Tuesday’s Daily Mail paid tribute to the “waspish wit” of Sir Gerald Kaufman, who died this week at 86.
As an example of his bons mots, the paper cited this remark: “The present Israeli government cynically exploits guilt over the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians.”
There may indeed be people who find this witty. Then again, there have always been people who are amused by antisemitism — and Sir Gerald’s remark is a straightforward example of antisemitism of the foulest kind.
Nothing surprising there, because this was Sir Gerald’s stock in trade. He had no compunction in attacking Jews as Jews, thinking that somehow his own Judaism gave him an exemption. It did not.