Anti-Semitism denial is rife

This article is an extended version of my introduction to the Zurich Salon debate on “Israel, Gaza and anti-Semitism” on 7 October. 

I am really struck by the extent to which anti-Semitism has been ignored or downplayed in the discussion of the pogrom last 7 October. In fact anti-Israel activists routinely claim that the spectre of anti-Semitism is being cynically weaponised  by Israel’s supporters. I would argue the opposite is the case. The key problem is anti-Semitism denial. Few take the trouble to examine anti-Semitism as a driving force in the attack on Israel even though ample evidence is there for all to see.

The current multi-front war that Israel is enduring cannot be understood without appreciating that anti-Semitism unites Israel’s enemies. It is central to the doctrine of Islamist movements. But it is also essential to understanding the West’s reaction to the horrors of 7 October. All too often many in the West have, at the very least, appeased anti-Semitism. And in the case of the anti-Israel movements it has become clear in the past year that they have totally embraced it.

Let’s look at Islamism first before moving on to the West. As time is short I’ll focus on Hamas, the leading Palestinian Islamist movement.

Its 1988 covenant, its founding document, explicitly states its goal is to slaughter Jews and to destroy Israel. It also blames Jews for, among other things, the French revolution, the first world war and the second world war. If the Islamic references were removed most people would probably assume it was penned by a European extreme right group. 

In any case its openly stated goal is to kill Jews. On 7 October Hamas acted on that goal killing about 1200 (some of them non-Jews caught up in the murder spree) and kidnapping about 250. It’s also important in this context to note the covenant has never been revoked – despite what some claim – and that Hamas leaders have said many times over the past year they would repeat the 7 October killing spree. Indeed today (7 October 2024), on the first anniversary of the attack, the head of the terror group’s military wing, Abu Obeida, praised the onslaught of a year ago. Rockets were also fired at Israel from Gaza.

Those who claim that Hamas is motivated by support for Palestinian rights or self-determination should follow what it says itself. Hamas is explicitly hostile to such notions. It is not even, by its own definition, a Palestinian organisation. It is the Palestinian arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Islamist organisation based in Egypt. Its ultimate goal is not a nation-state for the Palestinians but the creation of an Islamic order. Where Israel and the Jews fit in is that destroying what Islamists cast as their “Satanic” and “evil” presence is seen as a pre-condition for achieving this aim. That is what drives it rather than any noble notion of Palestinian self-determination.

 The West

But for us in the West, whether in Zurich or London or elsewhere, it is even more important to look at how anti-Semitism fits into the reaction to the 7 October pogrom. 

As Brendan O’Neill argues in his new book After the Pogrom those in the West all too often failed the moral test posed by 7 October. They failed to take a stand with Israel and against anti-Semitism. They failed to take the side of civilisation, in this case represented by Israel, against barbarism, in this case represented by Islamism.

In this context it is important to remember, as I have argued in recent posts, that Jews are typically hated because they are seen as the personification of broader forces. Historically these have included capitalism and modernity. In the context of anti-Israel hatred the Jewish state is all too often seen as the prime embodiment of civilisation. It is seen to represent values such as freedom, progress and individual rights which are increasingly loathed in the West. Of course the fact that Israel is hated for what it symbolises, rather than the reality, does not make the hatred any less real. If anything it makes it more potent.

Of course anti-Semitism in its most concentrated form is to be found in the anti-Israel movement. These are not people who simply reprimand Israel. Any country can be criticised. On the contrary, in their minds it is the epitome of evil in the world. That is the meaning of their obsessive references to Israel as an apartheid state, a colonial state, a child-killer and an exponent of genocide. They rip these terms away from their original context. Instead they have become a way of expressing the view that tiny Israel, way above any other country, is a malign force in the world.

In that context it’s important to note a shift over the past year. Typically anti-Zionists now suggest Israel must be destroyed rather than hinting they might accept a two-state solution. Until last year its supporters often talked obsessively about “the occupation”, meaning Israel’s military presence in the West Bank. But they’ve generally stopped doing that. Instead they use slogans such as “from the river to the sea” and “We don't want no two states! We want all of '48!”.

In other words the conclusion they draw from last year’s 7 October pogrom is that the world’s only Jewish state should be destroyed. It’s hard to imagine a clearer example of siding with barbarism against civilisation. Or, to put it another way, standing on the side of anti-Semitism.