Update: Anti-Semitsm Grows at an Accelerating Pace

There were some negative comments regarding the Kristalnach post I put up a few days ago. The comments,such as this one from jamesnyc , feel that Anti semitism is not as bad as implied by some recent posts on this blog

jamesny
That is a little silly. You are equating acts carried out by small groups of extremists with a carefully-planned national policy.

I wish James was right, but every day we read more stories about the spike in Jewish hatred across the world. Here is example is from Jamesny's home town, today's NY Post

JEWS AND GAYS HIT AS BIAS CRIME SOARS

By ANGELA MONTEFINISE

November 12, 2006 -- The number of hate crimes in the city is up almost 8 percent from last year, with attacks on Jews and gays spiking the most, according to NYPD stats.

There were 230 confirmed verbal and physical incidents designated bias crimes by police from Jan. 1 to Nov. 5 of this year - up from 214 in the same period last year.

The number of crimes against Jews surged 28 percent, to 95 from 74.

Anti-gay crimes jumped 20 percent, to 47 from 39. There were 42 crimes against gays in all of 2004 and 44 in all of 2005.

But its not Just in NY, the there was a Neo-Nazi convention in Berlin the other day. Here is the report from the Malaysia Sun said:

Protesters greeted the neo-Nazi Democratic Party's biennial convention in Berlin as a new report said anti-Semitism was on the rise in Germany.

Thousands of protesters marched in the rain Saturday against the two-day convention with the slogan the political center of the people, Israel's Ha'aretz said.

German President Horst Kohler said the dream of normal Jewish life in Germany still clashes with anti-Semitism.

A report by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation said the neo-Nazi movement is growing and generating anti-Semitic feelings in the country.

The study said official reports indicate the number of attacks by right-wing extremists has risen 20 percent, Ha'aretz said.

This week's Newsweek talks about the Jew hatred and holocaust denial going on in the mainstream Arab world:

In North Africa and the Middle East, discussion of the Holocaust has tended to take one of three forms. One is outright denial, favored by demagogues ranging from secular nationalists like Egypt's Gamal Abdul Nasser, who 40 years ago said that "no person takes seriously the lie of the six million Jews that were murdered," to religious radicals like Hizbullah's Hassan Nasrallah, who once proclaimed that "Jews invented the legend of the Holocaust." At the opposite end of the spectrum are what I call Holocaust glorifiers. These Hitler cheerleaders are best exemplified by the editorial writers at Egypt's state-owned al-Akhbar newspaper, who have praised the Final Solution and only lamented the fact that the Nazis didn't finish the job.

Earlier this week I wrote about Anti-Semitism in Frankfurt, France and the US. I showed anti Jewish posts on the Daily Kos, the Democratic Party's most popular blog, and in Arab schoolbooks.

Yesterday the WJC released a study that showed Eurpean Jew Hatred has spiked up since the past summer

WJC report reveals increasing anti-Semitism since Lebanon war

From Ynet News

A report presented Sunday at a conference of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in Paris Sunday indicated that anti-Semitism in Europe had increased pursuant to Israel's war in Lebanon this summer. The report, consolidated by the European Jewish Congress, with the participation of Jewish communities from 25 nations in continental Europe, revealed that expressions of anti-Semitism have doubled since this summer.

According to the report, there is a distinct and worrying atmosphere of general anti-Semitism, more disturbing than the reports of random anti-Semitic attacks in the street,

Professor Dina Porat, Head of Tel Aviv University's Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies and of the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism and Racism, was one of the conference's coordinators.

According to Porat, the data shows a marked change in atmosphere from the beginning of the summer of 2006, which has since affected more moderate sectors of the population, as well. At the conference, Porat presented anti-Semitic caricatures published this past summer not only in Arab newspapers, but also sources from Norway, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Conference presenters drew a clear connection between increasing anti-Semitism in Europe and statements made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. When he says he wants to kill Jews, we should believe him said president of the Committee Representing the Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) Roger Kukerman. He's using the same words as Hitler, he added, with the difference being that he's suspected of having nuclear weapons that Hitler didn't have.

Congress president Edgar Bronfman said that Iran's goal to acquire nuclear weapons was the most dangerous threat since the Holocaust since it's objectives are clear: To destroy Israel and control the Middle East.

The rise in hatred is growing and it is accelerating every day. Wake up my Jewish brethren there is a target on our backs and its getting bigger by the moment.