Israelophobia

There never was a more timely publication than Israelophobia by Jake Wallis Simons

"I can't be anti-Semitic: I have nothing against Jews individually, I only hate them by the country." Such is the delusion that Jake Wallis Simons sets out to discredit in this excellent and fearless book, dismantling its mendacities with a scholarly and logical thoroughness that makes you wonder if there will ever be an Israelophobe left standing again. Buy copies to distribute to your kindergarten groups and universities, anyway, just in case. And then buy another copy for yourself. It does the heart good to see one of the greatest expressions of collective animus exposed for the sanctimonious posturing it is. Israelophobia is a book we all need

Timely and important . . . While Simons provides an exhaustive and damning study in the way the Left has sought to portray Israel as a pariah state, he contends that it is still possible to reverse this pernicious trend, so long as Israel's many supporters are willing to highlight the country's many virtues, not least its democratic values and respect for the rule of law, qualities that are not obviously apparent elsewhere in the Middle East

This is an important and necessary book by a superb and subtle writer. There's no one more qualified to write it than Jake Wallis Simons, both as ground-breaking Middle East security correspondent and Editor of the Jewish Chronicle. It analyses the often prejudiced coverage and intense scrutiny of Israel that so often veers into obsession and outright demonisation; and traces its origins from Medieval European and Stalinist antisemitism to the present day. It discusses why this nation is judged so differently from others in a supposedly rational and progressive era. A companion in some ways to David Baddiel's Jews Don't Count, it is a book that fascinatingly analyses the dark sides of our world today -political, national, cultural and digital - and exposes uncomfortable truths

[Israelophobia] removes the final alibi that you can be anti-Zionist without being antisemitic. It also takes on complicated arguments in a straightforward way. This book is full of vim and vigour and I recommend it

Fascinating

This book is particularly timely . . . makes a convincing exposé of the convenient line that attacks on Israel can be easily separated from antisemitism

Israelophobia is as important, trenchant and original as Jews Don't Count. And as necessary to read