Littlejohn takes on the Jews

Richard Littlejohn hosted a documentary on Channel Four last night called The War on Britain's Jews?. Superfluous question mark aside, I was actually rather pleasantly surprised. It didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know, or at least suspect, but what I appreciated about the programme was its bluntness, its candid stating of a series of uncomfortable truths to an audience reluctant to hear them. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Britain. In at least one Jewish school, the threat of violence is so bad that children need high fences, bomb-proof windows and security escorts for the school run. It's not just neo-nazis anymore, its Islamic fundamentalists as well. And large sections of the British Left, with a tradition of solidarity with the Jews going back to Cable Street, thought nothing of marching under banners saying "We Are All Hezbollah Now" in protest at Israeli action in Lebanon.

For me, the real crux of the matter was the argument put forward by some Muslims and fewer Jews that "if Britain's Jewish leaders were to be more critical of the policies of Israel, it would significantly lessen the hostility towards Jews in the UK." Er, pardon? Racism towards the Jews has been going down in this country and just about everywhere else since before Israel was even created, so to suggest that verbally distancing themselves from it is really going to have any placating effect on anti-Semites is not only ludicrous but downright dishonest.