(Jerusalem Post) Melanie Phillips - As the British general election campaign has loomed, it has seemed as if an anti-Jewish virus has been unleashed by the Left. Demographic change and crude political calculation explain some of this. There are 1.8 million Muslims in Britain and 280,000 identifying Jews. Senior Labour figures say privately that, as a result, Jews have got to get used to the fact that their concerns are no longer of any account, that the Muslim vote is the only show in town, and that therefore the Labour Party will adopt the "Muslim narrative" on Israel/Palestine. There is no doubt that the paranoia and prejudice about Israel and the Jews that pours out of the Arab and Muslim world has significantly poisoned the atmosphere in Britain. There is a firestorm of anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, and anti-American hatred in the wider population. The British media seem to agree that there is indeed a world Jewish conspiracy linking the Jews of America, Israel, and the war in Iraq. The "oldest hatred" has mutated from a desire to rid the world of the Jews into a desire to rid the world of the Jewish state.
2005-04-22 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive