Those who attack Jews attack the West

The two American academics, Mearsheimer and Walt, who caused a stir some time ago with a modern re-working of an old conspiracy theory are back with a book on the same theme: the "world Jewish conspiracy" line deployed by 1930s fascists is back in a new guise as the "Jewish lobby" that allegedly exerts too much influence on American policy.

The political anti-semitism of the twenty-first century is, ostensibly at least, of a rather different nature to that of the twentieth. The Nazis and their fellow travellers used to attack the Jews for "cosmopolitanism" - in other words, not having allegiance to any nation state, but to the world-wide community of Jews with their alleged stranglehold on the international financial system, among other things. These days it seeks to be excused for precisely the opposite reason: modern antisemitism hides behind the label of anti-Zionism, in other words, it purports to be an attack on Jewish nationalism - or more precisely, the right of the Jewish people to a nation state of their own, a right of self-determination which for some reason is unreservedly accepted for all other peoples. Double standards abound, when discussing Israel or the Jewish people. Victor Davis Hanson comments:

Israel is always lambasted for entering homes in the West Bank to look for Hamas terrorists and using too much force. But last week the world snoozed when the Lebanese army bombarded and then crushed the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, which harbored Islamic terrorists. The world has long objected to Jewish settlers buying up land in the West Bank. Yet Hezbollah, flush with Iranian money, is now purchasing large tracts in southern Lebanon for military purposes and purging them of non-Shiites.

Here at home, ‘neoconservative’ has become synonymous with a supposed Jewish cabal of Washington insiders who hijacked U.S. policy to take us to war for Israel’s interest. That our state department is at the mercy of a Jewish lobby is the theme of a recent high-profile book by professors at Harvard University and the University of Chicago.

Yet when the United States bombed European and Christian Serbia to help Balkan Muslims, few critics alleged that American Muslims had unduly swayed President Clinton. And such charges of improper ethnic influence are rarely leveled to explain the billions in American aid given to non-democratic Egypt, Jordan, or the Palestinians — or the Saudi oil money that pours into American universities.

In reality, while Jew-hatred has persisted in various forms for thousands of years, the modern attack on Jews and Israel both in this century and the last is an attack on Enlightenment values. Today Israel represents not only the Jewish people but is also a beacon of the success of liberal democracy in a part of the world where liberal democracy hardly has a long pedigree. An attack on Israel is certainly an attack on the Jewish people, but it is also a surrogate for an attack on the west in general.

Antisemites are quick to point to Jewish influence (or pro-Israel lobbies) over the governments of, say, Britain and America. The evils of the west are at least in part attributed to the influence of Jews by a number of leftist commentators (including now, Mearsheimer and Walt). This is a trend which must at all costs be opposed. Liberals worldwide should support the state of Israel in defence of its security and borders; they should stand against the demonisation of Israel and the oppression of Jews both in Israel and elsewhere. Anti-Jewish prejudice is as vile as any other form of racism and should be resisted for that reason alone. However, its exploitation by supposedly "progressive" elements pursuing a political agenda within western society is particularly repellent.

[Thanks to Melanie Phillips]