On Sunday's 65th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps, a new report was released showing that anti-Semitic violence around the world more than doubled in 2009.
Despite this disturbing confluence of events, with very few exceptions, American media couldn't have cared less.
Such seems almost impossible given all the press focus on supposed racism and the as yet unrealized increase in violence caused by average Americans attending Tea Parties.
With that in mind, given Sunday's anniversary, try to explain why so-called journalists in the states missed this stunning report first revealed by JTA:
Anti-Semitic incidents around the world more than doubled in 2009 over the previous year, posting their worst year since monitoring began two decades ago, according to a new survey.
The total number of anti-Semitic incidents was 1,129 in 2009, compared to 559 in 2008, according to a report released Sunday by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University. The record number of incidents -- cases that show clear anti-Semitic content and intention -- included 566 incidents of vandalism of Jewish property, which constituted 49 percent of all incidents. Hundreds of incidents against Jewish people and property did not meet the criteria, according to the institute. Incidents also go unreported.
In Europe, Britain and France led with the number of incidents, according to the report. There were 374 violent incidents against Jews recorded in Britain in 2009, compared to 112 in 2008, according to the institute. France saw 195 attacks in 2009 compared to 50 the previous year. Britain and France have the highest Jewish populations in Europe, as well as the largest Muslim populations.
The Jerusalem Post later elaborated:
"The year in the wake of Operation Cast Lead was the worst since monitoring of anti-Semitic manifestations began, in terms of both major anti-Semitic violence and the hostile atmosphere generated worldwide by the mass demonstrations and verbal and visual expressions against Israel and the Jews," the report said.
The report, considered an important bellwether of anti-Jewish sentiment worldwide, was released ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress (EJC).
Among its most dramatic findings was a 102 percent increase in anti-Jewish violence worldwide, from 559 incidents in 2008 to 1,129 in 2009.
In addition, there were "many more hundreds of threats, insults, graffiti signs and slogans and demonstrations featuring virulently anti-Semitic content... sometimes resulting in violence," according to the report.
A significant part of this increase took place in the UK, where violence jumped from 112 incidents in 2008 to 374 last year; in France, where the jump was from 50 to 195, and in Canada, where incidents soared from 13 to 138.
The US, which ordinarily enjoys a very low rate of anti-Jewish violence compared to the size of its Jewish community, nonetheless saw a modest rise, from 98 to 116 incidents.
In some countries, these figures are only the latest spike in a continuing trend. The British Jewish community's monitoring system counted a three-fold increase in anti-Semitic occurrences since 1999, while Canada counted a five-fold increase since 2000.
Most violent attacks in Western Europe came from people of Arab or Muslim heritage, the report found
Might that be the reason American media largely boycotted this story? After all, it's not very politically correct these days to report anything negative about Muslims.
Whatever the reason, Google News and LexisNexis searches identified only the Associated Press, UPI, and the Boston Globe reported these findings.
Amazingly, according to LexisNexis, not one television news outlet thought this study was at all newsworthy despite Sunday's liberation anniversary.
Of course, recent history has shown American media only concerned with acts of violence when they fit into an agenda being advanced.
Sickening isn't it?
