The return of anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism, never really dead in Europe, is rearing its ugly head with increasing intensity. And while JTA and the Jewish media have kept a constant watch, the international media appear to be taking note now, too. A Newsweek article this week  analyzes a recent Pew survey on sentiments across the continent, with this ominous introduction:

As Europe faces up to its old demons of financial breakdown and job losses, a wind from the past is blowing through the continent. The politics of moderate center-right and left-liberal democracy that took power after 1945 are giving way to a new old populism. The extravagant rhetoric of the demagogic left and right is gaining ground, and the most obvious manifestation is the return of anti-Semitism as an organizing ideology.

Meanwhile, there’s a big brouhaha brewing in Germany surrounding the issue of  "Islamophobia." The Center for Research on Anti-Semitism will present its research on the subject at a conference Monday (today) in  Berlin titled "Concepts of the Muslim Enemy — Concepts of the Jewish Enemy." Some are taking the center to task for trying to equate anti-Semitism and anti-Islam. Writers in both The Wall Street Journal and the Jerusalem Post address the issue.