Yesterday I examined the brand-new volume by Hussain Abdul-Hussain: The Arab Case for Israel: And Other Essays from a Distant Conflict. In it I focused on how one Arab writer seeks to make the case for Zionism. Of course the issue of antisemitism is discussed often in his book.
Another very new book looks at antisemitism in even greater detail. I refer to Antisemitism: What Everyone Needs to Know by David Harris (Oxford University Press, 2025). As in my previous article, here I simply want to introduce you to this book and offer some choice quotes from it, hopefully to entice you to get the book and read it for yourself. Harris begins by laying out definitions:
Antisemitism is among the world’s oldest, most enduring forms of virulent hatred. Indeed, some observers argue it is the oldest. Tragically, it has been an all-too-frequent factor in the millennia-long development of Western civilization.
Antisemitism has ebbed and flowed like a mutating malignancy into new forms and variations and proven stubbornly resilient. It has caused untold harm to Jews and Jewish communities throughout the centuries in which antisemites define the Jew as the enemy of all that is good and decent. The deicide charge, blood libels, inquisitions, ghettos, expulsions, pales of settlement, pogroms, forced conversions, discriminatory laws, and, most catastrophically, the Holocaust were the result.
At its heart, antisemitism has two distinguishing features. First, it is an elaborate conspiracy theory. It ascribes to Jews, a tiny percentage of the world’s population, extraordinary powers of evil intent and behavior—from plagues to economic depressions, from war to revolution. Second, it is an irrational and contradictory belief system. Jews are variously seen as capitalists and communists, White and non-White, manipulative insiders and unassimilable outsiders.
History teaches that antisemitism is a disease which begins with the Jews but does not end with them. Once antisemitism is unleashed, it knows no bounds and can attack the very fabric of society, making the Jewish people, some would say, the early warning system. This deadly strain of hatred often turns against other minority groups as well, not to mention foundational democratic values, beginning with equal rights and equal protection before the law. Therefore, antisemitism should be viewed as a universal human rights issue of importance to all, and not solely as a Jewish or Israeli concern.
In the 21st century, antisemitism is once again resurgent after several postwar decades when it appeared, at least in Western democratic societies, to be in remission. In recent years, the FBI reported that well over half of all religiously motivated hate crimes in the United States targeted Jews, even though Jews comprise just over 2% of the population…” (p. 1-2)
Well worth focussing on is Chapter 6, “Anti-Zionism as Antisemitism,” which discusses this matter in some detail. Harris begins it this way:
In November 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to recommend that separate Jewish and Arab states replace the British Mandate. The Arab world categorically rejected the plan. Notwithstanding, the Jews announced the establishment of Israel on May 14, 1948. Since then, many believe that a new form of antisemitism has emerged: anti-Zionism. Rather than focus on the individual Jew or Judaism or the Jewish “race”, the target is the Jewish state. Its exponents often claim their rejection of Israel is not antisemitic but rather state-driven. Others insist the two cannot be separated. Is calling for Israel’s destruction inherently antisemitic? Does any attempt to compare Israel’s actions to those of Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa cross a line into antisemitism? Does treating Israel differently at the UN compared to other member states constitute antisemitism? If Israel’s overseas supporters are accused of “dual loyalty”, meaning their loyalty to Israel is seen as in conflict with loyalty to their country of citizenship, is this antisemitism?
When does criticism of Israel become antisemitism?
Natan Sharansky was a leader of the Jewish and human rights movements in his native USSR. He was arrested for his activities and sent for nine brutal years, 1977– 86, to the Soviet Gulag, where he became one of the world’s best-known political prisoners. He was finally allowed to leave the USSR in 1986 and resettled in Israel. Fifteen years later, he was the Israeli minister of diaspora affairs. As he said at the time, while witnessing a surge in antisemitism starting in Europe, he “was grappling with the question of how to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism.” He came up with a formula, known as the 3D test, that has been widely used by mainstream Jewish organisations and various Israeli governments. Here is his explanation:
“These 3Ds – demonization, delegitimization and double standards – are the three main tools that antisemites employed against Jews throughout history. For thousands of years, Jews were demonised, they were charged with blood libels, with poisoning wells, and, later, with controlling the global banking system. The Jewish faith and the Jewish claim to nationhood was delegitimised.
“And double standards were applied to Jews, either through the imposition of special laws – from the Middle Ages in Europe, to the Russian Empire and Nazi Germany – or through de facto government policy discriminating against Jews, as I experienced in the Soviet Union. Throughout history, demonization of Jewish people, delegitimization of their faith or nationhood, and double standards applied to Jews created fertile soil for pogroms, expulsions and genocide.
