But I would like to add a few more things, in my mind, that have caused leftish opinion to turn against Israel.

The previous time Bibi was Prime Minister he pushed to turn Israel from being a “socialist” country to a “capitialist” country.
Before that the left was able to use Israel as a “socialist” country that worked. After that the left could not do so. And
so it turned against Israel and Zionism.

Another thing would be when Begin and Likud started to court more fundamentalist Christians. Who have become quite supportive
of Israel for that, and other, religious reasons. ( Myself included. )

Also add in the fact that Israel has a incredibly effective military.

All of these things plus what has been noted above, then, have incensed the left and their respective mouthpieces in Academia
and the Media. So Israel has pushed way past the left’s tipping point of acceptability and is now legitimate target for both
‘de-ligitimization’ and ‘demonization’.

Alhough there always have been antisemites in England, and the British Government has been less friendly to Israel than it should have been on occasion, the virulent antisemitism you see on the pages of the Guardian and Independent, and on BBC news bulletins, was not, and still is not, prevalent amongst the indigenous population here.

Although I have lived for most of my life in Jewish areas, I worked in Central London, and it was the non-Jewish boys, and girls too, that I worked with who were the keen supporters of Israel that I mentioned.

As to my experience of views outside the Jewish community in general, my husband, the late Chairman, although a practising atheist, was brought up in a church going Roman Catholic family in Liverpool. His family never showed, or said, anything to lead me to believe they were in any way prejudiced, they accepted that our daughter was, and would be brought up, Jewish. My father in law had been stationed in ‘Palestine’ during the war, and had made friends with many Jews. His business in Liverpool was in a Jewish area, and even though I am unable to visit him often due to my illness these days, and he is too old to visit me, we are still in touch, my brother-in-law regularly comes to London to see us.

I have friends from many different ethnic groups, and in my life (I am 65), until recently, I had only been subjected to one antisemitic remark. I had refused to dance with a man somewhat shorter than myself when I was in my teens, and he called me a “Stuck up Jewish cow”.

You are right, it is only in the last 20 years, as the population demographics have altered dramatically, that antisemitism and its alter ego, anti-Zionism have flourished and increased in popularity.

@Sona: That’s actually a really good point about the narrative.

@chairwoman: Where did you live then? I’m curious. Was there a large Jewish population in the area? So you’re saying that the British dislike for Israel happened only over, say, the last twenty years? You’re sure it’s not just wishful thinking?

I wrote about how disliked Israel was before 1967 when Tony Judt idealized the world’s opinion of the Jewish state during the Six-Day War. There may have been a few weeks of goodwill when Israel beat back the combined Arab armies, but I’m thinking that was the exception rather than the rule. For instance, when the Mossad captured Adolph Eichmann, the UN passed a resolution condemning Israel for taking him out of Argentina—but not Argentina for hiding a Nazi war criminal. It was the only UN Security Council resolution in 1960.

Many young Englishmen I knew at the time expressed envy for English Jewish boys who went to help the IDF.

There were few aympathisers here for the Palestinian cause, and generally those that existed were openly antisemitic, and as Muslims were poorly represented amongst the electorate, our politicians had not yet started their love affair with Islam.

American liberals condemned Israel for taking out Iraq’s nuclear facility in 1981, but many others were thankful for this, particularly when we later had to go into Kuwait. The outcome would have been much different if Iraq had gained nuclear capability.