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...dispute and angst in the diaspora, were accepted as commonplace within Israel itself. It is not surprising, therefore, that while a section of the Jewish intelligentsia (in Israel) has been discussing post-Zionism (1)--i.e. the possibility of democratising and 'de-racifying' an essentially undemocratic and racist state--a section of the Jewish intelligentsia (in Britain) has been moving in the opposite direction to assert that such criticism of Israel now constitutes a new and dangerous form of anti-Semitism.
Unlike in the US, where groups like the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith have for some years worked to brand those in sympathy with the Palestinians as enemies of the Jews, (2) we have not, till now, had a consistent or very public voice denouncing Israel's critics in the UK in the same vein. Anti-Zionism was associated with Trotskyist leftists who held sway on British campuses a generation ago and only a few voices were raised in issue with them. (3)
But there has been a turnaround over the last few years. Internationally, it was after the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance at Durban in August 2001 that any criticism of Israel, and especially the criticism that its policies towards Palestinians were reminiscent of apartheid, began to be interpreted by Jewish commentators as a new form of anti-Semitism. In the UK, it was sparked off by a New Statesman cover image of the Star of David piercing the Union Jack, with the headline 'A kosher conspiracy? Britain's pro-Israel lobby' (14 January 2002). (After an organised email protest campaign, the weekly found itself attacked by commentators on a number of mainstream papers and issued an apology.)
Compared with the US, the debate in the UK about the rise of a new anti-Semitism had to date been fairly muted and confined, generally, to Jewish organs such as the weekly Jewish Chronicle. But A New Antisemitism? Debating Judeophobia in 21st-century Britain (published in May 2003) marked the beginning of a concerted attempt to make the case that there is a new anti-Semitism 'on the march'. This is not, however, the old, crude, lumpen-proletarian anti-Semitism, but the product of the professional middle classes. It is, according to the book's editors, 'an "elite" or salon antisemitism, manifest in the print and broadcast media, university common rooms and at the dinner parties of the chattering classes'. And the central, defining characteristic of the new anti-Semitism is the vilification of Israel.
The book, produced by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), purports to ask a central question: 'is there a new anti-Semitism?' and a series of minor ones such as 'how does it compare with earlier incarnations of Jew-hatred in Britain?' and 'to what extent has the conflict in the Middle East fuelled the rise in anti-Jewish sentiments and rhetoric?' But, in fact, this is not an open-ended book, with open-minded contributors tussling over how much weightage to give this or that piece of evidence. Almost every one of the nineteen contributors appears to have been chosen because he (there are just two shes) believes that anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism (both on the rise) are merely coded anti-Semitism. Whether this coded anti-Semitism emanates from the Left or the Right, Christianity or Islam, a staid weekly magazine or a street thug is immaterial. For they all partake of the new sport: the vilification of Israel.
The basis of the new anti-Semitism
Most of the authors go out of their way to preface their critiques with the submission that, as Israel is a democracy, a nation state like any other, it must be open to criticism like any other. And then comes the 'but', a variety of buts.
The first 'but' is that the criticism of Israel is so obsessive that it spills over into anti-Semitism. Douglas Davis writes of 'a systematic and systemic pattern of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist imbalance, bias and inaccuracy by the BBC, coupled with an obsessive focus on Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict'. While he acknowledges 'the right of the BBC to be critical', he goes on, 'its relentless, one-dimensional portrayal of Israel as a demonic, criminal state and Israelis as brutal oppressors responsible for all the ills of the region bear the hallmarks of a concerted campaign of vilification that, wittingly or not, has the effect of ... pumping oxygen into a dark, old European...
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