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Telling the Truth about Anti-Semitism in Britain

March 24 2016

Responding to the recent rise of anti-Semitism within the UK’s Labor party, an activist associated with its hard-left, anti-Israel wing issued a statement condemning the hatred of Jews, and calling for the expulsion from the party of anyone who expressed it—until such time as the culprit was “re-educated.” He also called for a similar policy toward anti-Muslim bigotry, and for the establishment of separate commissions to confront each problem. Douglas Murray comments:

As everyone involved in politics knows, there are two ways truly to ignore a problem: the first is just to ignore it; the second is to “set up a commission.”

But there are several perhaps unwittingly interesting things about this flaccid suggestion. The first is the reflexive and unthinking demonstration among many these days that they cannot possibly deal with anti-Semitism unless they also throw Muslims into the mix. To deal with anti-Semitism on its own might raise too many problems.

But let us say that two such commissions were set up. And let us pretend for a moment that they were indeed headed by people who were not merely “leading” but also honest figures.

The head of the commission to look into anti-Semitic prejudice, might find a number of startling things. He or she might find, for instance, that the dominant strand of anti-Semitism in British life in 2016 comes not from [left-wing parliamentarians] but from the British Muslim community. . . .

[Furthermore], the Labor party’s anti-Semitism problem comes from people who propel the very hatred they profess to despise. As such, they remain in no position to “re-educate” anyone, as they so stubbornly refuse to educate themselves.

Read more at Gatestone

More about: Anti-Semitism, Jeremy Corbyn, Muslim-Jewish relations, Politics & Current Affairs, United Kingdom

 

The Summary: 10/7/20

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.

Read more at Mosaic