Manufacturing Anti-Semitism

Kristoffer Larsson exposes the manipulation of surveys and logic to find anti-Semitism where none exists.

On March 14, 2006, a report on anti-Semitism in Sweden was published with sensation findings. It claimed that a significant proportion of the Swedish public harbor "anti-Semitic views." As one could expect, this finding caught the attention of the Jewish world. The Israeli daily Ha'aretz warned, "41 percent of Swedes are prejudiced against Jews."

Anti-Semitism does exist in Sweden, but it has been strongly exaggerated in this report, most of whose conclusions are highly questionable. This is especially clear when the authors of the report explain that sometimes criticizing the state of Israel could be regarded as anti-Semitism.

Why would anyone want to exaggerate anti-Semitism? Perhaps to create climate where it is difficult to criticize Israel.

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