Author: Michael Gove
Publication: The Statesman
Date: February 27, 2002
There is one form of hate which
increasingly dares to parcel out blame. Far from this prejudice being met
with resolute condemnation, action against its most virulent proponents
is nugatory and the intellectual trends which favour it go broadly unchallenged.
Why? Because this form of racism can be worn as a chic accessory to radical
views, a badge of identification with "the oppressed". Anti-Semitism is
the new black. The anti-Semitism now abroad is qualitatively different
from the prejudice against the Jewish people which the Roman Catholic Church
harboured in the 19th century and fascists in the 20th. The new anti-Semitism
of the 21st century is advanced not through Rome and the far Right but
fundamentalist Islam and the radical Left. Which is why contemporary condemnation
has been so muted.
Extremist Islamic activists are
the most vocal vessels of this new hate. A few weeks ago, The Times disclosed
that Islamic cleric Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal was urging British Muslims
to take arms training and kill the "filthy Jews". Hardline Muslims had
been training with AK-47 rifles in the Finsbury Park mosque in north London,
home to another radical cleric, Abu Hamza. Over the years, the same mosque
has sheltered Zacarias Mossaoui, a terrorist responsible for 11 September
and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.
All these men cleave to a form of
Islam which sees jehad, the holy war, as the highest form of devotion and
the Jewish people as the most urgent target for assault. Sheikh Faisal's
recent arrest, under laws which have lain unused for a century, comes after
years when he has been free to peddle hate. As for Abu Hamza, he and his
mosque remain untroubled by the authorities. The failure to deal effectively
with Islamic extremism is a consequence of more than just ignorance or
incompetence. Honest discussion of the radical Islamic message, the hold
extremist clerics have over many British mosques and the anti-Semitic nature
of much of their discourse has been impeded by a New Left model of multiculturalism.
British Premier Tony Blair's assertion
that Islam is "a religion of peace" was admirable in its intention to promote
inclusivity, but it failed to take account of strident, radical Muslims
who daily subvert civil peace. The British government's reticence cannot
be separated from broader trends on the Left which challenge the Jews'
security. A hypersensitivity to Islamic interests and insensitivity to
Jewish concerns is an under-remarked feature of the European New Left.
Because Britain's Jewish citizens
have become well-integrated, often professionally successful, and in many
cases Tory-voting, their community is no longer considered a natural client
group by the Left in the same way as other minorities are. The most conspicuous
example of this trend was the notorious cover of the New Statesman which
depicted a Star of David piercing the Union Jack under the headline "A
Kosher conspiracy?" The magazine's editor has apologised but the fact that
such an offensive image could appear at all shows how the wind is blowing
on the Left. Three factors in the New Left thinking chip away at the security
of the Jewish people. First, the trend towards seeing world affairs through
the mirrored sunglasses of the revolutionary; second, hostility towards
the historic nation state; third, the preference for therapy over discipline.
The first trend, Ray-Ban Radicalism,
is now common on the Left, where foreign affairs are seen through a single
set of lenses. Conflicts everywhere are perceived as struggles between
"imperialist" oppressors and the wretched of the earth, irrespective of
the real complexities. In Cuba and Nicaragua, and with inappropriateness
in Ulster and Israel, the Left indulges terror, casting its victims as
the "real" oppressors.
The Left's growing hostility towards
the nation-state is a threat to Israel. The New Left's insistence on dissolving
sovereignty works against the survival of Israel because it rejects the
"exclusivist" principles of self-determination and secure borders.
This animus against the nation state
is given expression by bodies such as the European Union, which consistently
favours Palestinian claims over Israel. It finds an outlet among international
lawyers such as those in Brussels demanding to try Ariel Sharon for "war
crimes". And it is amplified in the UN through events such as the Durban
"anti-racism" conference where Zionism was equated with racism.
The final New Left trend which works
against Jewish security is the preference for therapy over discipline.
Faced with any conflict, the Left shies away from the resolute punishment
of those in the wrong and insists that both sides have legitimate "issues"
which need resolution. The universalist New Left logic of the "peace process"
dictates that terrorists and democrats are treated alike. Both parties
must learn to abandon their "intransigence" to achieve progress.
By placing aggressors on the same
moral plain as victims, the New Left not only denies morality any place
in conflicts, it denies the Jewish people, in their contested home, the
moral right to self-defence. The new anti-Semitism differs from the old.
But the old taught us one terrible lesson. These dangers will grow unless
checked. Unless checked they will diminish us all.
The Times, London.
