Authorities across Europe are investigating incidents of anti-Semitism that increased in frequency when Israel began its military operation in Gaza.  It’s putting governments in between the desire to protect free speech and allow protests of Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge”, and knuckleheads who use the protests as cover for their moronic anti-Semitic agendas.

In Germany, newspapers took note of the chants of anti-Semitic slogans during protests by Middle Eastern emigres.  They responded with headlines such as “Stop the Hate!” and “Never Again Hatred Towards Jews!”

British police have logged more than 100 anti-Semitic hate crimes since the Gaza conflict began.  That includes four youths who attacked a Rabbi in Gateshead, a town in the northeast with a large Hassidic community.  The animosity is largely confined to areas with large numbers of immigrants from the Middle East. 

“We have had at least double the number of incidents that we would expect,” said Mark Gardner of the Jewish Community Security Trust, “but the situation is not out of hand – as is the case in France.”

On Saturday, Police in Toulouse, France arrested a man for throwing two firebombs at a building that contains a Synagogue, a radio station, and a library.  In Paris, several men ambushed a member of the local Jewish Defense League, a far-right group with a history of vigilantism.  The French capital has also seen several street battles that grew out of unauthorized protests. 

Authorities in northern Europe seem to be focusing on the wrong end of the problem.  After Police in Norway wanted to temporarily close two Jewish communities for their own protection, the Jewish museum in Trondheim closed indefinitely, and the Jewish museum of Oslo is closed through today at the least. 

And in Copenhagen, Denmark, cops told people in a pro-Israel rally to go home out of concern for the safety of the participants.  None of these people or institutions had anything to do with the decisions of the Israeli government, but were forced to curtail their activities because knuckleheads can’t tell the difference.