Of course you’ll get extremists in every country, but to make generalisations such as “I’d like to say that anti-semitism is a fact of life in Greece” as if it’s not a fact of life in ANY country is deeply offensive to me. What gives us the right to say Greece is anti-semitic while we ignore the RECORD NUMBER of hate groups in the UK. We have no right to accuse anyone of anti-semitism with the sanctimonious holier-than-thou attitudes expressed in this thread – southern Europeans are no more anti-semitic as a group of people than any other group of people – in fact, we brits should look in the mirror before we start pointing fingers :

Jewish cemeteries hit by 117th attack in 15 years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2.....hefarright

The attack at the cemetery in Hull came just weeks after vandals destroyed an eight-foot Holocaust memorial at a park in Nottingham.
http://www.independent.co.uk/n.....50717.html

Twenty gravestones at Rainsough cemetery, Prestwich, Manchester were damaged
http://www.somethingjewish.co......maged_.htm

http://www.independent.co.uk/n.....94137.html
Vandals wreck 100 gravestones at Jewish cemetery

Shock over London Jewish cemetery desecration
http://ejpress.org/article/8716

I can provide links to websites of extreme right groups in our country – would this prove that we Brits are generally anti-semitic as a society? Of course not. So why do we have the gall to suggest that the existence of offensive Greek websites or graffitti suggests that Greek society is generally anti-semitic?

Anti-Semitic graffiti on fishing huts
http://www.hastingsobserver.co.....4851858.jp

London’s Jewish community has been targeted by a wave of anti-Semitic graffiti
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/.....article.do

The generalisations against Greeks in this thread is appalling and i’m surprised that some people have stooped so low as to make some pretty disturbing generalisations. In fact, some people have stooped to the same level of bigotry as the Greek extremists who have come out the woodwork on this thread.

One of the most conspicuous features of British anti-Semitism is that the British deny its existence
http://www.city-journal.org/ht.....itism.html

I am slightly confused by your arguments. Are you suggesting that because worse bigotry may exist elsewhere, people do not have the right to comment on racism, sexism, etc in the country where they live? That would seem to be non-sensical.

In addition, if you are upset by the anecdotal nature of the original post, why do you make reference to your daughter’s experience of Greece?

‘The critique of Greece is actually in itself an example of deep bigotry.’
This is well put. I hope the blog author and those who routinely use her site to assail Greeks can show the courage to examine their prejudices and bigotry, examine why they feel such sneering contempt for Greeks and Greece and why they wilfully misunderstand and misrepresent Greeks and Greece – wilful misunderstanding and misrepresentation of an ethnic group defines bigotry.
After all, as Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living.

What we seem to have is anecdotes and then citations from extremist sites. The critique of Greece is actually in itself an example of deep bigotry.

The same examples could be found in every country on earth. I have lived half my life in Israel and half in the States. In Israel we have extremists in the press in government and on the web who spew the most vile hatred one could imagine.

Shall I post some of the graphics so we can all condemn the Jews as racist and Israel as a racist entity? Or I can do it with examples from the U.S.

I wonder how much Talmud the author has read. Are you aware of all the screeds therein against Greeks and how it informs current hatred of all things Greek in contemporary conservative Judaism? We have our own blood libels as well my friend.

Donna: do you think you can go three blocks in Jerusalem without seeing grafitti saying: “Death to the Arabs?”

Juan: you are also making some generalizations.

Panayote Dimitras: The good-Turk-is-a-dead-Turk T-shirt is available in Monastiraki which is no neo-Nazi hangout place.

I can see Panayote that you have never been to Israel or the US where you can find the same type of shirts with different targets.

And did you really post these stupid songs as any kind of evidence of anything? This is really common everywhere.

I found this entry with a simple google search as my daughter has spent the last three years working in Greece (for a US based public relations firm).

Absolutely none of the generalizations bandied about here are consistent with her experience and she has many Greek and Greek Jewish friends.

What she relates is that people are more open, speak their minds and less politically correct. We certainly have much more hate crimes and violent hate crimes in the US. Is American lip service and strident political correctness really an indicator of more tolerance? The evidence suggests otherwise.

I guess the most striking thing here is the reference to some things said by some Greek clerics related here. This is really unsophisticated. Have you any idea of the intolerant, hateful, conspiracy minded blather spewed by some leading American and Israeli clerics?

As a latino who has lived in numerous countries (Greece being one for them for 2 years) around the world I am constantly disappointed by the Jewish community always blaming the locals for anti-semitism. (and lets be frank here, we’re not talking about anti-semitism. You are corrupting that word. Anti-semitism means ill feelings towards semites, which jews are a small part of at best, most semites are Arabs and most Greeks are sympathetic to the Palestinians).

