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Britain's Self-Image as Tolerant and Decent Is Being Smashed

(Telegraph-UK) Allister Heath - We thought that we had progressed decisively as a society, that we had vanquished racism and religious discrimination, that the institutions of our liberal state would prevent a minority from facing persecution, and that our ruling class would never allow any subset of the population to be openly hated and othered again. How wrong we were. That antisemitism, the oldest of hatreds, is back on the streets and screens of Britain, is terrifying enough; but the fact that this explosion of prejudice is being treated in such a cavalier fashion by the authorities and the mainstream broadcast media - and in some cases is even being rationalized and normalized - is a catastrophic development that casts doubt about Britain's very future. This is the worst moment for Britain's Jews since the pogroms that disgraced Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester in the summer of 1947. The double-standards, the never-ending "pro-Palestine" marches that are inevitably marred by egregious, open antisemitism and evil slogans, the bullying, the victim-blaming, the spreading of fake news, the willful, blatant lies and denialism of Hamas' atrocities, the obsessive interest in, and delegitimization of, Israel - a state that accounts for just 0.25% of the Middle East's landmass, is its only multi-religious democracy and which is fighting for survival against neighbors that reject its very existence - stink of a replay of the 1930s. Antisemites never just target Jews. They are full-service, equal opportunity bigots who oppress and impoverish and destroy all that they touch, and despise freedom and human flourishing. The writer is editor of the Sunday Telegraph.
2024-02-16 00:00:00
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