Anti-Semitism

Robert Wistrich’s new study of anti-Semitism brilliantly elucidates how the Left has betrayed the Israel for which it once campaigned

‘If we are to prevent the descent of Europe once again into the abyss of anti-Semitism, we cannot pass over such atrocities as the recent massacres of Jews in Toulouse and Bulgaria in silence’

Keith Lowe’s attempt to blur the moral distinctions between Nazis and Jews makes Savage Continent as distasteful as it is misleading

‘The intelligentsia ignored the irruption of religious fanaticism into domestic British politics. In the face of these foes of civilisation, silence is the worst form of cowardice’

‘I was fond of my father’s old friend Günter Grass. I’d like to think he knew better’

Anti-Semitism has never been confined to the Right. Its latest manifestation is the left-wing campaign to undermine Israel

One of the strangest sights in contemporary intellectual life has been the apotheosis of the secular saint. Like the holy men and women of the past, they gather disciples around them, whose interviews devoutly record their words and deeds; like the martyrs, they suffer for their unbelief, but their last utterances, transfigured by suffering, are all the more treasured. Their lives and deaths are reported in hushed tones, for these magi of the social media are trumpeted by their hagiographers as the true prophets of our time, baptised in wine and purified by sin. In the secular pantheon, cleanliness is next to ungodliness. As a preacher, a Terry Pratchett promoting euthanasia outranks any pope, pastor or rabbi. When Christopher Hitchens died last year, a Diana-like shrine was erected outside his apartment. Not piety but celebrity is the highest virtue.

The Church of England’s decision not to censure Rev. Stephen Sizer highlights its, and wider society’s, reluctance to condemn anti-Semitic bigotry

‘Muslim anti-Semitism is a phenomenon that embarrasses Western liberal intellectuals and confounds their anti-Israel sentiment’