Indeed what what are you are spending your all your waking hours on is a natural response by people to the actions of the jewish community. It never ceases to amaze how jews could blame everyone else around the world for having some concerns towards their community and Israel instead of being introspective and reflecting upon why the majority of the world feels this way. Any healthy and balanced individual firstly looks inward to try and see if he/she is causing these feeling coming form his/her fellow man. But, nope not the jewish community. In this case it’s always the other guy’s fault inst it? When i lived in china I was reminded hat it was the Jewish community and specifically the jewish Sassoon family that started the Opium war in China and led to millions of Chinese being enslaved on opium and to lose control of the southern part of their country. So have Jews apologized for thsi historical tragedy and made do with reparations? No. No of course not, they continue to complain about some graffiti on a wall.

But, why wouldn’t you complain about some graffiti on a wall and only focus on Jewish complaints. Your goal with this blog was never to further unite with your countrymen and spread a good message it was to divide Greeks and further divide people. And I applaud the Greeks for standing up to such a blatant attempt to play the guilt card for personal and monetary attention.

“Abravanel”, I never said I was from the US, although I do happen to live in the US, that other guy I guess was trying to say that the concepts of human rights and heavy focusing on Jews is more prevalent in the US, which I can objectively say it is, I myself caught several Jewish references just from watching tv this afternoon. So maybe he’s saying that you would be more comfortable here, and would have more people, a larger community to celebrate being jewish with? After all, if being jewish is so important I would even suggest living in Israel. They do need people after all.

I’ll suggest the same to Greeks in America who want to live a Greek life of talking about Greeks and Greek things 24-7, Greece would be the place, right?

Your comrade Juan, (or was it you), said that he’s from the US and expressed his wish that the jews of Greece come and join him. I thought that it was a better idea that the fascists move there since I thought some exercise would do them good, since they usually hide in obscure places.

My blog is monothematic because I have chosen so, following the dessert that surrounds issues of antisemitism in greece. That doesn’t mean I don’t occupy myself with the plight of other people, nor that I don’t keep myself busy also in other places.

Greek Truth, I’ve said this so many times now that I am boring myself! No-one is under any obligation to write anything on their blog apart from what they themselves choose. If my blog was about tomatos I doubt if anyone would complain that I didn’t mention cucumbers. This only seems to occur on “human rights” or “minority issue”blogs.

You said “It seems that on this site and on your blog you seem to be entirely focused on Jews”

My blog is nowhere near entirely focused on Jews so that just shows that you haven’t read it. Abravanel’s blog maybe is (it’s quite new so who knows where he may decide to take it) and that is his choice and I don’t see anything wrong with that.

I go to many single-issue blogs because they deal with things I am interested in. It wouldn’t cross my mind to tell that author to write about something else. If you want to read about other issues that are not covered by either blog, there are many millions of blogs out there.

If the USA is , indeed, a home for “fascists” then why do you rely on the “US State Department’s Report on Human Rights Practices” that you republish on your blog for alleged “anti-Semitic” abuses in Greece and around the world? The USA ( coincidence? ) is one of the few places in the world outside “Israel” where the government and its foreign ministry (the US State Department) has an official agency to monitor alleged “anti-Semitism” worldwide.How “fascist”, Dr Joseph Joseph Goebbels, could not have done it better !

As much as I am impressed with your dedication to defend “any other person who sees a violation of the dignity of another human being and feels the need to defend him, independently or race, religion, color or nationality.”

bravo! My question to you is: It seems that on this site and on your blog you seem to be entirely focused on Jews , both in Greece and around the world. Isn’t this a lack of acting “independently of race,religion, color or nationality”???

What about Tamils in Sri Lanka? Indians in Brazil? Palestinians in “Israel”? Greeks (who are not conveniently Jewish) in Cyprus?

If somebody had paid attention to what happenned and happens to the jews, then I’m sure there wouldn’t be atrocities today. In any case I’m surprised about your worries since most of your kind don’t really consider the Holocaust a major atrocity, so I imagine you’ve set the limit way up.

Anyway I’m not leaving Greece and I have the right to complain whenever I feel that basic rights of mine are being violated, just like every other greek. And in the end, just like any other person who sees a violation of the dignity of another human being and feels the need to defend him, independently or race, religion, color or nationality.

But I’m sure all this sounds greek to you…

Even better I hope they keep coming in masses; maybe this way they’ll understand that the public silence on which they base their dominion in the greek political scene is of no more.

For the rest check your mail.