Download REDEFINING ANTI-SEMITISM

REDEFINING ANTI-SEMITISM
The False Anti-Racism of the Right
Tony Greenstein
UNTIL QUITE RECENTLY, the term 'anti-Semitism referred almost exclusively to organisations
and individuals of the Right. Not surprisingly, "it was Leftist parties and organisations that opened
their doors and positions to Jews, and it was Leftists who most vociferously challenged antiSemitism. Conversely, throughout the 19th and 20th Century Europe, it was the Right that typically
promoted anti-Semitism and sought to limit the economic, social and political rights of Jews. " 1 Yet
today the accusation of 'anti-Semitism' is as likely as not to be directed by the Right against the
Left. It has long been the practice to accuse supporters of the Palestinians and opponents of
Zionism, including Jewish anti-Zionists of 'anti-Semitism'. Now however the term 'Left antiSemitism' has come into fashion as a more general term of abuse. 2
On May 9 1990, 34 gravestones in the Jewish cemetery of Carpentras in France were daubed with swastikas
and the body of a newly-interred man was dug up and impaled upon a spike. A few days later, another
cemetery, at Clichy-sur-Bois in Paris, was also attacked. A quarter of a million people led by President Mitterand
marched through Paris in protest. Similar outrages have since occured in Germany and Britain, with
cemeteries in Manchester, Leeds and London being targeted.3 In Eastern Europe, there has been an accompanying
growth of anti-Semitism, as pre-War political formations are resurrected from within their politically-frozen
economies.
TURNING A BLIND EYE
The response from the official representatives of the Jewish community in Britain, the Board of Deputies of British
Jews, has been depressingly familiar. Set up to convey loyal greetings to King George III, 230 years ago, its last
major battle of any consequence was for Emancipation of the Jewish bourgeoisie in the mid-19th Century. Always a
faithful representative of the Jewish political and religious Establishment, today it
is a totally Zionist creature. But it has always had a consistent policy regarding
fascism and anti-Semitism - ignore it and it will go away.
After an attack on an Ilford synagogue, "The congregation was allegedly told not to
tell reporters about the incident. ", 4 When an arson attempt was made on the
Simon Marks Jewish Primary School in North London, the Chairperson of the
Governors, Mr Shipton, explained that it was "important not to overstate the
importance of this attack... This sentiment was echoed by the President of the Board
of Deputies [BOD] Greville Janner QC MP. " 5 In response to the daubing of
Edmonton cemetery the Board's reaction was strangely familiar. They attempted to
cover up the attacks altogether, reducing those that had taken place to 'copycat
vandalism' (rather than anti-Semitism) and arguing that without publicity the
fascists, sorry vandals, would soon lose heart.
And then they fell back on an excuse that even the Board in Moseley's time didn't
"We British will not tolerate racial
use: Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are one and the same thing, and noone can
intolerance". Cartoon from
accuse us of not fighting the former. Indeed they've done little else! In a four-page
Combat, paper of the British
Board insert, an article on anti-Semitic attacks is accompanied by two photographs
Movement.
from Palestinian (not fascist demonstrations as one might expect) and its advice is to
report to the Police "any act of anti-Semitism, whether it is the receipt of antiJewish or anti-Israeli literature. " 6 In reply to criticism that the Board won't organise public demonstrations against
anti-Semitism, the President, Lionel Kopelowitz, states that in 1981 a demonstration was organised - against the PLO! 7
Where the Board has trodden, the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) have followed. When the protests against Patrick
Harrington, the NF activist at North London Polytechnic, was at its height, its Chairperson Matthew Kalman explained
that "To have joined the extreme Left in their violent and illegal actions would only have added more fuel to the
NF's propaganda victory at PNL." (8)
The Right-wing Zionist Jewish Awareness Group includes among its basic aims "combating anti-S emit is m a n d a n ti Zio n is m nationally" and "monitoring media anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. " 9
By redefining anti-Zionism as 'left' anti-Semitism, the Board and the Zionists conveniently excuse themselves from
the need to tackle the real anti-Semites. And as Eric Moonman, Vice-President of the Board explained, "it has become
more and more difficult to d i s t i n g u i s h b e t w e e n t h e antisemitism of far Right literature and the antiZionism of the far Left. " 10
When Dundee Council twinned with Nablus on the West Bank and flew the Palestinian flag over the town hall, there
was a massive campaign aimed at convincing Jews that the daubing of anti-Semitic graffiti in Dundee was due to the
actions of the Labour Council. 'Swastikas in Dundee follow PLO coup' screamed the fro nt page o f the Jewish
Chronicle. 11
This is the response of a Jewish establishment whose primary fear has always been that any mass-based movement
against racism and fascism would inevitably come into conflict with the capitalist system, its police and its courts.
Hence the Board has always confined its activities to lobbying MPs and sending delegations to the Home
Secretary and Police Commissioner. Zionism and support for Israel mesh in well with the economic and political
interests of the Jewish Establishment. It serves its class interests to put an equals sign between anti-Semitism and
anti-Zionism, for which one should read the Left.
Today the New Right claim to be opponents of anti-Semitism. The late, u n l a m e n t e d F e d e r a t i o n o f Conservative
Students, even while harbouring neo-Nazis within their ranks, unanimously condemned anti-Semitism at their Conference.
