British anti-Semitic attacks rose in July to unprecedented levels of hatred.

BRITISH Jews are facing a wave of anti-Semitic attacks prompted by Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Synagogues have been daubed with graffiti, Jewish leaders have had hate-mail and ordinary people have been subjected to insults and vandalism.

On Thursday an all-party parliamentary inquiry will state that anti-Semitic violence has become endemic in Britain, both on the streets and university campuses. The report will call for urgent action from the Government, the police and educational establishments.

Mark Gardner, of the Community Security Trust, said: “In July, when the conflict in Lebanon began, we received reports of 92 incidents, which was the third-worst month since records began in 1984.” In 2000 the monthly average was between 10 and 30 incidents.

Gee, let’s stop to wonder why. Hm. Think. Oh, that’s right. The anti-Israel British press would be a reason. General British anti-Semitism would be another. You want to see an example of the average Brit’s anti-Semitism, go take a peek at any post on Harry’s Place that mentions Israel. The haters are always out in force there, replete with “We’re not anti-Semitic, we’re just anti-Zionist” refrains.

The former minister Denis MacShane, who chaired the parliamentary inquiry, said: “These figures confirm the evidence given to us that anti-Semitic attacks are a very real problem.”

Gee. Ya think?

The July incidents “were more dispersed than usual”, Mr Gardner said. “It is usually a small number responsible for a large number of attacks, but these were very widespread across the country and included graffiti attacks on synagogues in Edinburgh and Glasgow.”

The attackers, when visible, are from across society, he said. “When it’s verbal abuse, it’s just ordinary people in the street, from middle-class women to working-class men. All colours and backgrounds. We hardly ever see incidents involving the classic neo-Nazi skinhead. Muslims are over-represented.”

Gee, that’s a shock. Well, no, not really.

In hate-mail to senior Jewish figures, ordinary Jewish people were being blamed for the deaths of Lebanese civilians. “There are also references to the Holocaust, saying that Hitler should have wiped out the Jews.”

Mr Gardner said that the rise in attacks reflected increased hostility to Israel and Jews in the media and across society: “The number of anti-Semitic attacks reflects the mood music around Jews and Israel.”

Yes, and we’ve been saying that for years. And it’s gotten worse, because the media are either willing stooges or actively abetting the demonization of Israel. And the portrayal of the Israel in the media allows some assholes to justify—in their warped little minds—an attack like this:

Ms Cohen, 34, said: “They asked if it was a Jewish restaurant. They said they were going to kill me and called me a ‘dirty Jew’, a ‘stinking Jew’. One of them had a knife. A colleague came out. They started punching him and throwing chairs.”

Funny, isn’t it, how when the words “Islamic terrorists” are used, the world screams in protest that you are collectively punishing all Muslims for the actions of a few, but when Jews in Britain are attacked because of something going on in Israel, the world blames them for supporting Israel’s actions. It’s Israeli Double Standard Time, of course, applied to Jews.

Jon Benjamin, of the Board of Deputies, said: “The problem is the spin that Israel is an irredeemably evil regime, and we are concerned that it may become common currency to connect British Jews with this.”

It already is common currency, and has always been. Muslims have jumped on the “Christ-killer” bandwagon, finding it another way to vilify Israel (but it’s not anti-Semitism, it’s anti-Zionism, remember that). And may I once again make a quick a shout-out to Mel Gibson, anti-Semite whether drunk or sober.)

And just for kicks and giggles, let’s look at al-Guardian’s take on this issue.

Critics of Israel ‘fuelling hatred of British Jews’
A group of prominent MPs, alarmed at the rise of anti-semitism in Britain, will accuse some left-wing activists and Muslim extremists this week of using criticism of Israel as ‘a pretext’ for spreading hatred against British Jews.

The charge is made in a hard-hitting report - by MPs from all three major political parties - which will be unveiled at a Downing Street meeting with Tony Blair on Thursday.

Notice how the spin in the article is not that anti-Semitic attacks are up sharply in Britain. The spin is that the report is going to blame “some left-wing activists and Muslim extremists” for them. The Guardian rushes to defend the academics:

Pro-boycott activists have angrily rejected allegations of anti-semitism and accused their critics of using the charge to ward off political criticism of Israel.

Yes, and that’s a familiar refrain.

In the town of Billings, Montana, in 1993, neo-Nazis threw a cinder block through the window of a Jewish home that had a menorah stenciled on it. The police chief advised the family to take down any religious signs relating to Judaism. Tammie Schnitzer and her neighbors decided instead to confront the haters, and menorahs sprang up all over town—in Christian, atheist, and Jewish households. It didn’t stop the hatred completely—but the message was sent.

I don’t believe you will see any such action in Britain. I think you will see a revilement of the report, even though it was performed by a non-partisan inquiry commission. I think you will see editorials insisting that the reasons for the anti-Semitic attacks are Israel’s policies, and if only Israel would stop oppressing Muslims, she would be loved the world over. Or you will see utter denial that there is a problem with anti-Semitism in Britain, or perhaps a mixture of excuses.

