World

The British left's Jewish problem

February 04, 2009
Jonathan Freedland: A "Good Jew"
Jonathan Freedland: A "Good Jew"

In today's Guardian (4th February 2009), Jonathan Freedland writes about why the liberal left "must not remain silent" in the face of growing attacks on British Jews.  The article is in large part honourable and articulate and shows Freedland at his best. Why is the liberal left silent on anti-semitic attacks after Gaza when they weren't silent about Islamophobia after 9/11 or 7/7? He doesn't, of course, answer the question (that would lead to very dark and troubling waters) but he does at least raise it. That, in these strange times, is something to be grateful for.

But the last paragraph in Freedland's article is troubling. Having said that anti-semitism should be denounced tout court, and that distinguishing between Zionists and Jews is dishonourable and belongs to an ancient tradition within anti-semitism of "good" and "bad" Jews, Freedland is then in a terrible hurry to make sure that Guardian readers know that he himself "denounced Operation Cast Lead from the beginning." Freedland, in other words, is a good Jew from the left's point of view and he wants us to know that.



He ends, "It is perfectly possible to condemn Israel's current conduct and to stand firmly against anti-Jewish prejudice. And it's about time liberals and the left said so." Having rushed with indecent haste to identify himself as a good Jew (anti-Israel's attack), Freedland  ends with an alliance between Jewish critics of Cast Lead (like himself) and the liberal left. The causes and nature of liberal left anti-semitism have been left uninvestigated and the status of Jewish supporters of Israel's policy in Gaza has been left to the sidelines. That is not a "perfectly possible" position, it seems. They are to be tolerated and are not to be attacked for their beliefs.

The cracks within the left which have opened up over Gaza (and before that over 9/11 and 7/7) have been carefully, far too carefully, papered over. The nature of growing elements within the the new British left—irrational, hysterical, sentimental, bordering on anti-semitism—has been ignored.

Coming from one of the most articulate and decent critics of Israel this is deeply troubling, at best. What would happen if he didn't establish his liberal left credentials as critic of Israel? Would he become a "bad Jew"? What would that be like? As he writes, "I shouldn't have to say that." So why say it, Jonathan? And what about what he should say—about what has happened to the British left? That has to go unsaid, because that's the price you have to pay to be the good, nice Jew and stay within the left.

The problem with decent, honourable positions within the British liberal left is that when considerable elements of the left itself behave indecently and dishonourably, you are left trying to paper over the cracks. The next step for Freedland is not to fall back on human rights, but to ask what has happened to the British left—and why?