A Jewish scientist is called into his superior’s office.

Superior: “Rabinovich, we are stripping you of your position here and transporting you to Siberia”.

Rabinovic: “Why, what did I do wrong?”

Superior: “We have learned that you are a Zionist”.

Rabinovic: “No, please I’m not a Zionist”.

Superior: “Don’t lie Rabinovic! We know your maternal grandmother was a Zionist.”

It very often is.

I didn’t realize that ‘antisemitic’ was spelled anti-Zionist.

And what about your Argentinian delusions ? And your Spanish-language website which at times is a tad racist ?

And some of your Argentinian Jewish colleagues who still seem to think that the Falklands war was all Mrs Thatcher’s fault.

As a naïve and idealistic student I was actively involved in the National Association of Labour Student. At a couple of our meetings we received speakers from a seemingly well-organised and well-funded organisation called The Friends of Palestine. The speakers were usually Arab students, but we also had the 2 doctors from ‘Medical Aid for Palestinians’, Pauline Cutting and Swee Chai Ang who told us all about their experiences during the siege of Lebanon and the ‘atrocities’ they saw committed against Palestinians. It was powerful stuff, and my misguided altruism and left-wing propensity to always support the underdog prompted me to join the Friends of Palestine.

In 1985, I travelled to Sunderland to witness the EGM called after JewSoc was banned under the ‘No Platform for Racists’ policy. I recall that the line “Promoting an understanding of Zionism” in the society’s constitution was what prompted the ban. I also recall an Arab student taking the platform. “JewSoc” he said, “want to organise a trip to Jerusalem to plant a tree. My grandparents were born in Jerusalem. It is my homeland. Yet I am not allowed to go there and plant a tree!” How we cheered. Surely Zionism was the most discriminatory and racist ideology ever.

The argument the pro-Palestinians put was so compelling. “Once we had all of Palestine, today we want only a little piece of it. The bit we were left with before 1967. If only Israel would give us that then we can live in peace. All we want peace!”

I remember that at one point in the meeting a female Jewish speaker was all but drowned out by heckling. She became emotional and started shouting “they say they want peace but they’re killing children in Israel! They want to drive the Jews into the sea!” The heckling intensified into jeering and booing and the girl left the platform in tears.

After the vote I felt high. That day was a real victory for we supporters of the ‘oppressed’ Palestinian ‘freedom fighters’.

A little time after the meeting, things got interesting. As someone with an Iranian background I was becoming increasingly aware that the Arab members used different language in my presence than in the presence of the sundry white lefties supporting their cause. For example, I began noticing that they would spit the word “Zionist” in public, but use “Jew” when it was just Arabs (and me) in the room. Also, the “give us the pre 1967 borders” argument trotted out in public was never put at these meetings. Among ourselves, it was all or nothing: the abolition of the State of Israel and the right of return for all Palestinians.

At one meeting, after the lefties had left, I discussed the killing of Israeli women and children with my new Arab friends. Even in my immature stupidity, the responses I received shocked me. First we had the moral equivalence, “the Zionists kill Palestinian women and children so why shouldn’t Palestinians kill theirs.” But most shocking was the universal belief among the Arab members that as a ‘militarised’ country, Israeli women joined the army and children grew up to be soldiers. Therefore, it was okay to target them.

The ensuing argument became a screaming match and I walked out never to return.

I don’t think we can under estimate the power and attraction of the pro-Palestinian movement. For lefties, it has everything. An ‘oppressed’ underdog. Noble and committed ‘freedom fighters’. A rich, powerful and arrogant enemy supported by the enemy of the left; the USA.

What’s more, the supporters of Israel tended to be middle-class Jews. We ‘lefties’ didn’t really see them as really ‘our’ type of people. And if that wasn’t enough, there were some Jews on the anti-Zionist platform. What more proof did we need that we were right?

But the biggest problem was that there wasn’t a convincing response from the pro-Israel camp.

I can see today that the Palestinian side was disingenuous and downright dishonest. But damn, they were convincing.

Obviously, those lies have to be exposed. But more importantly, a convincing pro-Israeli argument needs to be promoted in our universities.

I must admit that I find it depressing. My experiences were over 20 years ago. I dread to think just how much worse things must be now given the ever-increasing Muslim demographic in our universities.

What to do?

Most antisemites don’t want to kill the Jews or even expell them. They want them “to know their place”. They hate the “arrogant Jew” and the Jew with power “he does not deserve”. Therefore, the worst thing for them is the collective Jewish power of the Jewish State. And the dignity it has given to the Jews in the Diaspora. It allowed them to raise their heads after the Holocaust. This is what the antisemite cannot stand.
They will gladly have Jews in their society, but only if they “behave”. And the first thing is to make them reject Israel, kill willingly part of their identities.
Antisemitism is a disease that even infects some Jews.

For me, it is very simple. It is antisemitism. Antisemites in our days cannot attack the Jews in their societies openly because there is Israel. Israel will protect them or will give them refuge. Therefore, Israel is the first objective of the antisemite. If Israel falls, the Jews will follow.