Anti-Semitism roundup

> There's a paper here (via) exploring the extent of the correlation between views hostile to Israel and anti-Semitism. I should say that I don't have the expertise I would need to be able to assess the authors' methods or conclusions [pdf]:

[B]ased on a survey of 500 citizens in each of 10 European countries, the authors ask whether those individuals with extreme anti-Israel views are more likely to be anti-Semitic. Even after controlling for numerous potentially confounding factors, they find that anti-Israel sentiment consistently predicts the probability that an individual is anti-Semitic, with the likelihood of measured anti-Semitism increasing with the extent of anti-Israel sentiment observed.

> From an email I received in response to this post:

[F]or some people it seems, criticism of Israel is not really anti-Semitism, but anti-Semitism is really criticism of Israel.

> Apropos the same post, see this from article 22 of the Hamas charter:

There was no war that broke out anywhere without their fingerprints on it...

> Nick Cohen in yesterday's London Evening Standard:

I can't help but feel sorry for Mel Gibson. If only he had joined the Muslim Brotherhood or Hezbollah rather than an ultra-reactionary Catholic sect, his views on a world Jewish conspiracy would have done him no harm. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah declared that it if Jews 'all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide,' yet Channel 4 News bends over backwards to make excuses for him. Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, has a constitution which might have been written by Adolph Hitler, yet the Foreign Office gives the Brotherhood public money and the allegedly "left-wing" Ken Livingstone hugs its spiritual leader.

You picked the wrong type of fascism, Mel. If only you'd been cannier, there would be pieces in the Independent denouncing your critics as Islamophobes.

> In Sydney:

A Jewish youth centre... has been targeted in an attack community leaders say is clearly linked to the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

It is the second anti-Semitic attack in Sydney in four days.

> In Christchurch, New Zealand:

Graffiti scrawled on a Jewish synagogue... was being linked to anti-Israel sentiments as the death toll mounts in southern Lebanon, local media reported Wednesday.

> In Glasgow:

Police... are hunting vandals who daubed the name of 'Hizbollah' outside Scotland's oldest synagogue.

> In Rome:

Jewish shops across Rome were vandalized and defaced with swastikas in an apparent neo-fascist attack linked to fighting in the Middle East, officials said Wednesday.

Owners of about 20 shops in the center and outskirts of the Italian capital reached their workplace Tuesday morning to find door locks filled with glue, shutters nailed closed and swastikas defacing nearby walls, said Riccardo Pacifici, a spokesman for Rome's Jewish Community.