AIBU, to be concerned about increasing anti-semitism throughout Europe

[DikTrom]

Yesterday's Sunday Times had a number of articles about increased anti-semitism in the UK. Same is happening in the Netherlands and even more so in France and Germany.

YANBU; I think Anti-Semitism is always there under the surface.

My Nan's elderly neighbour is Jewish but not religious and all the residents of his sheltered accommodation ignore him because he is Jewish (except for my nan). That is in Bournemouth!

It is very concerning. But are you going to talk about the elephant in the room Dik?

A friend of mine told me that it is no longer safe for Jewish men to wear a Jewish cap when walking in Amsterdam. Not something I had expected TBH (but I don't often go to Amsterdam).

Yesterday I was reading the Sunday Times and there were several articles about increased semitism in the UK (many more attacks on Jewish people, even Jewish children, schools etc.) and of course the attacks in France and Germany.

Yanbu it's very frightening.

increased anti-semitism of course ...

You mean the current elephant, Mintyy?
Because Europe has had bouts of anti-semitism for centuries with no grounds whatsoever. Everything from riots to expulsions to mass slaughter for over a thousand years.

YANBU to be concerned about it.

There is also increasing anti Islamic feeling bubbling just below the surface.

I think everyone is getting more and more frustrated with the entire situation.

My FIL was called a 'fucking Jewish cunt' last week

horrible just horrible :(

The front page of Sunday Times yesterday:
'Anti-semitic attacks scar British cities'
'About 100 hate incidents have been recorded by police and community groups this month - more than double the number that monitors would usually expect. Many are said to have been carried out by young Muslim men, and in some cases, the attackers have invoked the Holocaust.
The most serious incidents being investigated include:

• A rabbi who was attacked by four youths outside a Jewish school in Gateshead

-Bricks being thrown at a synagogue in Belfast, smashing windows on two consecutive nights

• A group of Asian men who drove through a Jewish area of Greater Manchester, shouting 'Heil Hitler' and hurling missiles at pedestrians
• A man using Twitter to call for a Jewish neighbourhood in London to be bombed so 'Jews feel the pain' of the Palestinians

Then there was an incident about a BBC journalist appearing to suggest that 'Western politicians had failed to intervene in the Middle East crisis because they had been 'bought' by the Jews.

'Natan Sharansky, a former Israeli minister who was imprisoned for many years in a Soviet jail, wrote: 'We are seeing the beginning of the end of Jewish history in Europe' '
(This is just from the front page article, but there were several other articles as well)

It's very scary stuff, and disgusting.

I am Jewish by birth but brought up a Christian.

There are complex intertwined issues here:

1. The rise of extreme Islam - perhaps leading to attacks on Jewish people;

1. Increased economic deprivation across Europe leading people to lash out and 'blame' minority groups; and

1. The actions of Israel.

The article mentions that some attackers justify their actions referring to Israel. However, the targets are not Israeli, they are British, Dutch, French, German Jews etc.

I have a very traditional Hebrew name and have dark hair/eyes/olive skin. On first meeting me people assume I'm Jewish and the reaction generally is not positive. That said, it's nothing particularly new either. Some people have always reacted like this. Things have got worse since 9/11 though ..

True, the National Front in France has always been anti-semitic. However, you really would not expect this in the Netherlands and Britain, and apparently it is here rife too.

Mimishimmi, I don't understand why people would have a less positive reaction to meeting a jewish person post 9/10.

9/10!? 9/11! obviously

It's fucking terrifying. There's a thin line which is increasingly confused, between anti-zionism and anti-semitism.

And actually the situation in Gaza is just giving the violent, anti-semitic fuckwits what they think is reasonable justification. I bet 99% of those smashing up businesses, marching in the streets with placards saying "Hitler was right" haven't even got a clue what the situation in Israel is really about.

On p15 of yesterday's Sunday Times there is an article by Stephen Pollard 'Anti-semitism rears its ugly head'. He concludes the article by saying:
'These people where not attacked because they were somehow demonstrating their support for the Israeli government. They were attacked because they were Jews, going about their daily business. That distinction between being anti-Israel and being anti-semitic is starting to wear thin. Anti-semitism is often a warning light about deeper fractures within society and reasserts itself when there is an issue that needs fixing. In France, the government appears to be learning a lesson about the separation of too much of its Muslim population from democratic western norms. The big question for us in Britain, despite our recent history of relative freedom from anti-semitism, is whether France in some way predicts our own future. Or even whether, in fact, Sharansky is right.'

I think the same question applies to the Netherlands.

I look Jewish. I have a common English derivative of a Jewish name.

Jewish people are often confused about me and as a lot of questions about my family. I have never felt threatened though because of my background by anyone.

If I am honest I think the state of Israel has exploited to the absolute maximum the horror of the WWII Holocaust in order to promulgate its own agenda.

The Jewish lobby in the USA has made the situation far worse. Israel does not represent the global Jewish diaspora.

morebeta what do you mean by Israel promulgating its own agenda? The state of Israel (which Hamas is denying the right to exist)?

Is there a definitive 'Jewish' look then? The notion of such a look is surely fueling anti-semitic ideas as it is reinforcing stereotypes of Jewish people?

bialy - as you no doubt know Israel was created after a guerrilla war against Britain in what was Palestine by Zionist movement. Creating a Jewish homeland was a convenient badge to put on the action that was already in train well before the war ended.

The state of Israel was created by treaty in a partition that the Arab world did not agree to. Much of the dispute lies in rights to water from the river Jordan.

There are faults on both sides that is manipulated and amplified by US policy in the Middle East.

Not nearly half as beautiful as her but this is my grandmother (in the dark dress) and her aunty (six months older than her). We've all inherited her colouring and if there is a stereotype about what Jewish people look like we must fit it, because my brothers and I have always been asked. The weird thing is that appearance wise we kind of fit anything and when I walk down the street in some suburbs I get glared at for what I think is not having a headscarf on...
lol.