Suggesting a link between the conflict and the prejudice, Gutman went on to say that "Were a lasting peace in the Middle East to be reached...this
second type of ethnic tension and bigotry here in Europe — which is clearly growing today — would clearly abate. I can envision the day when it
 disappears." Peace in the Middle East would indeed equate with a huge reduction of this form of "anti-Semitism" here in Europe.

Muslim anti-Semitism is a phenomenon that embarrasses Western liberal intellectuals and confounds their fervent anti-Israel sentiment. Confronted
with bigotry, many of them downplay, trivialise or plainly deny it.
They can now count a US ambassador as one of their own.

The thought-process by which Muslim anti-Semitism is whitewashed as a lamentable side-effect of the Arab-Israeli conflict enables those who subscribe to it to view the phenomenon as relatively recent, potentially short-lived and largely superficial. If the conflict is its cause, then one can subscribe to
the romantic view of a harmonious Jewish-Muslim past that predated (and was
spoiled by) Zionism. One can claim that the political nature of this problem
calls for a political solution.

It is remarkable how this intellectual manoeuvre is impervious to facts. First, there is the inconvenient fact that Jews are much more likely to
suffer from anti-Semitism than Muslims are to suffer from anti-Islamic attacks. Annual reports from several countries attest to this, despite the
fact that Muslim communities are much more numerous than Jewish ones.

Second, there is the embarrassing nature of Muslim anti-Semitism, with its casual blend of traditional anti-Jewish Christian symbols and modern Nazi
propaganda. How can one insist that this is the result of political
grievance when no other similar conflict generates such intense prejudice
for adversaries?