The New Anti-Semitism in Britain

The New Anti-Semitism in Britain

By Joseph Puder

9/7/2007

The anti-Israel climate in Britain evidenced by the various
boycott initiatives against Israeli academic institutions,
Israeli-made goods, and harassing law suits against Israeli
military officers visiting Britain, has unleashed a tidal-wave
of anti-Semitism in Britain fueled by a combination of radical
left-wing academicians and Muslim radicals, who in addition to
hating Jews, have no love for Britain either and are seeking to
remake Britain into a Muslim state that adheres to Sharia law.

Britain’s Labour parliamentarian Denis MacShane discussed in a
Washington Post article (9/4/07), the Blue-Ribbon Parliamentary
Committee Report on Anti-Semitism in Britain that he chaired.
The committee, which included former government ministers and
party leaders (Tory Iain Duncan Smith and Liberal Democrat and
environment spokesman Chris Huhne) made observations that are
most worrisome in a post-Holocaust age. The panel of
investigators included fourteen MP’s (none of whom are Jews)
called their finding “disturbing.”

The British parliamentary committee’s task of investigating
anti-Semitism in Britain was determined as a result of steadily
rising anti-Semitic attacks against British Jews. In 2004 there
were 530-recorded incidents of attacks against members of the
300,000 strong Jewish community – of which 100,000 are Orthodox,
and who bore the brunt of the attacks, took place. In 2006, the
number of attacks increased to 594.

The report according to MacShane revealed a pattern of fear
among many of the country’s Jews with, “Synagogues attacked.
Jewish schoolboys jolted on public transportation. Rabbis
punched and knifed.” MacShane pointed out that British Jews feel
compelled to raise millions to provide for private security for
weddings and community events. “On campus militant anti-Jewish
students fueled by Islamic or far-left hate seeking to prevent
Jewish students from expressing their opinions,” MacShane
reported.

MacShane called “worrisome” the “anti-Jewish discourse, a mood
and a tune whenever Jews are discussed whether in the media (BBC
in particular), at universities, among the liberal media elite
or at dinner parties of modish London.” MacShane added, “To
express any support for Israel or any feeling for the right of
the Jewish State to exist produced denunciation, even contempt.”

The Observer reported back on September 3, 2006 on the draft
document of the report on Anti-Semitism in Britain. The
correspondent, Ned Temko, explained, “The report voices
particular concern over a minority of Islamic extremists who are
inciting hatred towards Jews, and it criticizes recent moves by
left-wing academics to boycott links with Israel. Though
emphasizing the right of people to criticize or protest against
Israeli government actions, it says ‘rage’ over Israeli policies
has sometime ‘provided a pretext’ for anti-Semitism.” Temko
revealed, moreover, that the Report condemned calls to boycott
contacts with intellectuals and academics working in Israel as
“an assault on academic freedom and intellectual exchange.”

Picking up on MacShane’s interview on the BBC, Temko quoted
MacShane as saying: “British Jews were right to shudder at the
aggressive comparison of Israeli policies with the Holocaust,”
and the “witch’s brew of anti-Semitism including the far left
and ‘ultra Islamist’ extremists who reject Israel’s right to
exist.”

The response of British Jewry has been one of deep concern.
Britain’s Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks charged,” The new
anti-Semitism is significantly different from the old. That is
why it has not been noticed as widely as it should have been.
The old anti-Semitism was a product of national cultures. One
could talk of a country like Germany, Russia, or Poland being
anti-Semitic. Today’s anti-Semitism is global. It is
communicated by satellite television, email and especially the
Internet.” Rabbi Sacks added, “What makes the new anti-Semitism
anti-Semitic, is that it is directed against Jews, not against
Israel. Its targets - synagogues, Jewish schools and community
centers, Jews in the street - often have nothing to do with
Israel.”

Antony Lerman, Executive Director of the Institute for Jewish
Policy Research maintained that, “Anti-Semitism today (2006) is
a serious problem: both for Jews and for society as a whole.
Some think it went away after the Holocaust. It did not.
Although it did diminish in recent decades, in the last few
years it has intensified. And there is clear evidence,
stretching back more than 20 years, that increases in the number
of anti-Jewish manifestations are linked to periods of
heightened tension and armed conflict involving Israel and the
Arabs.”

Mitch Simmons, Campaign Director of the Union of Jewish Students
summed up the situation Jewish students face on British
campuses, “ If a Jewish student feels it necessary to wear a
baseball cap on campus to hide his skullcap for fear of physical
or verbal assault, then that campus can no longer be considered
a safe space for all students. If lecturers feel it appropriate
to decide whom they will or won’t teach based on their
nationality, then there is no longer equality in education.
Jewish students have the right to feel safe on campus like
everybody else; we all have the right to expect our universities
and student unions to provide a safe environment for all
students.”

It is apparent that on both sides of the Atlantic, Muslim
radicals and their left-wing partners have launched a
coordinated campaign to intimidate Jewish students. In Montreal,
at Berkley (California) and of course on British campuses,
pro-Israel, or Israeli speakers are greeted with violence and
prevented from addressing students. The administrations on these
campuses have succumbed to the radical haters demand at the
expense of freedom of expression - the cornerstone of academic
life.

Europe in general and Britain in particular, caught in the
throws of political correctness and guilt over its colonialist
and imperialist past, have been willing to look away rather than
confront the intolerance, hate-mongering, and oppression
inflicted by left-wing and Islamists radicals on campuses and in
the streets, on Jewish student and adults, or anyone in support
of Israel and the U.S. The lack of reprisals (either expulsion
or arrest) against these radical perpetrators and radical
professors has created a climate of fear and discomfort for
Jews, and has encouraged, under the guise of academic freedom,
the radical Muslims and their left-wing partners, to feel that
they are untouchable.

Concluding his report on Anti-Semitism in Britain, Denis
MacShane said, “Today there is still denial about the universal
ideology of the new anti-Semitism. It has power and reach, and
it enters into the soft underbelly of the Western mind-set that
does not like Jews or what Israel does to defend its right to
exist.”

MacShane recommended a counterattack. “My own House of Commons
has led the way with its report.” He added, “The 47-nation
Council of Europe, on which I sit as a British representative,
has launched a lengthy inquiry into combating anti-Semitism in
Europe. The European Union has produced a directive outlawing
Internet hate speech originating within its jurisdiction.” He
also noted, “We are at the beginning of a long intellectual and
ideological struggle. It is not about Jews or Israel. It is
about everything democrats have long fought for: the truth
without fear, no matter one’s religion or political beliefs. The
new anti-Semitism threatens all humanity. The Jew-haters must
not get a pass.”