cover image THE RETURN OF ANTI-SEMITISM

THE RETURN OF ANTI-SEMITISM

Gabriel Schoenfeld, . . Encounter, $25.95 (193pp) ISBN 978-1-893554-89-4

This is the story of how, "virtually unnoticed, and unremarked, a lethal hatred of Jews has once again come to play a large part in world events." Schoenfeld offers a pungent, well-written, argumentative analysis, drawing upon essays he wrote for Commentary (where he is a senior editor) and other right-leaning publications. Schoenfeld divides his methodical analysis into three geopolitical spheres—the Islamic world, with an increase of "a particularly virulent brand of anti-Semitic hatred"; Europe, with the resurgence of a physically violent anti-Semitism; and the U.S., where for the first time anti-Semitism may be finding strong roots "in... the left-wing radicalism that came to the fore in the late 1960s and 1970s." Schoenfeld carefully, if selectively, makes a disturbing, and at times convincing, argument that the past two decades have seen a volatile conflation of generalized anti-Semitic fury with critiques of Israeli policy. Schoenfeld's conservative leanings are evident—he mounts a strong defense of Bush's Iraq policy as a sound counter to Islamic anti-Semitism—and some readers may find some of his arguments flimsy or debatable. In particular, his dismissal of Jewish progressives—such as Rabbi Michael Lerner, Susannah Heschel and Marc Ellis—as "a coterie of preening left-wing Jews" who play a "sordid role" in tacitly promoting anti-Semitism with their criticisms of Israeli social and political policy—will rankle his critics. Schoenfeld's book is part of a wave of new critiques of anti-Semitism. While more nuanced than Phyllis Chesler's The New Anti-Semitism (Forecasts, TK), Schoenfeld's work is more polemical and will find a smaller audience than Abraham Foxman's Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism (Forecasts, date TK). (Feb.)