Yes Pasaran
JVL Introduction
Joseph Finlay has a simple argument in the article below: Jewish communal leaders in Britain are letting fascism off the hook.
To make his case he gives three brief accounts of fascism in the world today and looks at communal organisations’ reactions to them.
Finlay’s examples are Farageist fascism, Salafist fascism and Trumpian fascism and readers may wish to question the ascription of a single label “fascist” to what are clearly rather different phenomena.
But they will have no problem recognising the pusillanimous response of “our” communal organisations to all three and the dangers they all present to Jews, in Britain and elsewhere (as well, of course, to immigrants, asylum seekers, people of colour, political opponents and more).
As Finlay makes clear
- they have been willing to give Farage’s fascism a free pass because they share his Islamophobia.
- They seem only concerned about Salafism insofar as they can link it to Hamas as part of a generalised Islamism they can then rail against; and
- They fail to notice the way the Trump administration has instrumentalised antisemitism in pursuit of its goals.
” What unites the failure of such bodies to condemn these various forms of contemporary fascism is that in each case their sole priority is Israel advocacy; they only campaign for causes that will further that goal.”
RK
This article was originally published by Vashti on Fri 23 Jan 2026. Read the original here.
Yes Pasaran
Our approach to tackling antisemitism is letting the fascists off the hook.
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A very clear and concise analysis of the merging of Salafism with Palestinian Hamas as a way of silencing criticism of Israel’s expansionism and genocidal ideology. With this in mind, our protests for Palestinian freedom and self determination take on an even greater urgency
Where does one start with this tirade by Joseph Finlay? Conceptually and analytically it is all over the place.
I don’t agree that we are seeing the resurgence of fascism. That was a very specific movement of the 20s and 30s which aimed above all to smash the organisations of the working class.
Some of the far-right authoritarian regimes, including Trump himself, are hostile to trade unions but that does not make them that much different from traditional conservative parties.
Finlay says that IS is fascit because it believes in authoritarian rule; territorial expansionism; aims to restore a mythical glorious past, violent attacks on ethnic and religious enemies; attempts to control dissidents and reliance on powerful and charismatic leaders in the place of parliamentary democracy.
Well the British Empire would fit most of those! IS is a deformed reaction to imperialism whereas fascism is a product of the imperialist age .
Yes Trump could be described as a fascist but the USA is not a fascist state.
I’m afraid the whole framework of this article is entirely misplaced