IS THERE A CURE FOR ANTI-SEMITISM?
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disappear.
If Belloc or Buchan
had
devised such a story, we would be suitably
offended.
In
fact what
r
have given is an account (if anything, a toned–
down account) of the career of the late Robert Maxwell. And the in–
teresting thing is that the revelations about Maxwell after his death -
and hard on the heels of his funeral - were attended by little if any anti–
Semitic comment, even at the level of innuendo. We must be careful; we
don't know what people say behind our backs. But we can make de–
ductions, and we do know what people said in the past, quite openly
about much smaller-scale episodes. An affair of this magnitude would
once have produced a torrent of anti-Semitic comment, possibly even
anti-Semitic violence.
In
the 1990s, the dogs didn't bark. And though
the Maxwell story is a particularly lurid one, the recent past (think of
Wall Street) affords numerous instances of anti-Semitic reaction being
largely conspicuous by its absence. Something seems to have changed. A
pessimist would say it's merely that people are temporarily inhibited from
venting their prejudices fitfully. What impresses me is how fitfully.
Britain isn't France or Germany; the countries of Western Europe
aren't the countries of Eastern Europe; there is a different tale to be told
everywhere. Yet surveying the picture as whole, I think we should be
careful to keep our nerve: grounds for concern are not necessarily
grounds for alarm.
Take the case of Hungary, where there has just been a general elec–
tion. Anti-Semitic feelings undoubtedly played a considerable part in that
election, to the extent that the leader of the main liberal opposition
party, who was Jewish, was withdrawn and replaced with a more
"acceptable" non-Jewish figure. I'm depressed at the thought, as I am
sure we all are, but I can't say that I am particularly shocked: it would
have been too much to hope that some measure of anti-Semitism would
not have resurfaced amid the turmoil of the post-Communist era. I also
console myself with the thought that it could have been much worse.
In
the actual election results, the anti-Semitic nationalists, who looked
more threatening a year or two back, were effectively marginalized. And
there seem to be good grounds for hoping that we are over the worst
elsewhere in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe - provided
that (and of course it is a big "if') general social stability prevails.
As for Germany, the activities of the far right in that country must
of course give us a particular shudder. But we should keep them in pro–
portion. Equally, we can hardly help being especially sensitive to the in–
sensitivities of Germans in high places - we all remember Chancellor
Kohl at Bitburg. But it would be utterly misleading to jump to the
conclusion that Kohl and his regime are anti-Semitic. They are not, as
