Nazi Abuse

The video below is currently doing the rounds on Youtube and numerous blogs. It was filmed at a health care debate in Las Vegas and shows a woman shouting "Heil Hitler" at an Israeli man who is praising Israel's health care system.

This may not be the straight forward case of antisemitic abuse that it initially suggests: Nazi themed abuse is becoming increasingly common in America's furious debate over President Obama's health programme, and the woman in the video is actually wearing an Israeli Defence Forces T-shirt. 

If anything, this is yet another reminder to us all of how crass, stupid and immoral it is to use Nazi themed abuse as a part of political debate. It is, of course, a phenomenon, that impacts against Jews and Jewish related issues with depressing regularity: as shown in these recent reports by CST (see p.42-49), and the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.