"In France this season, Jew-hating is all the rage"

In May 2003, President Bush visited Auschwitz. He saw the baby shoes of the slaughtered innocents. He said, "Never again."

Addressing the media afterwards on the eve of his visit to France, he stated that Auschwitz serves as a reminder of why it is so important to fight anti-Semitism today in France.

He was disappointed that his statement on anti-Semitism received little notice in the press, particularly in the French press. He had wanted to serve notice to France that the resurgence of anti-Semitism there was not acceptable.

And now, a year later, pieces like this article by Carole Raphaelle Davis appear.

In France this season, Jew-hating is all the rage — literally.

Attacks against Jews and their property have escalated to an alarming extent. The French Jewish community... is living in a state of anxiety.... Here are just a few examples from the last few weeks:

...[Follow the link for a recitation of acts of anti-Semitic savagery.]

Sadly, but not surprisingly, if one speaks in support of Israel at French dinner parties, one is shouted down. Even at my own dinner table, when I told a guest of my fears about living in Paris in such a climate of anti-Semitism, he insisted, "There is no anti-Semitism in France, don’t be ridiculous."

When I told him about everything I had read about the rising tide of anti-Jewish hatred, he told me I was being "influenced by the Jew lobby" and that whatever I was reading was "Jewish propaganda."

When I told him that among other papers, I was reading The New York Times, he said, "You know, The New York Times is a Jewish paper and Jews control all the media."

He said it with a smile, even knowing that I am a Jew. What made his comments especially chilling is that he is on the Catholic Board of Education of Paris.

(Bush anecdote via Ari Fleischer. Article link via LGF. )