“My 3D test shows that if we see these same tools of delegitimization, demonization and double standards that were used against Jews in the past being used against the collective Jew, the Jewish State, today – we know we are witnessing a new face of the old antisemitism”. (pp. 110-111)
Antisemitism (What Everyone Needs To Know®)by Harris (Author)
Harris examines this in detail, looking at things such as the BDS Movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions). But one especially finds the link between antisemitism and anti-Zionism in the UN. Says Harris:
Israel is the target of vastly disproportionate attention by the United Nations and a majority of the country-specific resolutions each year, which undoubtedly serves to demonize Israel as a nation and, many would argue, fans the flames of anti-Jewish prejudice.
For example, the Geneva-based Human Rights Council has a standing agenda, with one of its permanent items, #7, focused exclusively on alleged mistreatment of the Palestinians by Israel, while literally all other nations in the world, including serial human rights violators such as Iran, North Korea, and Russia, are bundled together under agenda item #4, which addresses general debate on human rights situations that require the Council’s attention.
According to the nongovernmental organization UN Watch, in 2022 the UN General Assembly adopted 15 resolutions on Israel and 13 resolutions cumulatively addressing all other nations. For context, 2022 was the year that Russia launched a barbaric, illegal, and unprovoked war against Ukraine.
Within the UN megastructure there are special rapporteurs and standing committees whose sole mandate is to scrutinize Israeli actions. There is nothing remotely comparable for any other UN member state…. (pp. 115-116)
He goes on to say this:
Whereas all this attention zeroes in on Israel, neither the UN General Assembly nor UN Human Rights Council has ever, not once, condemned Hamas by name for its cross-border raids against Israel, such as on October 7, 2023, when 1,200 were murdered and 250 kidnapped, or thousands of missile strikes, over many years, against Israeli civilian targets….
Since 1949, when Israel became a UN member, it has never sat as a rotating member of the Security Council, a privilege Algeria has enjoyed four times, Egypt five times, Syria three times, Tunisia four times, and Turkey four times. It has not had a seat on the Human Rights Council for decades, while in 2003, for instance, Libya, then led by Muammar Gaddafi, served for one year as the chair of this body, and an Iranian ambassador was chosen to head the 2023 UN Human Rights Council Social Forum. (pp. 118-119)
The sordid details keep on coming. Harris reminds us that in 1975 the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 3379 which determined “that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” The Muslim-majority nations and the Soviet bloc ensured that this vote carried 72 to 35 (with 32 abstentions).
It was only in 1991 following determined US diplomacy that the Resolution was repealed by the UN General Assembly. “The canard of ‘Zionism is racism’ has not disappeared, but the original UN resolution that validated it has.” (pp. 121, 123)
The concluding chapter of the book looks at how antisemitism can be combatted. Harris mentions four important things that we must bear in mind:
-It derives from various sources, so they all must be dealt with.
-We must not underestimate how durable and lethal it is.
-It cannot be separated from the overall health of a society.
-It is not a Jewish problem for Jews to solve, but a non-Jewish problem for them to deal with. (pp. 235-236)
Those not familiar with the age-old diabolical curse of antisemitism need to be educated here. And a book like this is just the place to start.
An important book for Christians to read on this subject is “Our Hands are Stained with Blood” by Dr Michael Brown.
In the New Testament, we read that the Jewish leaders were the main opponents to the gospel. But few of us are aware that for most of the time since then, the shoe has been on the other foot, and the church has historically been the main persecutor of the Jewish people.
A prime example was Martin Luther. In his treatise, “On the Jews and Their Lies”, he said that ‘Jewish synagogues and schools be set on fire, prayer books be destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, Jewish homes burned, their property and money confiscated, they be afforded no legal protection, but be drafted into forced labor or expelled forever’. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Jews_and_Their_Lies ). Apparently, he was a great inspiration to the Nazis!
In Romans 11:11-14, Paul said, “salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious”, and “I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them”. But instead of making them jealous of the salvation we have received, the church’s long history of antisemitism and persecution has been a major stumbling block to the Jews. They have long memories.
An important book for Christians to read on this subject is “Our Hands are Stained with Blood” by Dr Michael Brown.
In the New Testament, we read that the Jewish leaders were the main opponents to the gospel. But few of us are aware that for most of the time since then, the shoe has been on the other foot, and the church has historically been the main persecutor of the Jewish people.
A prime example was Martin Luther. In his treatise, “On the Jews and Their Lies”, he said that ‘Jewish synagogues and schools be set on fire, prayer books be destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, Jewish homes burned, their property and money confiscated, they be afforded no legal protection, but be drafted into forced labor or expelled forever’. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Jews_and_Their_Lies ). Apparently, he was a great inspiration to the Nazis!
In Romans 11:11-14, Paul said, “salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious”, and “I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them”. But instead of making them jealous of the salvation we have received, the church’s long history of antisemitism and persecution has been a major stumbling block to the Jews. They have long memories.
Yes I list Brown’s important book here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2026/03/22/what-we-must-know-about-israel-and-the-jews/