Simon Sebag Montefiore warns we are witnessing ‘the end of the taboo on antisemitism’
Jerusalem author tells Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips the UK government needs to be 'confident about interests of the West'
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Acclaimed author Simon Sebag Montefiore has warned we are witnessing “the end of the taboo on antisemitism” that emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War and which now needs to be “fought for again.”
In a compelling interview on the Sky News Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips show, the author of a newly updated biography of Jerusalem, said “part” of the problem could be found amongst some Palestinian rights protesters who were “exploiting medieval tropes of antisemitism” including those around the murder of children by Jews.
Montefiore also said the current Labour government must be “confident about the interests of the West” in its approach to the on-going conflict in the Middle East, but he added:”This doesn’t mean that they should forswear humanitarian standards, which should be applied to Israel as much as to anybody.”
Asked for his view about the threat to society from rising antisemtism, the writer said:”I do think we really feel in the Jewish community here that we’re in a new era now.
“And there has been a huge change. I think in historical terms, what we’re seeing is the end of the taboo on antisemitism, that was really one of the results of the 1945 war and the Holocaust and, you know, 80 years later, it’s kind of run out.
“And we are just seeing many of the huge gains, gained in society, not just the taboo on antisemitism, but many of the gains of the great liberal reformation.
“All of those things are now being challenged, and many of the things we took for granted in our democracies, of which the taboo on antisemtism is, is a key one, are now being challenged and will have
to be fought for again. ”
Phillips asked for more detail on the “tropes of antisemitism”.
“You know, of course, part of it is a protest against Israel,” said Montefiore. “Part of it is a protest for Palestinian rights, which many of us agree with in their principles. But they are also
using and exploiting tropes of antisemitism. Some of them are medieval, some of them are 19th century, that we haven’t seen for a long time.
‘Well, for example, the blood libel, for example, you know, the medieval blood libel that Jewish people used the blood of Christian children to make their Matzah cakes for Passover, which
started in Medieval Britain and which you’re now seeing regularly in the posters, on the rallies, you know, the anti-Israel, Pro-Palestine.”
Montefiore agreed that in terms of the conduct of the campaign in Gaza, Israel “in some ways, could have made better choices.”
He said it seemed essential that both Hamas and Hezbollah were defeated “but not at the cost of too many civilian casualties.”
The historian also cast doubt on the accuracy of figures made public by Hamas, which obscured the number of terrorist fighters from the overall casualties.
Asked about the wider global consequences of the conflict he argued:” I think there’s a danger of that in our own government and I think, you know, the Labour Party, with its massive majority, needs to be confident about the interests of the West.
“This doesn’t mean that they should forswear humanitarian standards, which should be applied to Israel as much as to anybody. And I would totally support that. But in the bigger picture, democracies need to win. The reason why democracy after 1945, after World War Two, spread across the world, was because of the victory of America and the Western Allies in 1945 and the Western governments are now following a policy of two steps forward, one step back and undermining our allies.
“And I think that, you know, Ukraine, Israel are just two allies that need to win. We need to show that we can still win wars in the West.”
Also appearing on Sunday’s show was Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds. He ruled out using free trade noegotiations with Israel to put pressure on them over their actions in Gaza.
“We don’t conduct foreign policy through free trade agreement negotiations,” he told Phillips.
“Trade policy has more than an economic impact,” added Reynolds, “but we wouldn’t use it as a leverage as foreign policy tool in that way.”
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