12
And Reagan's Republican Party, in response to the Zionist furore over Jesse Jackson, voted at its 1984 Party
Convention to condemn anti-Semitism unanimously. Even neo-fascist groups, eg. the French cultural and academic
racist group, GRECE, opposes 'anti-Semitism'. 13
The Rise of Zionism
When, in the late 19th Century, the Zionist movement began it was a small minority amongst western Jews. Zionism
was a political reaction of the Jewish petit -bourgeoisie in Eastern Europe to the political and economic antiSemitism of their non-Jewish competitors. The latter, faced with the crisis of the East European economies, vented
their hatred on the Jews. In Leon's memorable phrase, the Jews found themselves "wedged between the anvil of
decaying feudalism and the hammer of rotting capitalism. " 14
In Poland, where over 3 million Jews lived, the number of village stores that were Jewish declined from 72% in 1914 to
34% in 1935. 15 Even in Weimar Germany there was a growing impoverishment of this most affluent and
assimilated Jewish community in Europe. Its share of the metal trade dropped from 71. 7% to 57. 3% between 1923
and 1930 and the number of Berlin Jews with taxable incomes over 5 000 DM fell from 10. 6% to 5. 8% between 1912
and 1924. By 1932, some 50 000 German Jews were estimated to be unemployed. 16
Zionism was the typical separatist reaction of a marginalised middle class. It expressed their desire for a Promised Land,
a haven from the storms of anti-Semitism, that involved neither conflict with the anti-Semitic Right nor an alliance
with the working class. Zionism s h a r e d t h e s a me p o l i t i c al assumptions as the anti-Semites, who argued that the
Jews were living in 'Exile' (Galut), that their 'home' was really Palestine. In pre-war Poland, "The most fanatical enemies
of Zion ism were p recisely the workers... they were the most determined opponents of the idea of an emigration
from Eastern Eu rop e... In th e idea of an evacuation from the countries in which they had their homes and in
which their ancestors had lived for centuries, the anti-Zionists saw an abdication of their rights, a yielding to hostile
pressure, a surrender to anti-Semitism. To them anti-Semitism seemed to triumph in Zionism, which recognised
the legitimacy and validity of the old cry: 'Jews, get out!' The Zionists were agreeing to 'get out'. " 17
And this still holds true today. When Patrick Kavanagh, National Front candidate in the Westminster South by-election,
was asked where Jews deported under an NF government would go, he replied: "This is where
the State of Israel canes into the picture. The idea of the State was to provide a home for those Jews in various parts
of the world who wanted to emigrate. " 18
In Poland it was the Bund, a mass anti-Zionist Jewish party which took up the struggle against anti-Semitism and for
better material conditions. But "the Zionists considered the struggle a waste of time because they saw no future for
Jews in the so-called diaspora. " 19
As the Israeli poet, novelist and Jewish Agency emissary AB Yehoshua noted in a lecture to the Union of Jewish
Students: "Anti-Zionism is not the product of the non-Jews. On the contrary, the Gentiles have always encouraged
Zionism, hoping that it would help to rid them of the Jews in their midst. Even today, in a perverse way, a real
anti-Semite must be a Zionist. " 20
The Jews: Modern and Ancient
Contrary to the religious myths of Zionism, it is not religion that explains the survival of the Jews: Rather it is the
Jews who explain the survival of the religion. "Judaism has survived not in spite of history but by virtue of history. " 21
In ancient times the Jews, like the Phoenicians and others, were forced into becoming a trading people because
Palestine was unable to provide a living for the majority of its inhabitants, hence their dispersal, their
involvement in commerce and the recurrence of 'Jewish' stereotypes. The same is true of the Scots and the Chinese
(often called the Jews of Asia) who were also traders. 22 In the feudal era, when production was almost exclusively
for consumption, the Jews were agents of money, (money lenders, stewards of estates, tax collectors etc.) within
societies based on use values. Anti-Semitism was primarily the economic antagonism of the peasants and others they lent
to. This social and economic role of the Jews was expressed in the religion eg. usury which had been forbidden in Biblical
times was permitted by the Rabbinical Talmud.
As capitalism developed in western Europe from the 12th Century onwards, the Jews' economic and social position
became more unstable, with peasant massacres such as that in York. Most Jews were expelled or fled into Eastern
Europe where capitalism didn't develop until the 18th Century. It was because of the uneven development of
capitalism in Europe and its rise and decay in Eastern Europe, with the mass emigration of Jews back into Western Europe,
that the Jewish Question and anti-Semitism reemerged. For the Zionists, anti-Semitism is merely a 2 000 year
continuum. But as Abram Leon, a Belgian Trotskyist who died in Auschwitz, observed "Zionism transposes modern antiSemitism to all of history: it saves itself the trouble of studying the various forms of anti-Semitism and their
evolution. "
23
It was the ability of Adolph Sto cker 's C hristia n So cial Movement, Heinrich Class's 200 000 strong Pan
German League (b anned in 1 922 after the assassination of Walter Rathenau) and finally the Nazis, to borrow on
the feudal memory of the Jews and to forge an unbroken chain between the Jews of the Middle Ages and modern
bankers and capitalism, that enabled anti-Semitism to be fashioned into an effective political instrument, that helped
ensure fascism's triumph in Germany. The Jews became capitalism personified, a false anti-capitalism, at one and the
same time as they were also synonymous with Marxism! Not for nothing had Engels described anti-Semitism as "a
reactionary movement of decaying, medieval social groups against society... it is a variety of socialism. " 24
It was the retribution imposed upon German capitalism post-Versailles coupled with its loss of colonies and markets abroad
(hence Lebensraum that ensured that the 'normal' racism of colonialism became reflected internally as anti-Semitism.
As the German petit-bourgeoisie searched for home markets, the barons of heavy industry yearned for a new
imperial German identity. Coupled with their desire to destro y Germany's strong labour movement (characterised
as Judeo-Bolshevik) this resulted in the Jews being singled out. For Hitlerism, the Jews were the all-purpose
explanation for the ills that affected their respective constituencies - peasant, unemployed and middle-class.
Zionism, a product of the late colonial era, coincided with a process of social differentiation amongst East European
Jews and the creation of a Jewish working class. Ironically the Zionists, especially the 'Marxist' (Mapam) followers of
Ber Borochov, held that in 'e xile' the social structure of the Jews resembled that of an 'inverted pyramid' and in
consequence would lack a "strategic b a s e o f st r u g g l e. " A Je w i sh working class could only develop when the
Jews had "political territorial autonomy in Palestine. " Borochov considered the Jewish class struggle in Russia
as "essentially hopeless" 25
Yet it was precisely in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century that there was an explosion in Jewish strikes and
struggles. 26 The most revolutionary section of the Russian working class was Jewish. Not for nothing did the
reactionaries and f a s c i s t s c a l l M a r x i s m a n d Bolshevism a Jewish creation. It is estimated that some 50% of those
arrested by the Czarist regime for revolutionary activities between 1900 and 1905 were Jewish. In Germany
" C o m m u n i s t i n r o a d s w e r e especially deep among young Zionists and Eastern Jews... So troubled were
Zionists by these developments that they held special anti-Communist meetings for young audiences... against what they
contemptuously labelled 'red assimilationism. " 27
Anti-Semitism in Britain
In Britain some one hundred and fifty thousand Jewish refugees entered between 1881 and 1914. "The AngloJewish leadership, for its part, was dismayed and terrified by the mass immigration. '' 28 The Jewish immigrants
rapidly took up the fight to improve their own working and living conditions in conjunction with the non-Jewish
working class. They formed their own unions beginning with the Leeds Jewish Working Tailors' Trade
Society in 1876 which by 1913, as the Leeds Jewish Tailors' Machinists' and Pressers Union had 4 465 members
and was affiliated to the TUC. In 1899, the Committee for Jewish Unemployed struck for a 12 hour day including
one and a half hour breaks. The Strike Committee of the London dockers gave £100 as did other trade union
branches. It was the class struggle that helped forge the links that would stop Moseley British Union of Fascists in
t h e 1 9 3 0 's. F o r t h e J e w i sh Chronicle (nothing much changes!) what was worrying was "the leadership of men
conspicuously a s s o c i a t e d w i t h S o c i a l i s t movements. " 29
Almost immediately the Tories played the racist card to try and divide the working class. The British Brothers
League was formed, led by the ardent Zionist Major William Evans-Gordon MP, to campaign against Jewish
immigration. 30 The fledgling English Zionist Federation gave its support, at both the 1 9 00 and 1 90 6 General
Elections, to the anti-Semitic East End Tories. The majority of Jews however voted Liberal. As Alderman
notes, this was "a telling verdict upon Zionist influence at the time. " 31 When the Aliens Bill of 1905 was introduced,
the Board confined, itself to suggesting polite amendments.
The British Labour Movement had been amongst those demanding immigration controls. Under pressure from the Jewish
workers, there were changes. It was the militancy of Jewish unions like the Manchester Jewish Tailors Union, which led
to Manchester Trades Council becoming the first such body to oppose the proposed Aliens Bill in 1903. However,
even for the left-Zionists, non-Jewish workers hadn't rejected anti-Semitism "rather they concealed it behind a newly
discovered economic identification with Jewish workers. " 32
When Moseley's fascists started organising in the East End of London it was the Jewish working class who fought
them. When Moseley declared his intention of marching through the East End on October 4 1936, there followed the
Battle of Cable Street, during which the fascists were routed. As a veteran of Cable Street, Charlie Goodman noted, "The
fascists were stopped despite the appeals published in the Jewish Chronicle from the Board of Deputies - shut your
doors, close your windows, stay away - and d e s p i t e th e t h r e a t s o f th e Association of Jewish Youth and certain
Jewish youth club leaders to expel members if they took part in the 'Stop Moseley' campaign. " 33 Many no n-Je wish
wo rkers, especially Irish dockers, were part of the anti-fascist mobilisation, which had been organised b y the
Communist Party, Independent Labour Party and the Jewish Peoples' Council. Wrote the Jewish Chronicle:
"indeed the non-Jews w e r e i n a v e r y m a r k e d preponderance in the crowds. "
In 1945 Phil Piratin was elected as Communist MP for Mile End constituency, with an estimated 50% of his 5 000 vote
coming from Jewish voters. Up till the end of the 2nd World War there was a highly politicised Jewish working
class, the majority of whom lived in the East End of London, but with sizeable segments in the northern industrial
towns, who looked to the Left as allies in the battle against Moseley's thugs and the police. Support for Zionism
rose and fell inversely with the fight against anti-Semitism, "Zionism was not a guaranteed vote winner. " Indeed it
could have "serious electoral drawbacks" in the East End of the l930's. 34 Zionism with its emphasis on the
Jewish nation, sought to minimise internal Jewish class conflict and separate off Jewish from non-Jewish workers.
Those Zionists who took part in the struggle against Moseley did so, not because of but despite Zionism.
British Jewry Today
With the expansion of capitalism in western Europe after the war, the Jews were able to move out of the inner cities
and enter an expanded middle class. "By 1961, over 40% of Anglo-Jewry was located in the upper 2 social classes,
whereas these categories accounted for less than 20% of the general population. '' 35 Not surprisingly, British Jewry,
which up till the '50's had voted Labour, slowly but surely moved towards the Conservative Party. By February
1974, Jewish support was "a crucial element" in the Conservative, John Gorst's victory at Hendon North (with the largest
number of Jewish voters in any constituency). And in October v'74, with a national swing to Labour, Jewish support
was "absolutely vital. " in the Tories retaining the seat. (36) Indeed there was a swing towards Gorst of 9. 2% among
Jews between February and October '74.
As the Jews moved out of the East End to the suburbs, so their places were taken by the new immigrants from the
Indian sub-continent. As Geoffrey Alderman, a member of the BOD writes "the face of London Jewry (where over
half of Britain's Jews live) has also changed. It is, arguably more bourgeois now than at any time since the midnineteenth century, and it is certainly more Conservative: at the last 4 general elections Jewish support for the
Tories in Hendon North, Ilford North and Finchley has ranged from 52 to 68%; even in Hackney North it was (1979) as
high as 36%. " 37 For the first time since the war, there are now more Jewish Conservative MPs than Labour.
As has been noted "the rise of Western Jewry to unparalleled influence and high status has led to the near
disappearance of a Jewish proletariat of any size: indeed the Jews may become the first ethnic group in history
without a working class of any size... only since the 1950's has Western Jewry as a whole risen into the uppermiddle class and the Jewish proletariat transformed itself into a near universal Jewish bourgeoisie. " 38 Maybe this is an
exaggeration and more typical of American Jewry, but the trends are clear.
There are 2 factors involved in the flight to the right among Jewish voters. The first is economic, the second
political. In so far as British Jewry is predominantly middle/upper middle class, it will vote accordingly. Secondly
Rubinstein, and also Alderman, suggest that because "support for Israel declines and support for the PLO
increases as one moves further to the left" Jewish voters again tend to support the Conservative Party. 39 Indeed
Alderman suggests that support for Israel was "the issue" in Hendon North in the two 1974 General Elections. I
suspect that the question of Israel is somewhat less important, more a rationale than a reason for voting patterns. In
fact Jews started voting Conservative when the Labour Party was still pro-Zionist. Of course support for Israel as a
strategic ally of the West goes hand in hand with Conservative, pro-imperialist politics. “ In so fa r a s the Righ t exists
to protect capitalism, it automatically serves the interests of Jews in the We s t e r n w o r l d t o d a y, a s a prosperous
elite... " 40
Neither can any serious anti-fascist or anti-racist strategy ignore that there is no longer a specifically Jewish working
class in Britain today. Of course there are pockets of the Jewish poor and the unemployed, of whom a high proportion are
elderly.
Faced with this dilemma, the radicalised Jewish intelligentsia strives to bridge the gap between past memories of
Jewish working class struggle and the present Conservative and Zionist Jewish majority and its support for the Israeli
state. This causes a permanent identity crisis for those such as the Jewish Socialists Group Hence the attempt to find
solace in the cultural artefacts of the Yiddish speaking Jewish working class and Bundism. Non-Zionism becomes a
permanent balancing act, an attempt to face both ways at once.
Jewish Identity Today
Today the number of British Jews is less than 330 000 and declining. One third are marrying out. 41 What is it that holds
Jews together in Britain to d a y? T h e a n s wer l ie s i n identification with the Israeli state. "Within the so-called
'central orthodox' elements, support for Israel has acquired a centrality rivalling, and perhaps even
surpassing, that of the synagogue. " 42 As Jewish identity have become primarily a POLITICAL identity, the religion and
culture has consequently been Zionised. As Nathan Glazer, a leading neo-Conservative explains: "Israel is now the
religion of American Jews - and of course, of a l l o t h er d ia sp o ra J ew i sh communities... " Indeed Rubinstein
goes further and suggests that "the destruction of Israel would probably destroy Jewish religious and communal
practice in the Western world.... Israel is the living embodiment of the Jewish religion. '' 43 It is because of this that
religious, political, cultural and ethnic identity have become intertwined. Hence the accusation that anti-Semitism equals
anti-Zionism. Barry Shenker of the Institute of Jewish Affairs and a former Chairperson of Mapam (Britain), argues
"Denials of anti-Semitism by anti-Zionists can usually be taken at face value. But the anti-Semitism they are
referring to is barely an issue for Jews today. What Jews are concerned with is threats to the components of their
Jewish identity, hence denials of Israel's right to exist is understood as anti-Semitism. " 44 It is the political change
in Jewish identity, itself largely a consequence of a changing class structure, that has pushed the Jewish community to the
Right and divorced it from anti-racist and anti-fascist work.
Jew ish Reaction s to th e NF
During the early 1970's, the National Front seemed unstoppable. In 1973 they obtained 17% in the West Bromwich byelection and they beat the Liberals into 4th place in by-e l e c t i o n s i n N e w h a m a n d Birmingham Stechford. In 1976
two candidates of the fascist National Party gained council seats in Blackburn. In the 1977 GLC elections the
NF gained 119 000 votes and in Leicester they obtained an average of 19%
It was in this context that the Anti-Nazi League was formed in November
1977. It rapidly became a mass movement that exposed the Nazi core at the
heart of the NF's British nationalism and reduced them to that core.
Their young, white periphery deserted them in droves. Yet the reaction of
the Jewish Establishment was one of total hostility. Earlier in the year "Officers
of the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women launched an attack
on the Manchester-based Jewish Socialists Group and other 'fringe defence
groups'. Its national President, Cecil Hyams, stated 'We are not prepared to be
drawn into street fights by our coat tails just because the extremists want it. ' " 45
And after the clashes at the NF's Lewisham demonstration, when for the first time
the police had donned riot gear on the mainland (even with massive police
protection the NF got less than a third of the way along their route) "Strong
condemnation of the violence that had ensued in clashes between ultra-left
elements and the police and NF was voiced... Mr Savitt (Chair of the Defence
Committee) stressed that the Board's policy as far as NF marches was concerned
was that they should be boycotted. " 46
These attacks on the Left caused dissension within sections of the Jewish community. 47 But the anti-Zionism of the SWP
and Peter Hain, who formed part of the leadership of the Anti-Nazi League was treated as more important than the
growth of a fascist party. Zionists who did participate, like Miriam Karlin, faced extreme hostility: "I'm branded a
leftist extremist for being on the steering committee of the ANL, which seems to be the only group standing up
against racism.. It really hurts when people I thought knew better accuse me of disloyalty. ' 48 When the ANL was formed,
almost immediately a right-wing Zionist Labour MP, Maurice Orbach withdrew as a sponsor. Orbach "felt that the
appointment of Mr Peter Hain as Press Officer of the League was questionable in view of Mr Hain's known
support for the Palestinians and anti-Zionist causes. " 49 And in reply to a letter from Hain, the SWP's Paul
Holborow and Neil Kinnock MP (!), which argued for the overriding importance of anti-fascist unity, (50) Orbach
wrote that "/ still believe that the blackest day since Hitler was the appearance at the UN of Yassir Arafat. " 51
Searchlight anti-fascist magazine, observed that "In the face of mounting attacks against the Jewish community both
ideologically and physically, we have the amazing sight of the Jewish Board of Deputies launching an attack on the Anti
Nazi League with all the fervour of Kamikaze pilots... It was as though they were watching a time capsule rerun of
the 1930's, in the form of a flickering old movie, with a grim determination to repeat every mistake of that era. " 52
Jewish Racism
Although the Aliens Act of 1905 was brought in to deal with Jewish immigration, this was not true of post-1945
immigration legislation, which was directed primarily at Black people, from what is euphemistically termed the 'New
Commonwealth'. British Jews had become 'white' for the purposes of immigration control.
The issue of Jewish, anti-Black racism is a subject usually avoided and kept under wraps. Yet the Jewish community
is little different in their attitudes and beliefs than other sections of the white population.
In the 1979 General Election it was estimated that 1. 8% of the Jewish population in Hackney, some 360 people, had
voted for the National Front 53 This racism is particularly marked among orthodox Jews. Similarly there was the
phenomenon of Jewish candidates standing for the NF. 54
There was a report of 50 Orthodox religious families who had decided to set up their own village because "We have had
enough problems of inner London... the coloured community was growing at a 'phenomenal rate' In Hackney, for
example, over 50 per cent of the under-20's were Asians." 55 And in a study of 50 Jewish residents in central
Hackney, Dr Yona Ginzberg found that many of the respondents, "attributed the deterioration (of the area)...
mainly to the presence of black people... most of the Jewish people interviewed expressed some anti-black
sentiments which occasionally echoed the arguments voiced by the National Front. 56
Another indication that Jewish people are politically and ethnically a part of the overall white population was the byelection in Ilford North in 1978. The Jewish Labour candidate, Milly Miller, had gained it with a majority of 778 in
October 1974 and the Tories were determined to win it back. Sir Keith Joseph, a Thatcherite before Thatcher, came to
Ilford North in the wake of Thatcher's notorious 'swamping' speech, to make a direct bid for a racist, and a
Jewish racist, vote. "Britain... is the homeland of its indigenous peoples... The immigration problem is not so much
one of colour as of numbers and culture. There is a limit to the numbers of people from different cultures that this
country can digest. The electors, of Ilford N, including the Jews... have good reason for supporting Margaret Thatcher
and t h e C o n s e r v a t i v e P a r t y o n immigration. '' 57 And despite a furious reaction from such luminaries of the
Jewish Establishment as Lord Fisher of Camden, (who mostly objected to Sir Keith's appeal to a 'Jewish vote'
rather than his racist sentiments), not only did the Tories win the seat on a swing of 6. 9%, itself unremarkable, "but
among Jewish voters the swing to the Conservatives was a massive 11. 2%. " 58 When Antony Lerman, in his
capacity as media columnist of the Jewish Chronicle, referred in passing to "ambiguity about racism and race
relations generally - Jewish racism being the dirty secret of our time'" 59 there was a furious reaction. He was accused by,
amongst others, the former Thatcher guru, 'JC' leader writer and Le Pen supporter, Sir Alfred Sherman, of "Jewish
self hate and loony Leftism. " 60
Anti-Semitism and Anti-Black Racism
It is an incontrovertible fact that Jews in Britain today do not experience State racism - immigration controls, police
harassment, racial attacks on council estates, job discrimination, internal passport controls. These are directed at Black
people. "Traditional anti-Semitism (which) directs itself a g a in s t q u a li tie s wh ich a r e considered intrinsic to the Jews
collectively... manifested in discriminative acts, either through the laws of the land or in informal ways... barely
exists in the modern world. " 61 In so far as Jews experience anti-Semitism today, it is primarily of an interpersonal,
social variety e.g. being barred from a golf club.
What distinguishes anti-Semitism from anti-Black racism today is not si n g le cla s s v s cro s s c la s s scapegoatism, 62
but the fact that anti-Black racism is the racism of economic exploitation and labour control - social, educational and
political discrimination - backed up by state repression and ideological legitimisation. Anti-Semitism, the fascists
notwithstanding, operates on the margins of today's society. Whether it will remain there indefinitely is another
question.
In Britain in the early 20th Century, anti-Semitism was primarily a result of competition for housing and jobs between
the newly-arrived Jewish immigrants and the white working class, which the ruling class was happy to exploit. It
was not a racism born of colonialism directly, but of the divisions between the East European and imperialist
nations.
Anti-Black racism has its origins in the sla ve trad e, in the vast accumulation of wealth by British capitalism, the
use of super-exploited Black labour in the colonies and its importation into Britain when labour needs demanded. When
Black people came to this country, they were recruited as unskilled workers, the most exploited section of the British
working class. And it was intended that they remain as such. The racism that derived from colonialism was a powerful
expression of the needs and mode of operation of British capitalism vis a vis its marginally privileged and
economically militant white working class, with its, craft legacy and illusions of Empire. If anti-Black racism only existed
on the level of ideological stereotypes, crude scapegoatism or interpersonal racism, it would have disappeared long ago. It
is its centrality to British class society that ensures its survival and vigour.
Fascist and far-Right Anti-Semitism
The fascist groups are the one consistent repository of traditional anti-Semitism. For them anti -Semitism
operates as a conspiracy theory that provides them with a 'coherent' world view. Even so the main focus of their
attacks is on Black not Jewish people. A casual glance at fascist papers demonstrates that anti-Black racism provides
its main focus. Traditional anti-Semitism is too far removed fro m the experience of the white working class to
provide a basis around which to organise. It marks the difference between the common and garden racist and the
committed fascist. Anti-Semitism proved to be the fascists' Achilles heel in the '70's, the question is whether it
will do so again. Yet the attitude of many in the Jewish community was to relate only to the NF's anti-Black racism:
"On more than one occasion I have heard a Jewish opinion that the NF is after Blacks not Jews. " 63 However
with Le Pen having gained 14% in the Presidential elections and his candidate Mme. Stirbois 60% in a parliamentary
by-election, it is clear that anti-Semitism is not necessarily a handicap, least of all to being courted by the bourgeois
Right. What is crucial is the nature of the opposition, in the case of France SOS Racism's multi-culturalist approach has
proved disastrous. And it isn't French Jews (the largest such community in Western Europe) but Arabs who are the
FN's main targets. Indeed it was not so long ago that: "Jews in general, and Israel in particular, have come in for some
u n e x p e c t e d - n o t t o s a y embarrassing - praise from an unusual source - Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen... he did not
have the slightest doubt that the Jewish people had been subjected to the 'most abominable persecution' by the
Nazis... Mr Le Pen denounced current efforts by the French Government to curry favour with the Arab nations
in order to put a brake on terrorists. " (64) Even fascist groups, especially those with a strong base, understand
the limitations of anti-Semitism.
With the possibility of a Kinnock Government on the horizon, and a recession to accompany it, the fascists could gain
a new lease of life and anti-Semitism could have a certain attraction for sections of the British middle-class.
The Guinness Affair is instructive. Anti-Semitic articles appeared in 4 major newspapers - Clifford Longley in The Times,
Today, Graham Patterson in the Sunday Telegraph and Patience Wheatcroft in the Daily Mail, about a 'Kosher Nostra'.
Even worse, Zionist historian David Cesarani sought to justify and rationalise their nonsense: "There is a perfectly
respectable case to make t h a t t h e J e w i s h o r i g i n o f malefactors, as well as Nobel Prize w i n d e r s , i s m a t e r i a l t o
u n d ersta n d in g th e ir fa te o r fortune. '' 65
Anti-Semitism in the USA
The United States has the largest Jewish community in the world. It is a community that Israel uses, and relies on for
political and financial support. In the USA the Zionist organisations have developed a formidable political lobby injecting
money into campaigns to unseat or elect politicians hos tile or sympathetic to Israel respectively.
Since the end of the Vietnam war, there has been a massive swing to the right among the Jewish intelligentsia i n t h e
U S . " N o t a l l n e o - Conservatives are Jews, but most of its leading members are Jewish. "
(66)
It is in the USA that Blacks have been the most militant community and also made greater political advances than
any similar group in Europe. It is here that the conflict between the Jewish and Black communities has been most acute.
The use of 'anti-Semitism' as a political weapon has operated in two ways. It is used to both to attack anti-imperialist
campaigns 67 and Black economic gains. In the USA, Zionist Jewish groups - most notably the Anti Defamation League Bnai Brith (ADL) and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) - have opposed all affirmative action for Black
people. In New York where Black parents clashed with white, mainly Jewish teachers over who should run the schools,
the parents were accused of anti-Semitism. Similarly in the 1984 and 1988 Presidential elections Jesse Jackson was
made the main target of Zionist groups for his 'anti-Semitism' ie. support of the PLO and Palestinians. Nathan Perlmutter,
ADL Director, told an audience of 500 Jewish leaders in New York: "Let us put it plainly: we are dealing with a
person whose recorded expressions are those of an anti-Semite". 68 New York Mayor Ed Koch told Jews that they would
be "mad" to vote for Jackson in the Presidential primary. Their attacks on Louis Farrakhan, a reactionary Black
separatist who advocates a separate state for Blacks (a Black Zionist!), owed more to his positions on Nicaragua, Libya
and Palestine than to his undoubted anti-Semitism. But these attacks are extremely selective. When Reagan sent a letter of
support to Dr Roger Pearson, chairperson of the World Anti-Communist League
and founder of neo-Nazi Northern League W 69 it provoked hardly a murmur. Likewise Reagan's appointment of Lev
Dobriansky, a Russian emigre supporter of the Or g a n i s at io n o f U k r ai n i a n Nationalists, who participated in the
slaughter of Russian Jews by the Nazis, as Ambassador to the Bahamas, raised little interest. 70 To say nothing of
Reagan's homage to the SS dead at Bitburg in 1985. 71 Noone doubted his commitments to Israel however.
Black Anti-Semitism
The antagonism of some Blacks towards Jews in the USA has little to do with Nazi race theory and plenty to do with
Jews being seen as a successful part of the white community, whose political clout has been directed against
Black advancement. It was the ADL, AJC and American Jewish Congress, which sponsored Alan Bakke in the landmark
case against the University of California, which "effectively prevented education institutions from operating admissions
programmes for blacks. " 72 As the New York correspondent noted "It was significant that President Ronald Reagan
recently replaced 3 liberal members of the Civil Rights Commission with 3 Jewish public figu res in clud ing Mr
Mo rris Abrams, formerly President of the American Jewish Committee, who are opposed to the implementing of quota
policies. " 73 This together with ADL campaigns to keep Blacks out of Jewish neighbourhoods and fascist Jewish
Defence League attacks on New York Blacks, helped create a climate of hostility between the two communities.
The identification of many Black Americans with the Palestinians, fighting against what is perceived to be a white
settler state in alliance with South Africa, led to the AJC and the ADL boycotting a march to remember the 20th
anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination. 74 Not surprisingly given the redefinition of anti-Zionism as antiSemitism "a recent poll carried out by the AJC indicated that antisemitism is more widespread among blacks than
whites. " 75 If this is to be believed, then we have to ask why it is that those who are the primary victims of racism are,
on the surface, the most anti-Semitic? More importantly, given their relative political and economic power "By the late
1970's, survey data had appeared which indicated that Jews were more anti-Black than non-Jewish whites. "
The 1978 Harris Survey showed that fewer Jews than non-Jews (21% vs 32%) wanted their children to go to school
with Blacks, fewer favoured residential integration (39% vs 46%) and fewer favoured full racial integration (25% vs
35%). ' 'Jewish fears of black crime and rioting, of 'reverse discrimination' programmes designed to aid blacks at the
expense of whites (including Jews) and of growing black political power... lies at the root of m u c h o f A m e r i c a n
J e w r y ' s disenchantment with left-liberalism. This first became evident during the I960's... " Positive
discrimination measures "were widely seen by Jews as a deliberate attempt by black leaders to reduce Jewish power in
urban America. According to Marvin Weitz, 'If we continue to support affirmative action programs, we only
encourage self-destruction. ' " 76 Nathan Glazer auth ored a b oo k 'Affirmative Discrimination' which "argued
against affirmative action in employment and housing, and also against school bussing to integrate schools in the
North. It is neo-Conservative's - and particularly Glazer's - attack on the post 1968 Civil Rights Movement that has
provided the intellectual legitimacy for the so-called Black-Jewish split in the United States which came to the surface
over the s a c k i n g o f A n d r e w Y o u n g a s Ambassador to the United Nations last year, but which was much more
about bussing and job quotas on the domestic front. " 77
None of which prevented the current editor, of Searchlight the anti-fascist magazine Gerry Gable, from participating
in a Robert Maxwell funded conference on Anti-Semitism & Anti-Zionism in 1984 with Glazer. 78
Third World Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism has proved a useful tool in the ideological offensive against 3rd world liberation movements. Not
surprisingly the ANC and other groups support the Palestinians' struggle for self-determination as part of a common
struggle for national liberation (Israel was the only state not invited by SWAPO to Namibia's independence
celebrations). As the late Nahum Goldmann, for mer President of the World Zionist Organisation and founder of
the World Jewish Congress wrote: "Today it (Israel) is isolated; only the USA continues to support it, in part
against its will, and its remaining friends are reactionary states like South Africa or the Nicaragua of
Somoza. " 79
As a consequence 3rd world national liberation struggles, and those who support them, become defined as 'anti-Semitic'.
