The Inquirer has a newsflash, anti-semitism is on the rise in Europe:

Theodorakis, a 76-year-old leftist who became a national hero after he was imprisoned by the military dictatorship that ruled Greece from 1967-74, argued that he merely had been venting over what he considers the immoral policies of the current Israeli government. Plenty of Greeks - and plenty of other Europeans - agree with him. Sixty-one percent of Greek respondents to a recent poll cited Israel as a threat to world peace, joining a similar percentage of other European Union citizens.

In December 2001, the French ambassador to the United Kingdom called Israel "that sh--y little country." Last year, the Dutch wife of the president of the European Central Bank said Israel's conduct was worse than the Nazis, having previously blamed the plight of Palestinians on "the rich American Jewish lobby." In Greece last April, major newspapers ran a false story alleging that the Israeli military was selling organs ripped from dead Palestinians.

"Because it is not politically correct to say you hate Jews, you say you hate Israel," Israeli government adviser Raanan Gissin said recently.

The line between opposition to Israel's controversial tactics and anti-Semitism is difficult to pinpoint, and some in Israel have cautioned against bringing the charge of anti-Semitism too casually. Most people in Europe reject the notion that opposition to Israel is a cover for anti-Semitism.

But more than political rhetoric is at issue: Hate crimes against Jews in Europe are on the rise. Tel Aviv University's latest annual survey of anti-Semitism reported that the recorded number of violent attacks on Jews worldwide increased from 228 in 2001 to 311 in 2002, with most of them happening in Western Europe.

This is not just happening in Europe. American papers are just as guilty but are more subtle. Then there's this:

Arabs or Muslims have been responsible for most, though not all, of the attacks, according to news reports. That, in itself, is a sensitive issue in Europe, where governments are grappling with an influx of Arab immigrants whose numbers dwarf the Jewish populations that remain 60 years after the Holocaust.

London's Financial Times reported last week that the European Union's racism watchdog shelved a 112-page draft report on anti-Semitism that had concluded that radical Islamists and Arab Muslims were largely responsible for a rise in incidents during the period studied. The agency wasn't comfortable with that conclusion, dissident officials told the Times.

"Many observers have finally dared to discuss what has long been a dirty little secret - namely, that the threat of violence [from] millions of impoverished, ill-treated... and often unemployed Muslim men in Western Europe has, at the very least, induced governments to temper their reactions to anti-Semitism," U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden (D., Del.) said this month at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on European anti-Semitism.

The Muslims are ill-treated Senator Biden? I doubt it. They just hate Jews. Why European countries can allow such large influxes of Muslim immigrants is astounding. The Muslim culture will never assimilate to the existing culture and therefore will change that culture. But it's not just the countries with large Muslim populations:

Greece is an interesting case study of the nexus between rabid opposition to Israel and old-fashioned European anti-Semitism. Its socialist leaders have a long history of close ties to Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, and the Greek public is deeply mistrustful of the United States, in part because of U.S. support for the repressive junta that was deposed in 1974. A full 90 percent of Greeks opposed the war in Iraq, polls showed.

Greece is also an extremely homogenous country that only recently began allowing significant numbers of immigrants. About 97 percent of the native-born population is baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church, whose clerics have sometimes been accused of preaching anti-Semitism. There is little mention of the Holocaust or the fate of Greek Jews in the country's school textbooks, according to an analysis by a professor at the University of Athens.

More than 90 percent of Greek Jews - about 70,000 - were deported to death camps by the Nazis during World War II.


More than 90 percent of Greek Jews - about 70,000 - were deported to death camps by the Nazis during World War II.

And this:

In October, an internationally known Greek artist, Alexandros Psychoulis, began displaying a work featuring a Palestinian woman blowing herself up in a crowded Israeli supermarket.

In an interview, he professed to be mystified as to why Jewish activists had expressed revulsion over the piece.

"They've actually built this atmosphere without any real basis," he said.

Last month, though, Psychoulis had a decidedly harsher take in remarks to Ta Nea, Greece's largest daily newspaper.

"I personally feel that the experiment of Israel has failed," he was quoted as saying, "and I understand the desperation of a girl who carries out a suicide bombing having nothing to lose."

The "experiment" of awarding the Greeks the Olympics has also failed you idiot.

Update: The Guardian looks at anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.

(Via Glenn Reynolds)