By Ben Cohen
British Jews have generally been a patriotic bunch.
Those of us who grew up there were frequently served reminders as to why we should be proud to be both British and Jewish. Ours was the country that bravely repelled the Nazi invasion while the rest of Europe found itself under German occupation. Ours was the country where politicians of all stripes — from the great wartime Conservative Party Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the distinguished Labour Party Speaker of the House of Commons Richard Crossman — not only declared their sympathies with Zionism but understood the historical and moral impulses behind it.
Ours was the country where, as George Orwell put it, “antisemitism as a fully thought-out racial or religious doctrine has never flourished.”
None of this meant that Britain was perfect. As is the case in every country with a Jewish community, as well as many without one, there were plenty of far-right antisemites, Arabist Israel-haters and far-left anti-Zionists to keep an eye on.
But in the post-war era, public expressions of antisemitism were largely frowned upon and therefore saved for private encounters. As Orwell provocatively observed in the same essay, “Thanks to Hitler … you had a situation in which the press was in effect censored in favor of the Jews while in private antisemitism was on the upgrade, even, to some extent, among sensitive and intelligent people.”
That overarching point no longer holds true. Indeed, it hasn’t been true since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — whose 24th anniversary the world just marked — ushered in an era of confrontation between the West and significant elements of the Islamic world, with the issue of Israel among those at its core.
In a sign of this shift, two days before the 9/11 commemorations, the House of Commons was treated to a blatantly antisemitic speech by one of its members. That was Shockat Adam, a Labour parliamentarian allied with the extreme left who represents a constituency, Leicester South, where nearly 40% of the population is composed of Muslims.
Addressing the recent targeting of Hamas leaders in Qatar by Israel, Adam invoked “the blood-soaked tentacles of the Israeli army.”
The metaphor is a tired and familiar one, but deadly nonetheless. In the fevered imaginations of antisemitic conspiracy theorists, Jews play the role of an octopus, slyly wrapping their multiple tentacles around the media, the global economy and our political institutions. Look through the archive of antisemitic posters or illustrated covers of publications like the fabricated “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” and you will see it plainly: an octopus crowned by a Star of David clutching the globe in an ever-firmer grasp. It is precisely this sinister vision of Jewish power that animates politicians like Adam and their acolytes in the pro-Hamas protest movement.
In the Britain that I was brought up to believe existed, a statement like Adam’s — in the hallowed halls of parliament no less — would have led to hoots of disdain and disapproval among the assembled legislators. In this case, however, it was greeted by a thundering silence.
That silence was all the more striking given the results of a poll conducted by YouGov for the Campaign Against Antisemitism organization. More than one-fifth of respondents agreed with four antisemitic statements put to them, marking an increase of 10% in just four years.
Nearly half the population (45%) believes that Israel treats the Palestinians as the Nazis treated the Jews, a statistic that reveals a shocking ignorance of both the industrialized extermination that distinguished the Nazi Holocaust, as well as the origins and nature of the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel. What it also reveals is an almost visceral desire to insult Jews in the most wounding way possible by comparing the Jewish state that emerged from the Holocaust with those who sought to annihilate the Jewish people in their entirety.
Other findings in the poll are similarly alarming. One-fifth of the young voters surveyed believe that Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state. In the same demographic, 58% believe that Israel and its supporters “are a bad influence on our democracy.” Some 19% believe that the Hamas pogrom in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was justified.
Real-world consequences accompany these views.
In the space of a little more than a week, eight antisemitic incidents have been recorded in the North London neighborhood of Golders Green, which has long had a significant Jewish population. Seven of those incidents were likely carried out or orchestrated by the same person — a man in a hoodie caught on CCTV smearing excrement on Jewish community buildings. His latest target was a synagogue and its adjoining infant nursery.
As is the case in France and other countries on the European continent, many British politicians, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, routinely give voice to their horror when faced with incidents like these. And, as in France and those other countries, those condemnations sound increasingly stale because the noble, high-minded intentions behind them are not shared by those who enforce the law.
Instead of implementing the right of Jewish citizens to live free from harassment with conviction and determination, the British authorities have assessed the situation as “Jews vs. pro-Palestinian demonstrators,” a doctrine of equivalence that all too often ignores the blatant antisemitism on display at the pro-Hamas rallies that take place in nearly every major British city, as well as in smaller towns where many residents have never even met a Jew.
In a famous article in which he expressed support for Zionism and warned Jews against the attractions of Bolshevism, Churchill approvingly quoted Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th-century prime minister born into a Sephardic Jewish family, opining that “the Lord deals with the nations as the nations deal with the Jews.”
As evidence, Churchill cited the “miserable state” of Russia, pointing out that it was no accident that of all the countries in the world, this was where “the Jews were most cruelly treated” and expressing relief that Britain had not followed the same path.
Yet such exceptionalism is no more. Britain may have exited the European Union, but the continent’s oldest form of political and social poison did not depart alongside. If it is to retain its Jewish population — throughout the centuries, a loyal and tiny community that eschewed any form of violence or extremism, always looking to the political establishment for solutions — it should heed Disraeli’s insight. And before it’s too late. ■
Ben Cohen is a senior analyst with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and director of FDD’s rapid response outreach.
The UK is a lost cause.