The charge of anti-Semitism was employed in the campaign against Nicaragua. "Nicaragua's Left wing Sandanista
Government has forced the country's entire Jewish community into exile, confiscated Jewish owned p r o p e r t y a n d
t a k e n o v e r t h e synagogue in the capital Managua, according to the ADL Bnai-Brith... Nicaraguan Jews blame the
long standing and close ties between the Sandanistas and the PLO. " 80 Even the AJC admitted that "the small Jewish
community of Nicaragua fled the country, together with thousands of middle-class Christian Nicaraguans because they
feared the Marxist Government would expropriate the property of the bourgeois class... " 81 According to the Nicaraguan
Ambassador "The ADL by accusing Nicaragua in 1983 of actions which took place in 1979, is clearly making a direct
response to the White House's campaign to persuade ethnic groups and Jewish organisations to support President
Reagan's Central American policy. " 82
South Africa's Jewish community is historically the most pro-Zionist in the world. Contrary to popular belief, it has an
abysmal record regarding Apartheid.
Former South African MP Sam Kahn described its Board of Deputies as reacting "only to manifestations of
anti-Semitism. Racism against Jews is a moral issue, racism against Blacks is a political one in their view. "
Benjamin Pogrand, former deputy editor of the Rand Daily Mail "accused the Jews in that country of callously
linking up with the Nationalist government in support of the resettlement of the country's black population into
homelands. " (83)
South Africa's Bnai Brith protested that "South African Jews resented the calls by American Jewish o rg a n isa t io n s
fo r mo u n tin g pressure to be put on the South African government to end apartheid. " 84 The previous Chief Rabbi,
Bernard Casper, gave his full support to the Declaration of Emergency stating that "Far from being an act of
oppression, this step was necessary for the saving of life and the restoration of order. " 85 For the Chair of the South
African Board of Deputies' International Committee and South Africa's next Ambassador in Washington, Harry Schwartz
MP there is a "serious problem (of) a substantial body of opinion among the Black leadership (which) is anti-Zionist.
Many Black leaders support the ANC, which has links with the PLO. " 86 'Anti-Semites active in Soweto' read a report
from Joe Kuttner in Johannesburg. Apparently Soweto was flooded with leaflets calling for the boycott of South
African companies such as Barclays which trade with Israel. 87 UJS also attacked an ANC speaker, George Johannes, at
the 1986 National Union of Students Conference as anti-Semitic, for equating South Africa and Israel. 88 Is it surprising
that Black South Africans, making the connection between the all-white Jewish community, Israel's close military links
with the Apartheid regime and the fact that 20% of Jews immigrating are in fact South Africans.
Conclusion
The term Anti-Semitism is used today as a political weapon by Israel's supporters and the Jewish bourgeoisie, both to
intimidate those who criticise Israel and to prevent anti-racist and anti-fascist unity between Jews and the Left By
redefining anti-Semitism as anti-Zionism, the Left and Black people are portrayed as the main enemies of Jews,
not the fascists.
There is nothing that the real anti-Semites, the cemetery desecrators and swastika daubers, want more than to dress their
actions up in the guise of anti-Zionism and support for the Palestinians. Those who deliberately confuse anti-Semitism
and anti-Zionism are, wittingly or otherwise, legitimising anti-Semitism.
FOOTNOTES
1.
3.
4.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
A. Liebman, Anti-Semitism in American History, D. A. Gerber, University of Illinois Press, 1986. 'Anti-Semitism in the Left?'
p. 329. A. Liebman.
The charge of 'anti-Semitism* has been used, with almost monotonous regularity by Conservative councillors on Brent Council
(over half of whom were Jewish) against their political opponents. When accused, of racism against a Black interviewee, two Jewish
members of the interview panel responded with charges of 'anti-Semitism', Jewish Chronicle 10. 10, 86. Likewise Labour members were
accused of anti-Semitism by Tory councillors, including one Councillor Winter, whose views on Gypsies were that they were a "modem day
pestilence", "all of them little thieves. " (see 'Jewish Chronicle' 14. 11. 86., 28. 11. 86.
In Haifa, Israel 250 graves were daubed with slogans such as "The Arabs will kill the Jews. " The culprits were none other than 2
Zionists who had hoped to provoke a pogrom against local Palestinians (and nearly su cceeded). Knesset Member Rehavam Ze'evi called
for the expulsion of Israel’s Arabs. "Just as events in the French cemetery demonstrate that all French Jews should come to Israel, so the
desecration of Jewish graves in Israel itself proves that the Arabs should be removed from our midst. " (Independent 14. 5. 90, see
also Times and Daily Telegraph).
