Jonathan Steele's piece in the Guardian today wouldn't merit any special attention were it not for the image which accompanies it. The piece is the usual drivel about US foreign policy being in hock to you know who: Although he repeatedly outlines a general principle that the US should talk to every important player without preconditions, he does not apply this in the Middle East. In 2006, Obama blamed Hizbullah for the war with Israel and did not join the appeals for Israel to accept a ceasefire. Last month he criticised Jimmy Carter for talking to Hamas. "We must not negotiate with a terrorist group intent on Israel's destruction," he said.Yes, shocking isn't it that Obama should attach blame to those paragons of virtue, Hizbullah?
As I say, I'd not concern myself with Steele normally; his warped view of the Middle East is regularly trotted out. But this image appears below his piece:
The inference - not so much as inference as a statement screamed at high volume - is that Israel runs the US. The image is about as classic an anti-semitic trope as exists. Indeed, it's almost exactly the sort of thing highlighted by last year's All Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism report (you can read the government's progress report here).
A think tank with which I am involved, the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, is carrying out research on just this sort of thing. As the report puts it (the work is being funded by DCLG):
Given the difficulties in clarifying the character of antisemitic discourse, the proposed research project aims:
To identify and illuminate the main component parts of anti-Semitic discourse, such as stereotypes, allusions, characterisations, prejudicial topologies and revisions of core antisemitic ideas
This will include an examination of how criticism of Israel and Zionism can cross-over into and become polluted by antisemitism through the expression or assumption of core antisemitic concepts.
The Guardian needs to take a careful look at its editorial policy, given the provenance and meaning of this sort of image. Unless, that is, it is intending to take its inspiration from Der Sturmer.