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Denver, Colorado, United States
I'm a Vietnam Vet, Retired Mainframe Programmer, Retired College Adjunct Teacher, Published Author, Adult Boy Scout Leader, Republican, Jewish, married with two magnificent grown kids.

Antisemitism - a summary

A delightful lady asked a pertinent question in reply to my blog about the Rabbinical Student being harassed in Brooklyn. "Is it that bad in New York?" BTW her blog is at Me-Ander.blogspot.com and is worth reading regularly. I'll be adding the link today.

The answer is No, It's worse. The world seems to be busily retreating to 1936, though. Here are some articles from the web. Please read them all. My comments are at the end of the blog.

France

reprinted with the permission of Haaretz Daily (English)

Shocked and angry, France is finding it difficult to mollify its Jewish citizens in the wake of hundreds of attacks directed at them during the past year. The heads of the Jewish organizations have been talking about a revival of anti-Semitism, and liberal Jews have been discussing the violence that has been directed toward them, the source of which is poverty. Most of the incidents, they say, have occurred in the poorer peripheral cities. Politicians and senior government officials have been whispering that Israel, because of it aggression toward the Palestinians, is the cause of this wave of anti-Jewish activity.


England

The brilliant Mark Styne's two cents:

However, it seems to me that that traditionally mild antisemitism is fast vanishing and being replaced by something much closer to the more virulent Continental forms. The sinister rootless cosmopolitan Jew reviled in Europe was never a big deal in Britain: the Wandering Jew has his work cut out wandering as far afield as the Wandering Englishman. But Israel is another matter. I happen to be reading Tom Bower's book Conrad And Lady Black, about my old boss and his wife Barbara Amiel. Barbara's sins are mostly the ones leveled by Brits at World War II Yanks - oversexed, overpaid and over here - but Mr Bower adds to them the following:

By 2000, Amiel had become a passionate supporter of aggressive Zionism... Barbara Amiel's writings in the Telegraph hardened the perception of the newspaper as an uncritical propagandist for Zionism...


Spain:
Spanish Jews knew there were hard times ahead. Prime Minister Zapatero has not disappointed them

Ignacio Russell Cano


Published: 07.20.06, 14:21 / Israel Jewish Scene

Madrid: Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Prime Minister of Spain and Secretary General of the Socialist Party, arrived to power at a time nobody expected, not even inside the Party.

Keen on populist tirades against the United States "Dickhead Bush" and "Ketchup Queen Kerry", his whole campaign did not bring much attention until the moment Al-Qaeda decided to blow up Madrid trains, killing almost 200 people and bringing to an end Spain's membership of the West.


Canada - Our good neighbor:

Audit on antisemitism in Canada - 2004

On March 15, 2005 the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada released its 2004 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, an annual study on antisemitism in this country. The Audit documented an increase in the number of individuals acting out on their feelings of prejudice in a progressively less restrained way. The Audit also noted signs that a climate is being created in which open expressions of antisemitism are becoming increasingly acceptable.

Antisemitic activity has risen dramatically, with a 46.7% increase country-wide in 2004 compared to 2003. In total, 857 incidents were reported, the highest number in the twenty-two year history of the Audit. Since 2000, the total number of incidents has increased more than three-fold.

The highest increases were in the categories of both violence and vandalism, where the numbers doubled on average. In the category of harassment, one third of the year's cases involved threats of physical harm, including death threats.

The Audit also rings an alarm on relations between communities in Canada. In 2004, just as in 2003, the group responsible for the most antisemitic acts in Canada was made up of people apparently from Arab origin. In fact, the number of acts belonging to this category of people has increased 122%.

The Audit expresses hope that the Arab community will decide to recognize the problem instead of denying it and will implement strategies within it's own community and educational structures to improve the situation. One cannot remain silent anymore about the existence of antisemitism and hostility towards Israel within certain groups that commit acts against Jews.

Australia: