Description
In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated for their religion.
In the twentieth century, they were hated because of their race.
Today, Jews are hated for something else entirely, their nation-state of Israel.
Antisemitism has morphed into something both ancient and modern: Israelophobia.
But how did this transformation occur?
And why?
Award-winning journalist Jake Wallis Simons answers these questions, clarifying the line between criticism and hatred, exploring game-changing facts and exposing dangerous discourse.
Urgent, incisive and deeply necessary, Israelophobia reveals why the Middle East’s only democracy, which uniquely respects the rights of women and sexual and religious minorities, attracts such disproportionate levels of slander.
Rather than defending Israel against all criticism, it argues for reasonable disagreement based on reality instead of bigotry.
Through charting the history of Israelophobia – starting in Nazi Germany, travelling via the Kremlin to Tehran and along fibre optic cables to billions of screens – and using it to understand contemporary prejudice, this timely book will restore much-needed sanity to the debate, creating the space for mutual understanding, tolerance and peace.
‘This is an important and necessary book by a superb and subtle writer. There’s no one more qualified to write it than Jake Wallis Simons, both as ground-breaking Middle East security correspondent and Editor of the Jewish Chronicle. It analyses the often prejudiced coverage and intense scrutiny of Israel that so often veers into obsession and outright demonisation; and traces its origins from Medieval European and Stalinist antisemitism to the present day. It discusses why this nation is judged so differently from others in a supposedly rational and progressive era. A companion in some ways to David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count, it is a book that fascinatingly analyses the dark sides of our world today -political, national, cultural and digital – and exposes uncomfortable truths’ – Simon Sebag Montefiore
‘“I can’t be anti-Semitic: I have nothing against Jews individually, I only hate them by the country.” Such is the delusion that Jake Wallis Simons sets out to discredit in this excellent and fearless book, dismantling its mendacities with a scholarly and logical thoroughness that makes you wonder if there will ever be an Israelophobe left standing again. Buy copies to distribute to your kindergarten groups and universities, anyway, just in case. And then buy another copy for yourself. It does the heart good to see one of the greatest expressions of collective animus exposed for the sanctimonious posturing it is. Israelophobia is a book we all need’ – Howard Jacobson
‘Timely and important’ – Telegraph
‘Fascinating’ – Spectator
