Gaza Strip conflict engendering wave of anti-Semitic violence in Europe

[Behind the Aegis]

Police spokesman Leif Nilsson. Neighbors alerted rescue services before the fire took hold.

Someone also started a blaze outside the premises last week. And on Sunday slogans including "murderers ... You broke the cease-fire" and "don't subject Palestine to ethnic cleansing" were daubed on Israel's embassy in Stockholm.

In Denmark, a 27-year-old Dane born in Lebanon of Palestinian parents allegedly injured two young Israelis last week, opening fire with a handgun. Police suspect his actions could be linked to the Gaza crisis.

France has Western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities and a history of anti-Semitic violence flaring when tensions in the Middle East are high. In 2002, some 2,300 Jews left France for Israel because they felt unsafe.

President Nicolas Sarkozy warned in a statement yesterday that France would not tolerate violence linked to the Gaza crisis. A day earlier, his interior minister said she was concerned about the prospect of contagion and met with the heads of the two main Muslim and Jewish groups and police officials to stress the need to "preserve national unity."

more...

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. While most of the incidents in the article are anti-semitic

the slogans on the Israeli embassy in Stockholm aren't. They're political protests against the country of Israel.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. I agree. AP did a shitty job in that respect.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

3. Why

can't people separate people from country?

[Fumesucker]

6. I can separate the two but I can see why a lot of people have a problem with it..

Israel was specifically founded as *the* Jewish state, most people have trouble with logical reasoning and end up conflating the Jewish state with the Jewish people. It really doesn't help that Israel constantly makes a big deal of its Jewishness and indeed has the Star of David on its flag.

Logic is something that doesn't come naturally to very many people and is seldom taught anywhere before post secondary education. There are a whole slew of logical fallacies that have names they are so common and for untrained people to fall into those fallacies is regrettable but understandable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

Edited for clarity.

[LeftishBrit]

4. It's an important problem...

but the article is a bit misleading in possibly implying that most Europaean antisemitism is linked to this conflict, or involves conflict between Muslims and Jews. (I realize it doesn't actually say so, but it omits quite a lot of context.) It's true that some of it is and does - but an awful lot is traditional antisemitism, often involving neo-Nazi groups, and the same people are often hostile to both Jews and Muslims.

It's important to clarify this, because otherwise people end up assuming either that 'it's all the fault of those Muslim immigrants' or that 'Israel's actions are the cause of antisemitism!'

At any rate, antisemitism and other forms of racism have always been problems.

www.axt.org.uk

[Behind the Aegis]

7. There were a few things left out from the article.

Another point I would make is some use this latest event as an excuse to express their anti-Semitic nature under the guise of something else.

[depakid]

5. Not just in Europe

Add in the Nadoff fiaco, et al., and one has to wonder WYF the current government is thinking....