Viral Anti-Semitism

"Jews have been associated, however unfairly, with money and wealth for so long."
Richard Goldstein, director of operations, Institute for Jewish Policy Research, London

"The thing about social media is that it cannot be reined in. Everyone pushes out their propaganda and it's quite scary. Left unchecked, it will generate more hatred and possibly violence."
Salman Farsi, communications officer, East London Mosque/London Muslim Centre

"I think a lot of the anti-Semitic reaction comes from the media. It causes enraged people to become more enraged. It can come from the mainstream media or, increasingly, from self-selected media like the social-media sites."
Mark Gardner, director of communications, Community Service Trust

The Community Service Trust, a British charity, monitors anti-Semitic "incidents" in Britain while stating it takes care to distinguish between anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incidents. Mr. Gardner notes that the numbers of anti-Semitic incidents have a habit of spiking considerably whenever the Israel-Gaza conflicts erupt, since 2006 when Israel first entered Gaza to try to halt incessant rocket attacks.

According to the data collected by the Community Service Trust, peak monthly anti-Semitic incidents in Britain occurred in January, 2009, numbering 289, reflecting Israel's ground invasion and bombardment of Gaza attempting to put a halt to the rocket launches from Gaza and the delivery of arms into the Strip. And then, the second-highest figure resulted this July.

Between July 1 and July 29, 130 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded. If these incidents are inspired by Israel's actions in attempting to protect itself and its population from harm visited upon it by Hamas in Gaza, how to distinguish between anti-Semitic and anti-Israel events, since they appear to be one and the same?

It is Mr. Goldstein's opinion that the rise of extreme right-wing parties across Europe has resulted in frightening Jews. "It's extraordinary, what's happening", he noted, of the rise of anti-immigrant, openly anti-Semitic political parties. From Marine Le Pen's Front National first-place election results in the EU May elections to the UK Independent Party, anti-immigrant and right-wing placing first in Britain. In Greece, Golden Dawn's neo-Nazi sympathies won it 8% of the vote enabling them to put three members in the European parliament.

And then there's Hungary where its Jobbik party which placed second in the European election has its open promotion of anti-Semitism where the party's deputy leader called for a national "tally" of Jews in 2012. Last year, the European Union's Agency for Fundamental Rights published its own extensive report on Jewish perceptions and experiences of anti-Semitism, based on surveys with about six thousand respondents in nine European countries.

Two thirds of Europe's Jews think of anti-Semitism as a problem, with over three-quarters convinced to "believe the situation has become more acute and that anti-Semitism has increased in the country where they live over the past five years". That increase is directly related to the migration to countries where Jews have lived for hundreds of years as citizens, of large populations of Muslims seeking refuge from the conflicts in their countries of origin and bringing with them attitudes harmful to Jews.

In central London, pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel rallies have been rife since the Israel-Gaza war broke out in the second week of July. Though some rallies have been peaceful, others have not been. At one such rally a placard declaring "Hitler you were right!", featured. At another, protesters shouted at a Jewish woman "Burn in hell". France, the country home to Europe's largest established Jewish and Muslim populations, whose proportionality is distorted at ten times more Muslims than Jews, violence has become a commonplace occurrence.

Jewish Daily Forward -- riots in Paris as pro-Palestinians decry Israel and Jewish 'crimes' against Gaza

Eight synagogues have been attacked. A Paris protest saw Jewish shops burned, and demonstrators chanting "Death to Jews". The 500,000 French Jews are pitted against 5-million hyphenated-French Muslims. In certain parts of France the government has banned protests with Prime Minister Manuel Valls warning of a "new form of anti-Semitism", taking hold of the country.

The former Russian refusnik and former Israeli politician Natan Sharansky, now chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel has warned "we are seeing the beginning of the end of Jewish history in Europe", in view of the thousands of Jews leaving their homeland of France for Israel as a result of anti-Semitism. The number is rising of recorded incidents of anti-Semitism, from swastikas painted on synagogues to violent attacks on Jewish shops and institutions.

Palestinian incitement and the proliferation of propaganda and helpfulness of the Western media in publishing the public relations agenda of Hamas with the use of photographs of dead and dying Palestinian children have aroused rage to the point of accusing Jews of racist genocidal wars against innocent Palestinians. It is theorized as well that an influx of Muslim immigrants complete with their history of anti-Semitism flooding Europe plays a seminal role.