…According to Maariv this morning, in the wake of the French election in which Nicholas Sarkozy lost to Francois Hollande, a convention in Paris on Sunday promoting aliyah was attended by 5,000 curious Jews as opposed to the same convention two years ago when only 2,000 showed up.

In other words, French Jewry is scared. It has been scared for the past decade as the Muslims have terrified Jews, murdering Ilan Halimi with the same frenzy of satanic cruelty as the Fogel family in Itamar was butchered; we saw the murders in Toulouse, and at its worst I think every day somewhere in France a Jew has been attacked by a Muslim.

And now French Jews see in the success of Marine Le Pen yet another symptom that makes them afraid.

Likewise Francois Hollande is reported to be no Jew-hater himself but he is, after all, a man of the Left and is expected to put in positions of power numerous Muslims.

A week ago in Norway on Mayday Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, head of the Labor Party said nothing about the anti-Israel and antisemitic banners at a Labor Party gathering that he attended that day.

And then of course in Greece, there were elections and that country is coming apart at the seams. And not surprisingly in bad times, out-and-out Nazis are on the rise.

And in London, Boris Johnson defeated Ken Livingstone for mayor but only by 4 percentage points, 51 to 48.

Welcome again to the 1930s redux…