Surge in anti-Semitism, but also in Aliyah -by David Parsons In late May, a young man showed up one afternoon outside the Jewish Museum in Brussels, located on a quiet street in the heart of the Belgian capital. Wearing a baseball cap and a Go-Pro camera mounted on his chest, he proceeded to take out a .38 revolver and a Kalashnikov rifle from a satchel and began firing on people at the museum entrance. Within seconds, he had gunned down an Israeli couple, a French woman and a museum worker, and then fled the scene. A week later, the trail led police to Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year old French-Algerian criminal who had been released from jail in Paris in 2012, went to Syria to join the ranks of the Islamic State terror militia, and recently returned to France thirsting to shed Jewish blood. As in the Toulouse shooting two years ago, the shooter had hoped to film his exploits to boost recruiting. Now awaiting trial back in Brussels, he is believed to be the first European jihadist to volunteer in the Syrian war who has returned to kill in Europe. But with ISIS now rampaging across Iraq and slaughtering everyone in its path, European leaders are worried there will be many more like him. Officials in Britain, for instance, are concerned that twice as many British Muslims have opted to join ISIS in Iraq and Syria than are currently serving in the British army. Add to this growing threat the dramatic surge in anti-Semitic incidents across Europe in the wake of Israels efforts to end Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza over recent months and we are looking at a very volatile mix. The Anti-Defamation League just released a study which found a sudden spike in the number of anti-Semitic incidents worldwide and particularly in Europe since the beginning of the IDFs Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in early July. This included physical assaults on Jews, threats and intimidation, damage to Jewish synagogues, homes and businesses, public hate speech, declarations invoking blood libels and Nazi atrocities, and anti-Semitic political cartoons. The majority of the incidents occurred throughout Europe, but others were reported in South Africa, Australia, Turkey, Canada, Morocco and several Latin American countries. Though many involved said they were only expressing anger at Israel, in most incidents this quickly lapsed into hatred of Jews in general. Protesters often chanted death to the Jews and held up signs comparing Zionism to Nazism. In Paris, several synagogues have come under siege by violent mobs. Near the Peace Palace in The Hague, Muslim crowds have repeatedly held demonstrations featuring the black flags of ISIS and calls for Jews to remember Khybar - a reference to massacre of Jews in the Arabian town with Muhammads assent. In Frankfurt, a rabbi received a phone call threatening to kill 30 of the citys Jews. Elsewhere, a rabbi was assaulted in Casablanca in retribution for the Gaza campaign, breaking his nose and ribs. In far-off Australia, hooligans jumped on a bus filled with Jewish students and threatened them harm. Meanwhile, both Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined Hollywood stars in accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Given this decrepit state of affairs, it is no wonder that aliyah to Israel is up over recent months, including a rise of 162% from Western Europe. This includes a 250% increase from France compared to last year. In fact, as many as 5,000 French Jews - a full one percent of the community - are expected to move to Israel this year alone. That is an unprecedented figure for a Western country. Many are being pushed out by the surge in anti-Semitism, while also being lured by the prospects of finding better jobs in Israel. Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky even claimed that Israel has taken in more Jewish immigrants than Hamas rockets over recent months. Many of these newcomers are fleeing from Ukraine, where the civil war against Russian separatists in the east of the country has intensified and aliyah to Israel has doubled so far this year. Over recent months, this conflict has turned into brutal urban warfare between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian forces, emptying entire cities of their populations. This includes thousands of Jews now living in refugee camps in western Ukraine who have decided there is no reason to go back to their homes and some will now make the move to Israel. Yet many elderly Jews remain shut up in their homes in eastern Ukraine. There is no power or running water in many towns, the trains have stopped operating, shooting and mortar fire can be heard all around, and competing militias have set up roadblocks everywhere and demand bribes for safe passage. Nonetheless, efforts are underway to send in rescue teams to bring many isolated and internally displaced Jews out to safety. The Jewish Agency has asked the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem to help fund these rescue efforts, which will eventually lead to their aliyah to Israel. They will need to be brought out to safety while immigration authorities are expediting their paperwork. The ICEJ has already handed over enough funds to assist several hundred Jews awaiting flights to Israel. We also have committed to help fund this most urgent humanitarian mission to rescue trapped Jews still in eastern Ukraine, but we need your gifts to make it happen. Meantime, the next set of ICEJ-sponsored aliyah flights for the Bnei Menashe community in northeast India is expected in November. This, too, is a great humanitarian effort to bring home an ancient Israelite tribe that has been waiting 2,700 years to return to the land of their forefathers. So we urge you to give generously to the aliyah efforts of the ICEJ. Donate today at icej.org/aliyah.
Posted on: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 10:22:56 +0000
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