News from the New Party

Kristallnacht 2.0

As of this writing, two Starbucks coffee shops in the East End of London have been attacked by Islamist thugs: one in Kensington during the anti-Israel demonstration last weekend, and one in Whitechapel around 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning.  The latter attack, which was one of a series of anti-semitic incidents in the area at the time, involved the manager of the shop being trapped in his office watching the attackers break into his premises on CCTV.

These incidents, save only for the CCTV, are reminiscent of 1930s Germany.  They are not unique in the past few days, and they are distinctly anti-semitic, not anti-Israel.  How can we tell?  Because Starbucks as an organisation has no connection with Israel, other than that its founder is Jewish.  Similarly Tesco has no Israeli connection but was founded by Jews - and a Tesco van in the East End has also been attacked, as has a Tesco store in Stepney.

Brett at Harry's Place asks the key questions:

So what is causing this? Who are the people hoping to incite Kristallnacht 2.0? Some have pointed their finger at George Galloway, with his call to “shut down Israel shops”. The Respect machine is now in overdrive, letting it be known that he was referring to a handful of small booths that operate in shopping centres, selling cosmetics.  We take him at his word. Of course, one of these “Israel Shops” was smashed up in Belfast earlier this week.

It's not just Galloway, however, that is the problem.  For too long now anti-semitism has been allowed to sneak under the radar as the one form of racism which is not beyond the pale.  In part this is because of fashionable leftist pseudo-liberal opinion with regard to the Israel conflict, and in part it is because of the general reluctance to tackle Islamist anti-semitism within the Muslim community.  The situation has, however, gone too far. 

We expect all perpetrators of anti-semitic hate crimes in this country to be pursued and brought to justice wherever they may be.  We further expect those who incite anti-Jewish sentiment to face legal sanction.  And most of all, we expect that the rise of anti-semitic hate crimes in this country should be exposed fully in the press and broadcast media.  Public opinion should not be permitted the luxury of turning a blind eye to this outrageous state of affairs.