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Anti-Semitism Goes to Parliament
(Wall Street Journal) Daniel Johnson - At an event in the House of Lords last week, Jews were blamed for the Holocaust, Israel was compared to Islamic State and Zionists were said to have power over Parliament. Jenny Tonge, a baroness who hosted this showcase of anti-Semitic lies on behalf of the Palestinian Return Center, was launching a campaign to press Britain to apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which promised to create a home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The precincts of Westminster ought never again be desecrated by anti-Semites acting on behalf of Islamist lobbyists. But an avalanche of such propaganda can be expected, as Palestinians exploit next year's anniversary to mobilize support for their delegitimization of Israel. It is vital to put the record straight: Israel is not and never has been a colonial enterprise. Zionism is the political expression of the legitimate aspiration of Jews to have their own state. The demographic context of such increasingly visible anti-Semitism is Europe's rapidly growing Muslim population. There is panic in the political establishment about how to halt the rising tide of radicalization in these communities. All too often, appeasement and hypocrisy prevail, with Israel becoming the scapegoat.