On the one hand, it is unsurprising that Europe has become a swamp of anti-Jewish hostility. It is, after all, Europe. Anti-Jewish hostility has been its metier for centuries. (Yes, the locus of much anti-Jewish activity today is within Europe's large Muslim-immigrant population; but the young men who threaten their Jewish neighbors draw on the language and traditions of European anti-Semitism as much as they do on Muslim modes of anti-Semitic thought.)
On the other hand, the intensity, and velocity, of anti-Jewish invective — and actual anti-Jewish thuggery — has surprised even Euro-cynics such as myself. "Jews to the gas," a chant heard at rallies in Germany, still has the capacity to shock. So do images of besieged synagogues and looted stores. And testimony from harassed rabbis and frightened Jewish children.
But I find myself most bothered by what seems to have been, on the surface, a relatively minor incident. The episode took place last weekend at a Sainsbury's supermarket in central London. Protesters assembled outside the store to call for a boycott of Israeli-made goods. Quickly the manager ordered employees to empty the kosher food section. One account suggests that a staff member, when asked about the empty shelves, said "We support Free Gaza." Other reports suggest that the manager believed that demonstrators might invade the store and trash it. (There is precedent to justify his worry.)
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