This week’s SNN is up. My contribution may be heard next week—we were running long, and I took one for the team. But Tom Paine is back, interviewing Neo-Neocon, and there are tons of other good things to be heard, so go, listen, send the URL to your friends, and hit the tipjar if you can spare a dime.

Blogmatrix is all redesigned and funky, and SNN is no longer affiliated with the website it used to have on the logo, so the SNN logo is now a standalone, as it should be.

Reuters, one of the anti-Israel news agencies that has managed to stir up British anti-Semitism, is noticing that anti-Semitic attacks are up on the eve of Britain’s celebration of 350 years of Jewish history.

Say, did you know that last year, American Jews celebrated 350 years of Jewish history, too? Interesting. And while I’m sure we’re going to read that anti-Semitic attacks were up in America, too, we live in a country that actually, you know, does something about that. Unlike the Brits, who blame Israel for all Jewish problems. And Reuters seems to have noticed that it’s a long-term trend.

A surge in incidents during the latest Israeli/Hizbollah conflict added to a general rise in anti-Jewish feeling that has been evident since the turn of the century.

[...] That was the third highest recorded monthly figure and while there were few violent incidents, it included death threats, hate-mail and the daubing of graffiti, such as “kill all Jews” scrawled over the home of a Jewish doctor in London.

More seriously, a 12-year-old girl was beaten unconscious by seven youths on a London bus after being asked what her religion was.

“The basic trend is now that we are seeing about 75 percent more incidents than we were during the 1990s and that’s something that is really concerning,” Gardner told Reuters.

Imagine, if you will, a 12-year-old Muslim girl being beaten unconscious by a group of “youths.” Imagine the outcry. Now realize that this is the first you (and I) have heard of such an incident—a 12-year-old girl being beaten unconscious by a gang.

And by the way, no one did a thing. Not the bus driver, not the four other passengers.

Britain’s Jewish leaders have warned that since 2000 the number of attacks on their community has been steadily rising, coinciding with the renewed outbreak of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East.

In January, Britain’s Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said a “tsunami of anti-Semitism” was sweeping across Europe, and warned that Holocaust denial and hatred of the Jewish people was becoming increasingly evident on television and in books.

Gardner said global events always served as a trigger for racist attacks, but that there had been a growing anti-Israeli sentiment in Britain which often manifested itself as general anti-Semitism.

“Like any type of fanatic or extremist, certain things happen that cause them to come out of the woodwork and act,” he said.

Some commentators would also substitute the word “Zionist” for Jewish so as not to appear racist, he added, but “Jews end up getting attacked”.

“Over the last 20 or 30 years it has become increasingly trendy and politically correct to attack Israel,” he said.

“Anti-Semites don’t make these fancy distinctions between Zionists, Israelis and Jews.”

Counting down to the whines by British Muslims that nobody’s paying attention to the “Islamophobia” in Britain. Then stop and count the number of Jews arrested for planning terror attacks in Britain.

Britain really needs to straighten out her priorities. She’s going after the wrong group.

I just needed a new title.

Carnival of the Cats is at Watermark.

Haveil Havalim, the Carnival of the Jews is at Daled Amos.

You know, if you’ve never hosted a carnival, you cannot comprehend how much work it is. If you’re a conscientious host, you read every single entry and then write a snippet or a summary about it. That’s why I generally don’t do it anymore. It’s too much work. So hats off to the people who do it multiple times, like the two bloggers mentioned above. Go. Read. Fun stuff, serious stuff, but good stuff, for the most part.

Sad, sad news today: A stingray killed Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.

CAIRNS, Australia Sep 4, 2006 (AP)— Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and conservationist known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.

Irwin was at Batt Reef, off the remote coast of northeastern Queensland state, shooting a segment for a series called “Ocean’s Deadliest” when he swam too close to one of the animals, which have a poisonous bard on their tails, his friend and colleague John Stainton said.

“He came on top of the stingray and the stingray’s barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart,” said Stainton, who was on board Irwin’s boat at the time.

When I first saw his Croc Hunter show, I thought he was nuts. I thought he was needlessly endangering his life. Then I started watching, and realized no, he knew exactly what he was doing, and that he was never going to be killed by a croc.

I’m not big on caring about celebrities. As my father used to say, they never bought me a drink. But I feel saddened at this loss.

I feel especially sad for his family. Damn.

Deja vu. It’s like I only just wrote about the same topic yesterday. But here we go, in another country: Anti-Semitic incidents in Australia were at an all-time high in July, coinciding with the war with Hezbullah. Once again, somebody please explain to me how attacks on Jews in Australia are a legitimate response to Israeli policies, because I seem to still be missing the point.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents during the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in July were the highest since records began in 1945, according to Grahame Leonard, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

“At 141, it was 60 per cent higher than the previous record. Many of these incidents were on campus, and the big growth was in Victoria,” Mr Leonard said.

And it’s not just that they were at an all-time high. This wasn’t the angle of the article. The article was about how Jewish Australian students are now in fear on their campuses, being harassed by radical left-wing student groups.

RADICAL left-wing groups at Melbourne universities are exploiting tensions in the Middle East to promote anti-Semitism and recruit members, according to Jewish student groups.

“There’s a real feeling of threat,” said Deon Kamien, Victorian president of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students.

He said Jewish students for the first time felt targeted as Jews, rather than supporters of Israel. “When they walk past socialist stalls (on campus) they feel very uncomfortable, especially when called ‘a f—ing Jew’,” Mr Kamien said.

Try not to choke on the irony in this description:

In one, a Liberal was grabbed by the throat and threatened. In another, security staff had to separate Students Against War and Racism and Liberal Club members waving Israeli flags.

You see, they’re against war and racism, but not against a little anti-Semitic action here and there. Because anti-Semitism isn’t racism, you see—the Jews aren’t a race, they tell us. But then it’s not anti-religion, you see, because the Jews aren’t just a religion. It’s the Catch-22, or should it be the Catch-Twenty-Jew?

Every which way we turn, we’re screwed.

So how about all that Islamophobia the Muslim groups are whining about?

Monash University Islamic Society president Adhnan Wazil said Jewish students had been quiet and there had been no problems for Muslims.

Uh-huh.

And, it turns out, this article is only Part One. Stay tuned for Part Two—I’ve found an in-depth report on Australian anti-Semitism on college campuses.