Remember the non Jewish French woman who claimed to be the victim of an anti-Semitic attack? It's been making its way around the blogosphere and I first cataloged it here. It turns out to have been a hoax.

But it still teaches us a little something about the attitude in France. That it could have been believable speaks volumes. Perhaps this is the reason why.

The Interior Ministry released figures last week showing that hate crimes had spiked in the first half of the year. There were 510 anti-Jewish acts or threats in the first six months of 2004 - nearly as many as in all of last year, 593.

Racist attacks were up too: There were 95 attacks and 161 threats through June, compared to 232 total such crimes reported in 2003.