That sting in the tail for ‘balance’ merely adds fuel to the fire of Jew-hate

Have you noticed how the Golders Green stabbings seem to have been a tipping point in the perception of antisemitism in the UK. Although all those other vile manifestations of Jew-hate, such as the Heaton Park Synagogue attack in which two Jews were murdered; the arson attack on Hatzolah ambulances, the Molotov cocktail at Finchley Reform Synagogue and the vertiginous rise in antisemitic abuse and assaults revealed by reports from the CST and Board of Deputies, were widely reported – and sometimes commented on – it was two Jewish men stabbed in broad daylight on a leafy street in north London because they were Jewish that transformed violent but by-now “normal” antisemitism, into a “national emergency” and garnered headlines, comment and op-eds everywhere. A friend in marketing tells me that the Golders Green violence even drew comments in a focus group hundreds of miles from London.

And because antisemitism was such a hot-button topic, no media outlet dared to ignore it. Thus – somewhat ironically –  there was even coverage and comment from individuals and publications whose long-term adherence to the Palestinian narrative, slavish repetition of Jihadist allegations and obsessive maligning of Israel had done so much to create the climate of Jew-hate they were now forced to comment upon.

But what I’m here to talk about here is how many of those opinion pieces railing against antisemitism contained a little sting in their tail. A sting in the tail, says Google helpfully, is an “unpleasant or problematic conclusion” to a “situation, story, or announcement” that is “otherwise positive.”  What can I mean? Well, although there were notable exceptions – The Spectator and The Telegraph, for instance – a great many of those opinion pieces contained words to the effect that UK Jews should not be “held responsible” or “blamed” for the (implicitly “evil”) actions of Israel/the Israeli government. These stings in the tail were – you will be unsurprised to learn – especially evident from individuals or publications (The Economist, for example) that have done so much over the years to help create the current climate of Jew-hate.

The statement that Jews should not be “blamed” for “Israel’s actions” carries the implicit acceptance of a premise that Israel deserves blame. And that is a premise that I and a majority of British Jews (and most Diaspora Jews) utterly reject. While it is, indeed, correct to say that British Jews should not be held responsible, the bigger truth is that British Jews have nothing to be held responsible for. Because Israel has not done the things that it is blamed for in the carefully and expensively fabricated version of reality created by a demonic, oil-rich coalition and then enthusiastically amplified by a biased media.

While I am not so naïve or blind as to claim that no innocent people were harmed in the war, I know also that as a nation Israel behaves ethically. I know that actions or operations were justifiable because a nation was fighting a defensive war against an octopus-like enemy that provoked the war and is trying to crush the Jewish state – and not just on the battle-field and through heavily armed, Iranian-backed proxies, but through disinformation, misinformation, economic boycotts and endless terror.

But even though Israel did not do the things it was alleged to have done, it is as hard for Israel to escape “blame” as for the husband asked if he has stopped beating his wife. There, the question is framed to accept the premise that either the husband is now, or was in the past, a wife-beater, while for Israel culpability is implied by the sheer repetition of allegations; by wave after wave of misinformation, lies and libels.

But no matter how loudly or frequently it is asserted that Israel “committed genocide”, it did not “commit genocide”; no matter how loudly or frequently it is asserted that Israel “starved” the population of Gaza, Israel did not starve the population of Gaza; No matter how loudly or frequently it is asserted that Israel blockaded Gaza, Egypt blockaded Gaza far more forcefully; No matter how loudly or frequently it is asserted that Israel destroyed the “civilian infrastructure” of Gaza, the reality is that the Jihadist Iranian proxy, Hamas, deliberately embedded amid the civilian population in the most populous area (and in schools and hospitals), both to use civilians as “human shields” and when – inevitably –  civilians died, to use them for propaganda. So, thank you, for your sympathetic words and your revulsion at the Jew-hate that was – to be frank – the absolutely inevitable outcome of 20-something years of unremitting anti-Israel bias. But please don’t “balance” your sympathy with weaselly phrases along the lines of UK Jews should not be “held responsible for”, etc, because with that you are accepting the Israel-haters’ premise and giving an extra boost to the transformation of fiction into “fact”; the transformation of an expensively-crafted illusion into “reality”.  You are adding more fuel to the fire of Jew-hate.