Print'And Now... Europe's Kristallnacht'
That's the title of an article at the Gatestone Institute by Douglas Murray. It paints a disturbing picture of the rise of anti-Semitism on the Continent and in Great Britain, begging the question of whether these sporadic outbursts of violence directed against Jews might explode into something truly nasty and barbaric - a pogrom.
After describing several incidents that occurred at London protests - including one young Muslim holding up a sign that said "Hitler was right" - Murray takes us on a tour of protests across Europe:
All of this is mild compared to what has been going on across the English Channel in France. In suburbs and parts of central Paris the violence being perpetrated against the Jewish community culminated in the disturbing spectacle of Parisian Jews barricaded in a synagogue by a crowd of young North Africans seemingly intent on violence. When the police failed to turn up in any numbers, the Jews fought for themselves. These were not all "Jewish vigilantes" as some of the press disturbingly reported -- Jews in their 40s and 50s fighting their way through a mob.
Since then, the French authorities have banned -- as French authorities have the right to do -- some other planned "pro-Palestinian" protests. But the bans seem not to have worked. "Youths," as the media are prone to title the rioters, who mainly come from the suburbs of Paris and other cities, have taken to the streets, anyhow. There are videos of them smashing up pavements in order to get chunks of asphalt to hurl at police. A Paris suburb with a large Jewish -- not Israeli, just Jewish -- population has been a particular focus of protestors. In some video footage, protestors have been shown attacking police cars and assaulting public and private property. The French authorities are clearly trying to get a handle on the protests, but to a considerable extent, events have slipped from their control.
Similar scenes have been seen across the continent. In the Netherlands -- fresh from witnessing a pro-ISIS rally in Amsterdam -- there have been serious incidents at protests. There have been anti-Semitic chants, and the home of the Chief Rabbi in the Netherlands has been attacked twice in one week. In Austria, a soccer game involving an Israeli team had to be called off after Palestinian demonstrators broke onto the pitch. The stands had people waving anti-Israel banners and Turkish flags. But once they were on the pitch, the protestors assaulted the Israeli players, doing flying kicks at them and then further kicking and punching them. Some of the Israeli players fought back and the game was halted.
And what of Germany? The German government has perhaps done more to wipe out anti-Semitism than any government in Europe.
They will have to try harder:
Most disturbing of all, perhaps, have been events in Germany. During pro-Palestinian protests in Berlin and other German cities, there were chants of "Death to the Jews" and "Gas the Jews." The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, described some of the demonstrations as "an explosion of evil and violence-prone hatred of Jews. Never in our lives did we believe it possible that antisemitism of the nastiest and most primitive kind would be chanted on the streets of Germany."
This isn't some Zionist fantasy. This is real. And it's happening in our lifetime. The Telegraph has more:
Thousands of police are being deployed in cities across Europe with Berlin alone deploying 1,500 police officers in a response and authorities in Paris have sought to ban outright marches planned for this weekend.
The protests have triggered warnings that the spectre of anti-Semitism has returned to haunt Europe.
Protesters have attacked synagogues, smashed the windows of Jewish-owned business and torched others, in scenes disturbingly reminiscent of the 1938 Kristallnacht in France. The marchers have chanted “Jews to the gas chambers”, and Jewish people have been attacked on the streets of Berlin.
And what would an anti-Semetic campaign be without social media:
One Facebook page created in the last week, entitled Jeunes Revolutionnaires Francais, or Young French Revolutionaries, posted the names, photographs and addresses of 32 French Jews encouraging members to target them.
After the picture of one young man seen wearing a skullcap was put up, he was attacked in his home in the Paris suburbs on Thursday evening by a group of masked men with iron bars.
The group, which picked up 2,000 followers and more than 1,500 “likes”, was taken down on Friday night after it was reported to the social network.
It isn't just Muslims, or Neo Nazis who are carrying out these attacks. Nor are these protests simply "anti-Zionist" or anti-Israel demonstrations. Mentions of gas chambers, Hitler, and attacking anyone who "looks" Jewish are indications that Europe is once again caught in the grip of a virulent Jew hatred that transcends the Israel-Hamas War and stabs at the heart of European Jewry.
People of good will are once again sitting on the sidelines whille the sickness of anti-Semitism grows and spreads. Will history repeat itself?
It already is.
