http://www.newstatesman.co.uk/site.php3?newTemplate=NSArticle_NS&newDisplayURN=200206170018
Western society is infected by a powerful sense of self-loathing and a rejection of its political, social and economic achievements. It was this spirit of self-loathing that led some, of the left and right alike, to suggest that America got what it deserved on 11 September. Those sentiments are no more progressive when aimed against Israel as a symbol of the west than when they are directed in irrational campaigns against GM crops and the literature of Dead White Males.
We may feel solidarity with the Palestinians, but that is no reason to endorse the anti-imperialism of fools. Populist anti-Israeli rhetoric is cheap, but it offers no solutions - especially when it ends with a demand for even more western intervention in the affairs of the Middle East. The long-suffering peoples of the region deserve better than to be used by those looking for somewhere convenient to strike sanctimonious poses.
Mick Hume is editor of spiked ( [http://www.spiked-online.com])
This article first appeared in the New Statesman. For the latest in current and cultural affairs subscribe to the New Statesman print edition.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,651685,00.html
The new anti-semitism?
Some say that, beneath criticism of Ariel Sharon's policies, lurks a more sinister agenda
Observer Worldview
Peter Beaumont Sunday February 17, 2002 The Observer
On 5 December last year the Chief Rabbi of Brussels, Albert Gigi, was walking through Anderlecht when he was assaulted by a group of Arab-speaking youths. He was chased into a nearby metro station and he and his companion were abused as 'dirty Jews'. One of the assailants kicked the rabbi in the face, breaking his glasses. It was a nasty, sordid little attack, overt in its anti-Semitism. Happily rabbi Gigi was not seriously injured. There the matter might have rested, but for the significance that has recently been attached to the assault. For the attack on rabbi Gigi, if we are to believe proponents of the argument, is simply the latest and most significant example of Europe's fast growing and virulent new anti-Semitism.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0%2C3604%2C639688%2C00.html
A new anti-semitism?
Not to be confused with anti-Sharonism
Leader Saturday January 26, 2002 The Guardian
"Among educated people," wrote George Orwell in February 1945, "anti-semitism is held to be an unforgiveable sin, and in quite a different category from other kinds of racial prejudice." It would be comforting to think the same holds true today. But there is a growing feeling within some influential sections of the Jewish community in Britain that there is a resurgence of an old prejudice in a form at once elusive and unpleasant. The Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, is shortly to give a lecture entitled "A new anti-semitism?" The liberal Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz has recently published a long article on the same subject (omitting the question mark). The president of the Board of Deputies, Jo Wagerman, is quoted saying: "One is very aware that, recently, Britain isn't the same."
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