REPORT: ATTACKS ON JEWS DOWN, ANTI-SEMITISM UP

[DonViejo]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Violent attacks against Jews worldwide dropped in 2013, but anti-Semitism is becoming more widespread in Europe amid a rise in popularity of extremist parties, according to a report released Sunday.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University recorded 554 violent anti-Semitic acts in 2013, including attacks on people and vandalism against synagogues, cemeteries and other Jewish institutions.

The figures showed a 19 percent drop compared to 2012, when a deadly shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, sparked a series of copycat attacks.

Despite the decline, the number of attacks was similar to that recorded in 2011 and over the last 10 years - a much higher average than the 150-200 cases that occurred between 1994 and 2004.

-snip-

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_ANTI_SEMITISM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[LuvNewcastle]

1. There seems to be a constant that whenever times are tough, the Jews

and certain other minorities (depending upon the country) get blamed for all the problems. In the U.S., blacks tend to be blamed as well as Jews.

I don't know so much about the demographics of other countries, so I'll just talk about the U.S. I think that black people make up about 12% of the population and Jews make up about 3% of the population here. I'm not sure what the percentage is of GLBT people. Isn't it funny that such small percentages of people get blamed for all the problems? Why aren't the people at the top blamed for the problems instead of those least able to affect the economy?

I know that hatred is irrational, but in this case, it's absurdly irrational. We assign so much power to such small, and in the case of the Jews, tiny portions of the population.

I think that might be changing, at least in America, to some degree. I don't know what the hell is going on in Europe. I think that this time around, people are beginning to lay the blame squarely on the people who have the power, and I suspect it's making them squirm. Whatever we do, the pressure should not let up on those responsible here in our country.

For once, we're doing things right here in America. Like I said, some of the Europeans, Africans, and Asians will continue to blame the Jews or the gays or whoever while everything crumbles around them. We have the chance to really make lasting changes here in the U.S. Let's not lose sight of that.

[okaawhatever]

2. The secondary issue with bigotry is that the real problems don't get fixed. When you're focused

on the wrong problem, you aren't addressing the genuine cause of the problem. The issue with unemployment right now isn't a racial group, religious group or sexual orientation group taking jobs from someone else. All the time and energy wasted on blaming those groups is energy taken away from finding a solution. Can you imagine where this country would be right now if the tea partiers and Democrats combined were fighting the real cause of high unemployment?

[LuvNewcastle]

4. It is so much wasted energy.

But I guess that as long as the people causing the problems have media putting erroneous ideas into people's heads deflecting the blame from themselves, it's something we'll have to continue to contend with. I suppose the only thing that those of us who know the truth can do is to educate those willing to listen.

Right now we have the internet, which seems to be our most useful tool for educating and organizing, but it's existence is in jeopardy, and there is far more crap on the internet than useful information. What will we do when the internet is no longer a viable source for us? I really think things will get that bad, and we have to consider that eventuality.

[awoke_in_2003]

3. The people at the top never get blamed

because they always control the propaganda machine. Eight corporations control almost all of our media.

[LuvNewcastle]

5. Does it seem to you that people are finally catching on now, at least

in the U.S.? I feel it in my gut, for what that's worth. That's why I think the blame game isn't catching on as much here as it is in other countries. Are people finally waking up?

[awoke_in_2003]

6. I don't see it

I live in Texas, and Fox News is watched by most down here.

[hughee99]

9. I think most of the problems in the US aren't because of the 12% or the 3%,

it's the 1% behind most of them.

[RedCloud]

7. And what about Ukraine in this, our pseudo-ally?

Some Ukrainians I met want a return to Hitler's days even though he murdered 56,000,000 people in the USSR, Ukraine included.

[pampango]

8. "Some Ukrainians ... want a return to Hitler's days." Some Americans want that, too.

Some people in a country wanting something fascist does not make it official policy.

Russia's propaganda war is a danger for Ukraine's Jews

Despite what Putin says about antisemitism in the new Kiev government, Ukraine's Jews are committed to independence

In the information war no one is hurt more than the Jews, since mobilising the global memory of the Holocaust has real costs for actual people. From the very beginning of the revolution, they were an object of Russian propaganda. The current Ukrainian government, we were told, was composed of antisemites, fascists, and Nazis. Russian intervention was required, went the argument, to rescue the Jews of Ukraine.

This version was peddled to the west, where it had some effect, but interestingly it failed entirely in Ukraine itself. Putin seems to have believed that Jewish people in Ukraine would identify with Russia, especially in times of threat. This was one of his many mistakes.

Ukrainian Jews, especially those from the major communities of Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk, made clear to me that they had no desire to be protected by Russia. Jews in Ukraine understand Russia far better than anyone in the west Jewish or otherwise.

When presidential elections take place next month, it is unlikely many Jews will vote for the Jewish candidate. The commitment of the vast majority of Ukrainian Jews to Ukrainian independence is a matter of civic, rather than ethnic, identification. Reducing Jews to their ethnicity is the first step towards making them a collective symbol in a propaganda story, in a situation where those who use the most violence get to tell the story first. Whichever side they are taking, Jews in Ukraine defy every day our reflexive assumption that Jewish minorities in eastern Europe are nothing more than tomorrow's headlines, the future victims of some greater power.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/27/russia-propaganda-war-danger-for-ukraine-jews