The world’s oldest hatred finds a new home

Here is an essay I had published in the Jerusalem Post on Jan. 3

Some would call me a masochist. I spend most of my day reading a reactionary blog – one which often advances narratives warning darkly of a dominant “Zionist” lobby which stifles debate and has a corrosive effect on the political system.  This blog has been identified as one of the main purveyors of antisemitic hate in the British mainstream media by the CST – the organization dedicated to collecting, analyzing, and responding to antisemitism in the UK.

Clearly a glutton for punishment, I also scour the comment section of such posts where I often find quite palpable expressions of hatred towards Jews.

This site, home of such far-right views, also happens to be the most widely read blog in the UK – 37 million unique visitors a month.

I must admit that I omitted one crucial detail about this blog.  It describes itself as a progressive left publication.

Comment is Free, the blog of the UK paper, The Guardian, not only brands itself as progressive left, but has stated its aim to become “the world’s leading liberal voice.”

“Oh, come on”, you’re thinking. “Surely the Guardian is an anomaly. The progressive left, by their very nature, are anti-racist and opposed to antisemitism.  Expressions of hatred towards minority groups are a phenomenon uniquely prevalent on the right.” Well, actually, that’s not the case.

As my report for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs demonstrated, some of the more popular progressive left blogs in the US – Huffington Post, Glenn Greenwald and Daily Kos – with extremely large liberal audiences – freely engage in Judeophobic invectives.  In addition, the most popular and influential conservative blogs in the US – such as National Review’s blog, The Corner, Hot Air, Instapundit and many others – tend to be strongly philo-Semitic.  My follow-up report for the JCPA analyzed the presence of antisemitic cartoons on such progressive sites. Indeed, there is credible polling data that such expressions of bigotry are not anomalous.

Read the rest of the essay, here.

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