How bad is anti-semitism in Europe? Back in 2002 Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote that "in Europe, it is not very safe to be a Jew." More recently Natan Sharansky, an Israeli government minister, released a report recording the number of anti-Semitic incidents as increasing by 20 percent in 2004. Recently both President Jacques Chirac of France and Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have publicly condemned anti-Semitism.

The American State Department blames "disadvantaged and disaffected Muslim youths as increasingly responsible alongside traditional far-right groups" (Sources: The Washington Post, The Economist.)