[Antisemitism: What Everyone Needs to Know by David Harris]. Those not familiar with the age-old diabolical curse of antisemitism need to be educated here. And a book like this is just the place to start.

Yesterday I examined the brand-new volume by Hussain Abdul-Hussain: The Arab Case for Israel: And Other Essays from a Distant Conflict. In it I focused on how one Arab writer seeks to make the case for Zionism. Of course the issue of antisemitism is discussed often in his book.

Another very new book looks at antisemitism in even greater detail. I refer to Antisemitism: What Everyone Needs to Know by David Harris (Oxford University Press, 2025). As in my previous article, here I simply want to introduce you to this book and offer some choice quotes from it, hopefully to entice you to get the book and read it for yourself. Harris begins by laying out definitions:

Antisemitism is among the world’s oldest, most enduring forms of virulent hatred. Indeed, some observers argue it is the oldest. Tragically, it has been an all-too-frequent factor in the millennia-long development of Western civilization.

 Antisemitism has ebbed and flowed like a mutating malignancy into new forms and variations and proven stubbornly resilient. It has caused untold harm to Jews and Jewish communities throughout the centuries in which antisemites define the Jew as the enemy of all that is good and decent. The deicide charge, blood libels, inquisitions, ghettos, expulsions, pales of settlement, pogroms, forced conversions, discriminatory laws, and, most catastrophically, the Holocaust were the result.

 At its heart, antisemitism has two distinguishing features. First, it is an elaborate conspiracy theory. It ascribes to Jews, a tiny percentage of the world’s population, extraordinary powers of evil intent and behavior—from plagues to economic depressions, from war to revolution. Second, it is an irrational and contradictory belief system. Jews are variously seen as capitalists and communists, White and non-White, manipulative insiders and unassimilable outsiders.

 History teaches that antisemitism is a disease which begins with the Jews but does not end with them. Once antisemitism is unleashed, it knows no bounds and can attack the very fabric of society, making the Jewish people, some would say, the early warning system. This deadly strain of hatred often turns against other minority groups as well, not to mention foundational democratic values, beginning with equal rights and equal protection before the law. Therefore, antisemitism should be viewed as a universal human rights issue of importance to all, and not solely as a Jewish or Israeli concern.

 In the 21st century, antisemitism is once again resurgent after several postwar decades when it appeared, at least in Western democratic societies, to be in remission. In recent years, the FBI reported that well over half of all religiously motivated hate crimes in the United States targeted Jews, even though Jews comprise just over 2% of the population…” (p. 1-2)

Well worth focussing on is Chapter 6, “Anti-Zionism as Antisemitism,” which discusses this matter in some detail. Harris begins it this way:

In November 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to recommend that separate Jewish and Arab states replace the British Mandate. The Arab world categorically rejected the plan. Notwithstanding, the Jews announced the establishment of Israel on May 14, 1948. Since then, many believe that a new form of antisemitism has emerged: anti-Zionism. Rather than focus on the individual Jew or Judaism or the Jewish “race”, the target is the Jewish state. Its exponents often claim their rejection of Israel is not antisemitic but rather state-driven. Others insist the two cannot be separated. Is calling for Israel’s destruction inherently antisemitic? Does any attempt to compare Israel’s actions to those of Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa cross a line into antisemitism? Does treating Israel differently at the UN compared to other member states constitute antisemitism?

Read More