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Yes, why don't you look closely at the 1932 elections results in Germany.. the Nazi parry won the largest share of the vote of any party- in fact, they won a large share of the vote in democratic elections before that as well, and they constituted the largest political party sitting in the Reichstag in Wiemar's Germany. why did they win? economic slump & unemployment, collapse of the social security system, leaving millions of unemployed people without adequate social security, the unstable political scene in Germany, producing weak and unstable govn't- and the flawed 1919 Versailles peace treaty. Where do you place antisemitism [a much devalued term in the hands of people from Israel] in all of that? It was there... there is no denial. A lot of people agonized over this issue ever since 1945. the total collapse of Germany in 1945 and it's division, ensured that there is no general yearn for the good old days of pre 1939. a booming economy, a more robust political system, the European Union [plus free movement of people] , a supportive and generous social security network. The total collapse of Germany also had a deep and a lasting effect on the Germans; the total devastation of towns, the brutal fighting, the deadly losses- so many Germans turned their back on nationalism, and the 'Deutchand uber alles' attitude that guided their lives for so long. [This did not happen after 1918] Apart from the Balkans, there was no serious fighting in Europe since 1945; the longest period of peace for a long time. Perhaps this shows that the measures taken after 1945 did sort of work??? It is telling that no such measures applied in the Balkans after 1945... I think you let the terrible suffering of the Jews in the hands of the Nazis over influence your view of the world, and over emphasize the importance of various incidents. The same can be said of the Israeli media. In a way, you can sort of understand it, but it is a trap! You can not ignore prejudices - racial and religious. It is there, even within the Jewish community, and certainly in Israel too. You can never stamp it out completely. But you can take steps to minimize it. Integration is the key word- going through the school system together, social mixing, equal opportunities, so you learn to judge individual by what they are rather by their race religious or colour. Better education, better social security network, economic prosperity, engagement in the wider society- the same measures taken across Europe [and the UK as well!] all help to reduce prejudice too. I have already discussed before to the so called Muslim threat, a favourite theme in this forum- or so it seems. I call it nonsense, and I proved it by referring to numbers and demography. I will not repeat it at length here. Don't you think that your claims can be viewed as racial prejudice? Islam is a religion, and not a race. Not every Muslim is a bomber and a terrorist. Not every one of them dreams of jihad and killing the infidels. bombing and loss of life should be dealt with firmly- and they were. They caused a lot of anguish amongst the Muslim community as well. I think that with time and better integration, those tensions and the benign influence of civic society here would help. Actually, if you want to talk about the Muslim threat to the UK, in demographic terms, Israel is that much more 'threatened ' [i am using your own terms] that the UK ever will. while the % of Muslims [and never mind that they come from different ethnic backgrounds and differ in their religious adherence and piety] is less than 5%, in Israel you have something around 15-20% Muslim minority within Israel pre 1967 borders. There is a much better chance that your claim of 'Londoninsan' would occur in Israel first! The latest calls by highly ranked individuals and forums within the Israeli Jewish religious establishment - not to hire property to Arabs, that Jewish girls should not go out with Arab men, that some Jewish suburban settlements turned down Arab applicants, anti Arab demonstrations, the continuing neglect of the Muslim minority [the word 'Arab' and 'Muslim' seems to be interchangeable in Israel] in terms of public services provision... all of this was reported in the Israeli media. I could replace 'Arab/Muslim' with 'Jew' and 'Jew' with 'Christians', and 'Israel' with 'Europe' [I dare not 'Germany'- and how does that look like? I highlighted here what I choose to highlight from recent incidents, just like you choose to highlight certain events that took place in Europe... regards from London, Yoram
