It Runs Deep

Only seventy years after the horrors of Nazi Germany, hatred of Jews still runs deep throughout Europe.
From Live Wire:

Last week, Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team beat Real Madrid in the Euroleague final.

In basketball-crazy Israel, a third of the country watched the game.

And thousands showed up in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, to celebrate.

There, the team got hugs and kisses from PM Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.

Meanwhile, back in Spain, Real Madrid fans took to Twitter, with a hashtag (translated as #F…ingJews) to express their outrage over the defeat, hoping the Israeli team takes a shower after the game…in a gas chamber, and other vicious comments.

Jonathan S.Tobin, writing in Commentary: Spain, Basketball, and Jew Hatred makes this observation:

…the rash of anti-Semitic statements, especially on Twitter, in reaction to the victory of the Israeli squad shouldn’t be dismissed as only the sour reaction of supporters of a losing sports team. That the outcome of a basketball game would lead so many to resort to anti-Semitic language is not an accident or people just blowing off steam. The willingness to invoke traditional stereotypes of Jew-hatred as well as echoes of the Holocaust under these circumstances illustrates not only how deeply entrenched such attitudes are in European culture but the way Israel has become a stand-in for traditional anti-Semitism….

H/T iOTW