One thing is sure. 350 years after Britain let Jews return to England, I’m still wondering about those Jews: “What the hell were they thinking?”

Color me ecstatic that my great-grandfather left Scotland for America in 1914. Thanks, Rabbi Mendelson. You died before I was born, but you left me a legacy of freedom to pursue my religion—something that is not guaranteed, apparently, in the U.K.

There is a lot of talk about asymmetric warfare lately. How (if at all) could a regular army win a war against a guerilla movement, what are the pitfalls, respective strengths and weaknesses of each side. Less attention is given to the asymmetric treatment of the prisoners of the same warfare.

The headline in the Time Online Hezbollah wants to swap soldiers for child killer caught my attention briefly. The subject is being bandied for some time already, and the waters are murky. One thing for sure: the statement in the article “Qantar’s role in the attack on the coastal town of Nahariya 27 years ago would make this an especially bitter pill for Israelis to swallow.” is shared by all Israelis. The article reminds also what Samir Qantar is and what is his crime: “Danny Haran, 28, was shot at close range in front of his terrified four-year-old daughter Einat, whose head was then smashed with a rifle butt.”

I have decided to compare the fate of this murderer with the fate of Ron Arad - the navigator and weapons system officer of IAF captured by Lebanese Shi’ite militia Amal in 1986.

Samir Qantar is alive and healthy. Nothing is known about Ron Arad since (approximately) 1987.

Samir Qantar is jailed in Israeli jail in known location. Ron Arad’s location is unknown.

Samir Qantar is being visited, even by political “luminaries” like MK Dehamshe (who decided to present the murderer as an innocent lamb being incarcerated by Zionists). Who vistied Ron Arad (or the Israeli soldiers kidnapped lately) ever?

Samir Qantar is receiving medical assistance and food like any other prisoner. Nothing is known regarding Ron Arad in this aspect, but the conditions “enjoyed” by people kidnapped by various Muslim militias are well known.

To top this comparison: looking at the site of the Lebanese saint, I have discovered that he is actually a successful graduate student of “one of the Tel Aviv colleges” in sociology. The slime, you see, “always thought of education to be one of the most powerful tools in war” and “After a lot of efforts and a whole lot of years, finally Samir won his education battle and was registered in one of the colleges in Tel Aviv in 1992.“… Interesting to know what kind of degrees are on offer to Israeli and Western kidnapped soldiers and citizens?

Yes, we are paying a stiff price of being a democracy and of adherence to the Western code of conduct with our prisoners. I know. But sometimes I wonder…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

Well, it was taking advantage of the weather, and also because I was going to do it tomorrow, but I changed my plans from doing, well, nothing to doing something that involves driving and meeting people.

So I made chicken soup tonight, instead of Sunday, as I’d originally planned for the weekend. There’s something about Sunday night that makes me want to cook. Oh, right. It’s that “Cook something large so you’ll have leftovers for lunch” thing.

I went shopping specifically for soup ingredients and milk, the only things I really needed. First store had no parsnips and no dill. I did not buy milk there, because my type of milk is a dollar cheaper at Kroger’s than it is at Ukrops. So, off to Kroger’s, which had parsnips, dill, and acidopholus milk. Oh, and half-price Fudgesicles, so total SCORE! (as Sarah and I like to say when we get a major deal at a supermarket).

Home, to cook the chicken and cut the vegetables and carmelize the onions (I like them much better that way than just put into the soup raw, although they do look like little worms when they’re done) and make the matzo balls. This time, I made an extra bunch of carrots to put in the soup when the matzo balls went in. I think I like it much better that way.

All in all, a delicious dinner, and enough left over for five more helpings of soup. I should have added water when I cooked the matzo balls, though. There were enough chicken and carrots left to make another bowl of soup. I just split them up among the five existing, to make extra-hearty soup. Yum. Can’t wait to have these for lunch at the new job. Or even dinner, if I’m too tired to cook one night.

You know, my mother only made soup once a year, for Passover. And she’d only really make the broth for matzo ball soup, with maybe a few carrot pieces added. I much prefer actually having chicken in my chicken soup. I don’t care much for appetizers. They tend to ruin my appetite for the meal. It’s funny, though, how my mother’s cooking and my cooking are so vastly different. She never cared much for cooking anyway, so I wound up doing most of it once I hit my teens. My father never cooked much, either, so when I lived with him, I did most of the cooking, too. The only time I got a break was when I had dinner with my brothers, both of whom can cook just fine.

It smelled a lot like Pesach here tonight. Still does, actually. And my soup is chilling in the fridge, while I try to decide whether to freeze it today or tomorrow. Probably tomorrow. I’m quite tired. Podcast is finished and sent off, so I’m off to bed.