Sunday, October 16, 2016

Committee Exposes the Ugly, "Israelized" Face of Jew-Hate in the U.K.

For those who can handle it, the truth looks like this:
Jews in the UK do not only face the threat of neo-Nazi or skinhead antisemitism. They also face anti-Israelism of a particularly demonising kind which has co-mingled with an older set of classical antisemitic tropes, images and assumptions to create antisemitic anti-Zionism. The Leader of the SNP in Westminster, Angus Robertson MP, spelt this out to the Committee. In pursuing support for "the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people," he said, some individuals start using "language and imagery" that draws "repeated accusations from the 20th and 19th centuries about Jewish ownership of the press or the financial system and so on". He described how some people move from referring to ‘the Government of Israel’ to talking about "Israel"; then to "Zionists," and then "some people start talking about Jews"; adding that "at some point along that line it morphs into antisemitism".  
In the new antisemitism, that which the demonised Jew once was, demonised Israel now is: uniquely malevolent, full of blood lust, all-controlling, the hidden hand, tricksy, always acting in bad faith, the obstacle to a better, purer, more spiritual world, uniquely deserving of punishment, and so on.  
The Committee is very clear about two things. First, criticism of Israel is absolutely acceptable. Second, vile demonisation and conspiracism, with its cartoons dripping in blood and its hook noses and its wild claims of global domination and its Nazi comparisons is not "criticism of Israel".
No kidding. The fact that that isn't painfully obvious to all (and that it required an official Committee to have to point it out) shows how pervasive and insidious this "new" "social justice-y" antisemitism is.

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