Both global left and Israeli right threaten Jewish safety

In the aftermath of October  7, academic and political elite across the West rushed to excuse these barbarous attacks against Israelis as Jews – frequently in terms that drew on the full repertoire of antisemitic tropes: “There are no civilians in Israel”, “All Israelis are legitimate targets”, “Zionism is Nazism”, “Zionists killed Israelis on October 7”, “Claims of mass rape was Zionist propaganda”, and so on.

This response requires us to revisit some core assumptions about liberal and progressive elites and the institutions that they run.

Thomas Picketty coined the expression ‘Brahmin elites’, to describe how from the 1970s left-wing parties came to be dominated by highly-educated elites that were culturally liberal, supported environmental causes and preoccupied with questions of identity. These elite populists have more and more taken up the ‘Palestinian cause’ as their own.

This new revolution reproduces cliches about Jews and ‘Zionists’ drawn from Nazi, Arab-Nazi and Stalinist propaganda. These are racist tropes that have gained respectability in the current moment because their origins are hidden.

Contemporary anti-Zionist politics, including amongst self-identifying Jewish organisations, correctly reject and oppose the chauvinism, racism and violence of Israeli governments, all the while shielding, legitimising and excusing spaces contaminated with antisemites. Anti-Zionist spaces are largely new spaces of Jew hatred.