‘JC 27. 3. 81. 'Row over attack on Jews'
Ibid. 24. 4. 81. see also 1. 5. 81.
JC 28. 9. 90.
'JC 5. 10. 90.
Ibid. 15. 6. 84.
Ibid. 12. 10. 90.
Ibid. 28. 1. 83.
Ibid. 27. 2. 81.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
18.
19.
20.
22.
23.
'JC 18. 4. 86 see also 'JC' 18. 7. 86.
JC 24. 4. 81.
A. Leon, The Jewish Question: A Marxist Interpretation 1980, New York, Pathfinder Press, p. 226.
Ibid, p. 228.
D. Niewyk, The Jews in Weimar Germany, Manchester University Press, 1980, pp. 17-19.
Isaac Deutscher, The Non-Jewish Jew and Other Essays, The Russian Revolution and the Jewish Problems, London 1969, pp. 66-7.
'JC 25. 2. 77. NF wants ‘foreign’ Jews repatriated.
'JC 31. 10. 86., M Bogdanski, a Bundist living in London.
'JC 22. 1. 82. Why Zionism was Right'.
Leon op. cit pp. 66, 67 citing Marx 'On the Jewish Question' p. 92.
See eg. International Herald Tribune, 21. 3. 88., Asia's Overseas Chinese: Often a Distrusted Elite.
Leon op cit. p. 247.
2.
3.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
62.
63.
64.
65.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
Liebman op. cit p. 332.
While Messiah Tarried: Jewish Socialist Movements, 1871-1917, N. Levin, Routledge, Kegan & Paul, p. 266.
Ibid. pp. 222-227.
Niewyk op. cit, p. 30.
Geoffrey Alderman, The Jewish Community in British Politics, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1983, p. 52.
'JC' 6. 9. 1889, cited in Alderman p. 62.
Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error, Schocken Books, NY, 1966, p. 90/1.
Alderman, op. cit, p. 96 see also pp. 68, 75, 93.
Steve Cohen, That's Funny You Don't Look Anti-Semitic; 1984, Beyond the Pale Collective, p. 27.
"JC 24. 10. 86.
Alderman op. cit p. l13.
Ibid, p. 137.
Ibid, p. 145
'JC 28. 3. 86. 'Two Cheers for the GLC'.
W. D. Rubinstein, The Left, the Right and the Jews, p. 51, Croom, Helm, London 1982.
Rubinstein, op. cit, p. 157.
Ibid. p. 84.
'JC 13. 7. 90.
Ibid. 28. 3. 86. 'Two Cheers for the GLC, Alderman.
Rubinstein op. cit. p. 129, citing N. Podhoretz, Breaking Ranks, pp. 335, NY 1979.
'A love/hate state' Guardian 9. 3. 87.
'JC 28. 1. 77.
Ibid. 28. 10. 77. ‘Calls to Boycott NF marches'.
See letters to 'JC' 28. 10. 77, 22. 4. 77.
'JC 14. 8. 81.
Ibid. 18. 11. 77.
Ibid. 25. 11. 77.
Ibid. 2. 12. 77.
Searchlight 41, November 1978.
Alderman op. cit, pp. 159, 165 see also 'JC' 13. 10. 78.
eg. Albert Elder, the NF candidate in Hendon S. in the 1979 General Election was a delegate to the Zionist Federation conference in London
in October 1975 from Herut Other members of Herut who have evinced sympathy for National Front include their Honorary Secretary, Brian
Gordon (see Searchlight 24, May 1977) and letter from Elder. 'JC 17. 6. 77. and 24. 6. 77.
'JC' 16. 1. 87.
Patterns of Prejudice, March-June 1979, cited Alderman op. cit p. 164.
'JC 24. 2. 78.
Alderman op. cit. p. 149.
'JC 19. 12. 86.
Ibid. 2. 1. 87.
Guardian 9. 3. 87.
see for example. Black versus Ethnic -Conflict in Anti-Racism, Naomi Dale, Jewish Socialist 4.
Weiner, Link (Paper of the Brighton and Hove Jewish Community), No. 19, September 1980, see also 'JC 28. 10. 77. A. Kaman.
JC 17 10. 86. 'Le Pen Backs Jews'
Guardian 4. 9. 90. 'Guinness isn't good for us'.
Rubinstein op. cit p. 124.
For further details see Jan Nedereen Pieterse, Emancipation Research, Amsterdam, 1984, reprinted in abridged form Race & Class Winter
1985, ‘Israel’s Role in the Third World’. See also ‘Israeli Foreign Policy, Jane Hunter, South End Press, Boston, 1987.
'JC 8. 6. 84.
Searchlight No. 111, see also Nos. 64-5, 85, 112, 137.
Ibid. No. 122.
'JC 5. 7. 85. 'A Meeting of Minds'.
Searchlight No. 52, October 1979.
'JC 'Why Blacks and Jews Fell Out' 8. 7. 83.
Ibid. 2. 9-83. 'March boycott'.
Ibid. 15. 4. 83 'Chicago's racist election'
Rubinstein op. cit pp. 143/4.
Searchlight 63, September 1980.
Anti-Semitism/Zionism: The Link, Centre for Contemporary Studies.
'JC 25. 9. 81. 'The Dangers Facing World Jewry - Why I am Pessimistic'.
'JC 27. 5. 83. 'Nicaragua forces out her Jewish community.
‘JC 16. 3. 84. 'Managua Report Sparks Clash'.
‘JC 27. 4. 84. 'Rebels got Israeli arms', see also Sunday Times 28. 8. 83. 'Israel Dabbles in a Distant War' and of course the subsequent
Contragate revelations.
Ibid. 12. 9. 86.
Ibid. 11. 4. 86.
Ibid. 6. 9. 85. 'SAfrican Rabbi objects to boycott sanctions'.
Ibid. 23. 8. 85. 'Blacks won't talk'.
Ibid. 22. 11. 85.
Leeds Student, 25. 4. 86. see also Israel, the Jews and South Africa, UJS, ND (1986?).