Let's Note The Difference In Reaction

Nazi Symbols Sprayed On Dozens Of Gravestones At Jewish Cemetery In Poland

WARSAW, Poland — Vandals spray painted swastikas and other Nazi symbols on about 100 gravestones at a large Jewish cemetery in Poland, police said Monday.

Visitors to the cemetery in the southern city of Czestochowa discovered the damage on Sunday and police have not yet found the culprits, said Silesia regional police spokesman Andrzej Gaska.

"This is one of the biggest acts of destruction in years," said Jan Gebert, spokesman for the Jewish community in Warsaw. "In fact, I can't think of any other cases in Europe that have been this big."

The Jews will go and quietly clean the gravestones and perhaps speak publicly about how awful this act was. What won't happen are violent, angry street protests. No halal butcher shops will be burned and no mosques or catholic religious sites will be defaced. No one of another faith will be threatened with death or attacked and beaten. No Polish Jew will strap on a homemade bomb and blow himself up in the middle of Warsaw, nor will the Polish embassy in Tel Aviv be firebombed, and the President of Poland won't face a death edict issued by top Rabbis. Right wing Polish political parties won't have their meetings disrupted or their offices shot-up and no politician or Polish filmmaker will be assassinated in the streets of Krakow. No, the difference in reaction will be quite telling. The members of the Jewish faith will comport themselves in a civilized manner as part of Western society and culture. Too bad all religions can't be counted on to act the same way.