘Kill the Filthy Jews’. I am shocked. And shocked that I am shocked. The message is too close for comfort. The leafy gentility is, after all, an illusion.
I traced it back to Yid With Lid, who has this to say:
England’s Scotland Yard estimates that security costs for anti-Israel protests last week exceeded $1.4 million. In one protest alone, more than 12,000 angry Palestinian sympathizers in London smashed windows, destroyed a car, and set Israeli flags ablaze.
Across Europe, police took to the streets to prevent full-scale riots. In Paris, 30,000 protestors denounced Israel and pelted police with stones. Norwegian police used tear gas to disperse several hundred rock throwers in Oslo. Swedish police arrested forty-seven demonstrators at an anti-Israel rally Norrmalmstorg. These demonstrations are not surprising. The Gaza war is the latest excuse for Islamist violence on Europe’s streets. In 1989, Iran-inspired extremists firebombed London bookstores during the Salman Rushdie affair. In 2005, Muslims torched cars, destroyed property, and battled police in the Paris suburbs. In 2006, a wave of violence accompanied the Danish cartoon controversy.
Here is a short video of the London riots. And yes, you read the ending right — the maker of this video is anti-Israel and was produces by an outfit called SovietFilms. Are we so surprised that the left is tied up with the anti-Jewish violence? Why aren’t things like this front-page news>
