We’ve all been shocked by the escalation in open antisemitism since the October 7 massacre. In the first few days after the attack, the Community Security Trust (CST) recorded an immediate 324 per cent increase in antisemitic incidents compared to the same period in 2022.
The regular hate marches have solidified the normalisation of antisemitism, and as the Heaton Park murders and Golders Green attacks have shown, the genie is now well and truly out of the bottle.
It’s understandable that such a shocking acceleration in the scale of open Jew hate has led to clutching at straws, as if there has to be some sort of explanation beyond the stark fact that some people simply hate Jews – a hatred that lay buried in the decades after the Holocaust until it first re-emerged when Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader.
In that context, one of the most widespread so-called explanations for the rise in antisemitism can be summed up in two words: Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s striking how the notion that Israel itself is responsible – and thus the Israeli prime minister – is shared by both rampant anti-Zionists and some Israelis, as well as being an idee fixe of so many of our communal leaders.
Yair Golan, leader of Israel’s Democrats – and a heroic figure on October 7 – has said that “Netanyahu’s Kahane-style government is fuelling antisemitism and hatred toward Israel.” Similarly, Ofir Chen of the Institute for Diaspora Studies at Tel Aviv University writes that Netanyahu’s rhetoric helps “create a context” in which criticism of Israel turns into suspicion of Jews.
This idea is then wrapped into the assertion that antisemitism is worsened by an Israeli government containing the likes of Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, a thought heard increasingly as the Israeli election approaches on October 27.
This argument then takes two turns. First, that the defeat of Netanyahu is a pre-requisite for dampening down antisemitism.
More often than not, that’s then followed by the idea that were Netanyahu to be removed from office, the picture would improve. The problem is that none of this is based on reality. It’s straw-clutching masquerading as fact in the guise of hope.
If you really think that the hate marchers are, for example, making a point about the composition of the Israeli government then I am afraid you are not merely naive, you are deluded.
When they chant "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free”, they have not accidentally forgotten to add “but only as part of a two-state solution which will never happen under Netanyahu”. When these protestors chant, “Globalise the intifada”, they don’t add the rider “by which we mean peaceful protest”. They mean “Kill the Jews”.
And when they sing “Khaybar, Khaybar, Ya Yahud! Jaish Mohammad sawf ya’ud!”, (“Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews! The Army of Mohammed Will Return!”), they don’t mean that said army will work alongside the IDF to be part of a bi-lateral force protecting both communities. They mean that it will return to slaughter the Jews.
The removal of Benjamin Netanyahu will not stop the hate preachers, who have spread their poison in mosques and online for years, and who have radicalised young Muslims not to hate Netanyahu but Israel and Jews.
And let’s not forget that this revival of antisemitism is also happening on the extremes of the right, with supporters of parties such as Restore believing that the only true Brits are Christians – and that those people who aren’t Brits (yes, they mean us) should “remigrate”.
This version of the Nazis’ “Blood and Soil” (Blut und Boden) isn’t about Netanyahu. It’s about Jews.
None of these points relate to whether it is good or bad for Israel that Netanyahu is in power, or whether it is good or bad for Israel that Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are in the coalition.
As it happens, I regard them both as monsters who should be nowhere near power and am desperately hoping Israeli voters construct a Knesset that leaves them powerless.
But what is good or bad for Israel is a very different question to what is responsible for antisemitism. To put it bluntly: antisemites are responsible for antisemitism.
If you think that people who took the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust as their cue to march against the victims of that massacre, or who attack Jews in the street and online, will have a change of heart if Benjamin Netanyahu leaves office, then I wonder what world you live in.
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