"• In May, a Jewish woman with a baby was attacked at a Paris bus station by a man who shouted 'Dirty Jewess' at her.
• In March, a Jewish teacher leaving a kosher restaurant in Paris had his nose broken by a group of assailants who also drew a swastika on his chest.
• One week earlier in March, an Israeli man was attacked with a stun gun outside a Paris synagogue.
• A week before that in March, a 28-year-old Jewish man was beaten on the Paris metro to chants of 'Jew, we are going to lay into you, you have no country.'
In January, anti-government demonstrators shouted 'Jew, France is Not Yours' as they marched through the streets of Paris."
Yesterday, a Washington Post article entitled "A ‘new anti-Semitism’ rising in France" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/a-new-anti-semitism-rising-in-france/2014/06/19/1da8ae34-1a71-4f50-893a-9842af51e3ce_story.html?hpid=z1) by Anthony Faiola, described the popularity of the anti-Semitic French comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, who makes light of the Holocaust and created an inverted Nazi salute (the "quenelle") which has taken hold throughout Europe. The article continues:
"In Western Europe, no nation has seen the climate for Jews deteriorate more than France.
. . . .
This month, authorities arrested Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year-old French national, and charged him with the May killings of four people inside a Jewish museum in Brussels. The attack was the deadliest act of anti-Semitism in Western Europe since a gunman killed seven people, including three children at a Jewish day school, in Toulouse in 2012. Nemmouche allegedly launched his attack after a tour of duty with rebels in Syria, prompting fears of additional violence to come as more of the hundreds of French nationals fighting there make their way home.
In a country that is home to the largest Jewish community in Europe, the first three months of the year saw reported acts of anti-Semitic violence in France skyrocket to 140 incidents, a 40 percent increase from the same period last year.
. . . .
A recent global survey by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League suggested that France now has the highest percentage in Western Europe — 37 percent — of people openly harboring anti-Semitic views. That compares with 8 percent in Britain, 20 percent in Italy and 27 percent in Germany."
It should come as no surprise that 75 percent of French Jews are considering emigration (see: http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Poll-Three-out-of-four-French-Jews-mull-leaving-France-352779)
Worrisome? Absolutely, but it obviously doesn't trouble America's Presbyterian Church, which voted on Friday to divest from three US companies, Caterpillar, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard, which, according to the Presbyterian Church, profit from the sale of equipment used in the occupation of Palestinian territory. As reported in a Times of Israel article entitled "Presbyterian Church votes in favor of divestment" (http://www.timesofisrael.com/presbyterian-church-votes-in-favor-of-divesting-from-israel/) by Rebecca Shimoni Stoil:
"[Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism] referenced the Church’s sponsorship and dissemination of 'Zionism Unsettled,' a booklet condemned by a number of Jewish groups and complimented by former Klansman David Duke for its use of the term 'Jewish supremacism' to describe Zionist thought."
Remarkable how the Presbyterian Church should be so preoccupied with the West Bank at a time when more than 100,000 civilians have been murdered and millions more have been forced to flee their homes in neighboring Syria.
A ballooning number of "honor killings" perpetrated against women in Gaza and the West Bank (see: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/03/upsurge-palestinian-honour-killings-gaza-201432372831899701.html)? The Presbyterian Church doesn't give a damn.
The murder and persecution of gays in Gaza and the West Bank (see: http://www.timesofisrael.com/gay-palestinian-to-hcj-boot-me-and-theyll-kill-me/)? Again, of no concern to the Presbyterian Church.
Even more remarkable, the Presbyterian Church apparently does not care about intimidation and harassment of Christians in Gaza and the West Bank (see: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2838/palestinians-christians and http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/26/us-palestinians-christians-conversion-idUSBRE86P0J420120726 and http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/gaza-christians-safety.html#).
After all, hatred of the Jews must always come first.
