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Globalising Hatred: The New Anti-Semitism
by Denis MacShane
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £12.99

DENIS MACSHANE’S book on anti-semitism seeks to analyse, describe and condemn with forensic skill the oldest aberration on record – Jew-hatred, which anti-semitism was called before it became a tenebrious sophistication for what it has always been: a crude, tribal, perhaps even mystical, prejudice.

But MacShane, who is not a Jew, goes beyond the usual excoriation of this ancient racialist scab on rationality: indeed his book is an important departure from that critcial norm because MacShane focuses on what he regards as a quite new phenomenon – not, he argues, “just traditional Jew-hatred” but part of a new and growing “component element of international politics”.

In fact, the Labour MP for Rotherham and former Foreign Office Minister suggests that anti-semitism is now part of a global industry, “exported by a number of states and has an impact on geo-politics that should not be underestimated”.

At the core of MacShane’s case is his argument that militant Islam and its supporters are now using anti-semitism and Jew-hatred as the principal platform in  its global attack on all democratic values. Indeed MacShane claims it has become the latest manifestation of fascism.

His central thesis is contained in a chapter devoted to examining the ideological basis of the new anti-semitism in which MacShane quotes at length from the texts of Islamic extremist writers, most notably the explosive writings of Sayyid Qutb, perhaps the most renowned of all Islamist ideologues. Qutb, an Egyptian, was killed by Nasser in 1966 at the age of 60 after which he was proclaimed a martyr by Islamist extremists focusing on anti-semitism. The texts of Qutb’s venomous Jew-hatred, MacShane believes, now form the basis for much Middle Eastern anti-semitism propaganda, especially against Israel. These texts are also used, according to MacShane, across the Arab world and help shape Osama bin Laden’s propaganda for al Qaida.

The extraordinary aspect of this, MacShane reveals, is that Qutb, who during the Second World War worked as a civil servant at the Ministry of Education in Cairo, was rewarded with an American scholarship when Washington was recruiting Muslim friends for its  anti-communist drive in the Middle East. This enabled Qutb to study at Colorado State College where he received a diploma – after which he went back to Egypt, put two fingers up to the Americans and denounced “the brutality of Western materialism”. Qutb then lined up with the Muslim Brotherhood  and acclaimed Adolf Hitler’s treatment of the Jews.

The principal point MacShane makes from all this is that there is now a major international political threat endemic in the anti-semitic and anti-Israel campaign which has its power  base in Iran, Syria and the militant contingents across the Middle East. He argues that this racialist disease must be tackled head on and at the highest level by the international community since, among other things, it fuels the global terrorist threat.

Well, yes, Denis I am sure there is powerful credibility in this analysis although I think it overstates the impact if not the significance. MacShane, unlike me, is not a Jew. I was born a Jew but have spent my whole adult life as a non–believer, like my wife, who is also a victim of the Holocaust. Neither of us has any illusions about the dynamics of anti-semitism which, clearly, are increasing. Yet there is no simple answer. MacShane calls for “an affirming flame” by the civilised communities of the world to fight the new – and old – poison. It is a cry from the heart of all civilised people – but probably not enough.

Even so, the great value of this book is to update our awareness with powerful new information and probing analysis. But we should also recognise that the tribal disease is as old as biblical history. Wherever Jewish communities have settled so, too, they have induced anti-semitism. The great irony of history is that it took Nazi Germany to bring the state of Israel into being, which is also basic to the Israeli “problem”.

William Shakespeare was fully aware of the “Jewish problem” long before he wrote the first text of The Merchant of Venice which, in its original form as handed to his agent in July 1598, was entitled The Jews of Venise. Indeed, the title and some of its original text was censored by the then Lord Chamberlain. I mention this only to demonstrate the depth of the problem. The Jews have always been easy prey to social prejudice; the fall guys when there’s trouble in the mill of any society. Nor did it require the birth of Israel to turn anti-semitism into a new style of international phenomenon – though, of course, given the misjudgements made by numerous Israeli governments, its very existence has helped stoke the fires of eternal prejudice.

I am full of admiration for Denis MacShane’s renewed attempt to tackle the dilemma; the best on the subject, I think, since Jean-Paul Sartre’s classic text on the subject 60 years ago. MacShane has an impeccable record of fighting racial intolerance and prejudice. He comes from a mixed background of an Irish Catholic mother and a Polish father who fought Nazism in the Second World War. His original name was Matyjaszek which he changed to his mother’s maiden name of MacShane. His genes inform him on the absurdities of racial prejudice. Yet the road to reform, enlightenment and rationality is long and tough and I fear we are still on the foothills of that particular battle.

Geoffrey Goodman