Anti-Semitism in France...

Vandals Put Swatiska's on Graves in France:

PARIS - Vandals desecrated tombs at a Jewish cemetery in southern France, carving swastikas and other Nazi symbols into the headstones, officials said Tuesday.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin condemned the attack in Marseille as a "hateful manifestation of anti-Semitism."

Seven tombs at the Trois-Lucs cemetery were covered with graffiti or damaged by pelted rocks, said Alain Marc, an official at the regional prefecture.

French President Jacques Chirac promised a tough crackdown on anti-Semitism after an arson attack on a Jewish school outside Paris this month. There were no injuries, but the building was gutted.

In the last two years, France has suffered a wave of violence against Jewish schools, temples and cemeteries that coincided with new fighting in the Middle East. Many of the attacks have been blamed on young Muslims.

Robert Spencer the author of Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threathens America and the West, explains in his book the rise of anti-Semitism, who the culprits are and the attitude of the French authorities in dealing with anti-Semitism sentiments.

Here Robert Spencers quotes Omer Taspinar a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution:

The perpetrators of anti-Semitic incidents in France are not right-wing extremists protecting the 'French race' from Jewish contamination: The four hundred or so anti-Semitic incidents documented in the country during 2001 have mostly been attributed to Muslim youth of North African origin.

Why is the French Government ignoring the increasing rise of anti-Semistism? Why is there a pretense that the main victims of hate crimes in France are Muslims, when actually the main victims of hate crimes in France are Jews?

Despite the popular perception in France that Muslims are the most frequent victims of racism, the most common victims of racist attacks in that country have not been Muslims, but Jews. The National Consultative Committee on Human Rights discovered that in 2002, "there had been a sixfold increase over 2001 in acts of violence against Jewish property and persons. Of 313 acts of racist violence documented in 2002, 193 were anti-Semitic." The popular perception that Muslims are the primary victims of racist attacks is, quite simply, wrong.

Why is the International community and the French public being deluded into thinking that the main victims of racial slurs and attacks in France are the Muslims, when in reality the main victims are Jews? Robert Spencer explains the attitude of the French authorities:

French authorities have been reluctant to antagonize their growing and restive Muslim minority. The multiculturalism that has utterly taken over the Western intelligentsia has made it difficult for authorities to take action against Muslim jihadist doctrines even when those doctrines threaten the stability of the secular society. According to Michel Zaoui of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), "The previous leftist government didn't do anything to discourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propostions by militant Islamic preachers, in part because their philosophy was to show sympathy to the 'damned' and poor. Now, the rightist government would like to act but is afraid of antagonizing Muslims."

So it seems the French government is afraid to crack the problem, but what will happen in the near future when the Muslim population grows ito be an ever larger share of the total population. In a few decades, Muslims will be the majority in France. According to Spencer:

The Muslim population of Europe doubled between 1989 and 1998, and if population trends continue, Holland could have a Muslim majority by 2040 or earlier. A Muslim France could emerge by the same year.

It appears that the paralysis against acting against Muslim anti-Semitism in France is based on fear, and that fear is going to develop into terror and panic against offending the Muslims as the demographic trends continue. That means that the anti-Semitism in France is going to get worse, not better, as the demographic trends, and the fear, both progress.

The following articles are worth reading as well:

Jerusalem Post: Europe's demonizing Israel not spontaneous

BBC: Anti-Semitism and Europe

Israel's prime minister says anti-Semitism is rising in Europe, citing attacks on Jews and Jewish interests. His remarks followed an EU poll which showed many believe Israel is the greatest threat to world peace.
Is anti-Semitism really increasing? Is hostility towards Israeli policy in the Middle East becoming anti-Jewish? BBC News Online asked 12 experts on Jewish affairs from Europe and Israel to reflect on the charge.

Chicago Boyz: The Boomerang Effect

The Jew is once again the symbol of detested capitalism, and by a shameful distortion of history, of "imperialism". The liberal becomes the bearer of evil. The Jewish, or pro-Jewish liberal becomes the target of the ultimate hatred. The anti-globalization movement gets closer to islamists, and the latter allow themselves to openly attack "Jewish thinkers" guided by their "race". The "anti-racists" fight for the right to wear a veil, and fascist-leaning newspapers approve. To publish some books becomes difficult : publishers are scared.

There are no professional interdictions yet, but that will probably come. I am currently the object of several campaigns attempting to cut off my means of income and have me thrown out of France. Is it because I do not do my work well? No, it's because I am a libertarian, because I defend Israel, because I am outraged by terrorism, because I love the United States, and especially because I have a critical view of Islam. It would be so much easier if I were a leftist, fascist, anti-semitic, anti-american, convert to Islam. Then I would be left alone.

Washington Post: For Jews in France, a 'Kind of Intifada'

The file grows almost daily: 309 incidents in the past 15 months in the Paris region, according to Jewish council officials, and more than 550 since the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, broke out in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in September 2000. The National Consultative Committee on Human Rights, a government-funded body, reported a sixfold increase in acts of violence against Jewish people and property in France from 2001 to 2002.

Many incidents involve verbal assaults -- a taxi driver making an anti-Jewish remark to a passenger, a student harassed at school -- but nearly half involve violent acts of some kind. Most of the perpetrators are not the ultra-rightists and neo-Nazis who once were responsible for anti-Semitic acts, but young North African Arabs of the banlieues, the distant blue-collar suburbs where Muslims and Jews live and work in close proximity. Many of the victims are Sephardic Jews who themselves originally came from North Africa.

"We have our own kind of intifada here," says Zenouda, a Jew who immigrated here from Algeria. "But instead of attacking Israelis, they're attacking the Jews of France."