2019-10-12_The_Economist_

Sources:YouGovpollof1,500Americans;“AntisemitismincontemporaryGreatBritain”,by

D.Staetsky,usingIpsosMORIpollof5,466Britons*Atleast60%ofmaximumpossiblescore

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TheEconomistOctober 12th 2019 93
O
ne reasondebate over Israel gets heat-
ed is that both sides question each oth-
er’s motives. Supporters of Israel note that
anti-Semites often cloak their prejudice in
criticism of the Jewish state. They say some
views—like saying that Israel should not
exist—are by definition anti-Semitic. Pro-
Palestinian advocates retort that charges of
Jew-hatred are intended to silence them.
Such mistrust has grown in Britain and
America, as anti-Semitism has resurfaced
at both political extremes. On the left, leg-
islators in America have accused pro-Israel
colleagues of dual loyalty, and implied that
Jewish money bought Republican support
for Israel. In 2012 Jeremy Corbyn, now the
leader of Britain’s Labour Party, defended a
mural depicting hook-nosed bankers.
The right has used similar innuendo,
often by linking liberals to George Soros, a
Jewish investor. Muddying matters more,
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minis-
ter, has also denounced Mr Soros. In Amer-
ica right-wing anti-Semitism also takes a
more explicit, occasionally violent form. In
2017 marchers in Virginia chanted “Jews
will not replace us.” And in 2018 a shooter at
a synagogue in Pittsburgh killed 11 people.
Can criticism of Israel be disentangled
from anti-Semitism? Two recent polls in
America and Britain that tried to do so re-
veal a pattern: hostility to Israel and to Jews
are correlated, and the link is much stron-
ger on the political right than on the left.
In 2016 Daniel Staetsky of the Institute
for Jewish Policy Research, a think-tank,
wrote a survey to distinguish these beliefs.
It contained one series of statements about
Israel as a country, and another about Jews
as people. Ipsos morithen polled Britons
to see if they agreed with these views, and
Mr Staetsky scored the respondents’ hostil-
ity based on their answers. At our request,
YouGov repeated the survey in America.
Few respondents expressed negative
opinions of Jews. About 4% in Britain and
7% in America scored at least five out of
eight on the anti-Semitism scale. Nonethe-
less, these rates imply that 2m Britons and
23m Americans are overtly anti-Semitic.
Moreover, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic
beliefs were correlated. Americans with a
mark of at least six out of nine on the anti-
Israel scale scored 3.4 for anti-Semitism on
average, compared with 0.7 for everyone
else. In Britain the figures were 2.4 and 0.5.
But this effect’s size changed with re-
spondents’ declared ideology. In America
“liberal” foes of Israel had an average anti-
Semitism mark of 2.3. For “conservatives”
critical of Israel, it was 5.4. Among anti-Is-
rael Britons, “very left-wing” people scored
1.6 for anti-Semitism on average, whereas
“very right-wing” ones averaged 4.4.
The causes of this gap differ by country.
In Britain lots of people at both ends of the
political spectrum dislike Israel. But those
who criticise Jews cluster on the far right.
In America, the left and right are equally
anti-Semitic. However, American conser-
vatives mostly support Israel. Many evan-
gelical Christians see Israel’s Jewish major-
ity as fellow people of the book. And
Republicans’ hawkish foreign policy often
aligns with Israeli positions. So in both
countries, conservatives who do criticise
Israel—a smaller share of America’s right
than Britain’s—are often anti-Semitic, too.
None of this means that concern about
left-wing anti-Semitism is overblown. The
data simply show that most left-wingers
who criticise Israel do not dislike Jews as
people. Or if they do, they are embarrassed
enough to hide their bias from pollsters. 7
Among critics of Israel, conservatives
are most likely to be anti-Semitic
Drawing the line
Graphic detailAnti-Semitism