The moral panic we are witnessing about antisemtism is now targeting the Green Party and its Jewish leader – for antisemitism.
Blame anyone and everyone in order to divert attention from the real and obvious cause of the rise of antisemitism in the world today – Israel’s genocidal conduct carried out in the name of all Jews.
In an insightful and thought-provoking interview published by Equator, Jewish historian and activist Barnaby Raine argues that current public discourse about antisemitism is defined by two claims:
“First, that Jews are victims of Muslims and the pro-Palestine left, and, second, that the proper response to racism is more aggressive policing…
“This framing pulls the entire discourse rightwards, allowing the far right to reposition themselves as the ‘only true defenders’ of Jews because they are the ones most willing to target Muslims.”
Adam Hochschild reviews Molly Crabapple’s new book “Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund”.
He situates his discussion by imagining an alternative history in which US antisemitism was not pivotal to the closing of its borders to Jewish refugees from 1924 – and one in which US bombs have not reduced Gaza to rubble.
Such imaginings are prompted by Crabapple’s new, carefully-researched-but-passionate history of the Jewish Bund and its fight for a world in which Jews could live safe and full lives…
With just a week to go until the crucial Nakba commemoration march in London on 16 May, the Palestine Coalition has made a formal complaint to the Mayor of London about Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley.
The legal letter (posted below) refers to recent antisemitic smears Rowley made in the media about our movement and the over 30 peaceful marches for Palestine rights we have organised since October 2023.
Rowley’s shameful overreach followed…
Omer Bartov’s new book Israel: What went wrong argues that had Israel’s leaders implemented what they had promised – a constitution, bill of rights and defined borders – things might well have been different, and we might have been spared the genocide in Gaza.
This has provoked some debate to which Martin Shaw contributes here, taking strong issue with any attempt to locate Zionism’s problems solely in 1948 when it became a state ideology…
By Leah Levane
The New York Times revealed that when the prospect of war on Iran was discussed in the Situation Room, not only (unusually) was a foreign leader present but “Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin, Netanyahu took over the presentation space, backed on a screen by the leader of the Mossad as well as Israeli military officials.” (my emphasis) The NYT “makes it clear that Netanyahu’s “hard sell” of a quick war was pivotal to the US president’s decision to partner with Israel in attacking Iran.”
By Leah Levane
In September 2024, the UK Labour government marginally reduced the arms licences for Israel; given all that has happened since, while humanitarians have called out for action such as sanctions rather than (at most) tutting from the government we might have expected further restrictions. But no, between October and December 2024 the UK Labour approved more weapons to Israel in three months than Tories did in four years. Now more arms licences have been approved
By Leah Levane
Nailah Sharif spent 13 years in the Met Police and she is clear that the danger to people’s safety is from the march planned by Yaxley Lennon (Tommy Robinson) and not the Palestine marches. She questions the double standards and the lack of even a public briefing from the Chief of the Met police about Robinson’s rally on the same day as the planned Nakba march (which is only the second national march this year).
American scholar Nancy Fraser, renowned for her writings on social justice and on feminism, turns here to the topic of Gaza.
She focuses on “its significance as a ‘world event’, an epochal turning point that also serves to reveal, and so to signify, the nature of the times”.
The moral order that has held sway across much of the West for the past half century, revolved around the Holocaust as the symbol of ultimate evil, is collapsing…
Double Down Newscast has broadcast its first weekly edition, airing news and opinions not covered in mainstream media.