Please read the small print.

1. ‘ANTISEMITIC’ MEANS ANTI-ARAB

This is not correct. The opposite of antisemite is not semite but philosemite. However the interpretation of antisemitism as anti-Palestinianism has great popularity as it enables the antagonist to accuse Jews of antisemitism while denying it in himself. There are also those who, as in Tiktoker Fiona Ryan’s song, ‘wear their antisemite’s badge with pride,’ but they tend to be fanatical Jew haters rather than moderately hostile.

2) JEWS ARE POLISH (OR KHAZARS)

The demography of Israel is such that Mizrahi Jews from Arabic speaking lands comprise more than half the Jewish population. As for the Beta Jews whose antecedents came from Ethiopia, there is no going back to Poland for them. The maternal grandparents of the present writer were born in Poland but they spoke Yiddish not Polish and migrated to England in the early twentieth century. If they had remained in Poland, they likely would not have survived the Shoah. Curiously, anti Zionist Jews ranging from right to left such as Neturei Karta (a minority group even among haredim), JVL or JVP are rarely considered Polish. It is perceived by the accuser as a slur, so intended for Zionist Jews and Israelis.

3) ZIONISTS COLLUDED WITH THE NAZIS

I find it difficult to print these words as they are such a grotesque misunderstanding of the Holocaust. The Nazis did not quiz Jews about their politics before selecting who would go to the gas chambers and who would be put to work. Those who looked capable of slave labour survived longer than those who did not. As for collusion, it is a word which overhadows anyone in a position of leadership in the ghettos who thought they could save more Jews from death if they provided the German occupiers with a productive workforce. There was often a terrible calculus in which saving some was weighed against saving none. Hence Rudolf Kastner and Chaim Rumkowski got accused of collaboration.

4) NON JEWS KILLED IN THE HOLOCAUST ARE FORGOTTEN

Roma, Sinti, Gays, Communists and people with disabilities were also killed by the Nazis but anti Jewish rhetoric, legislation, dispossession and murder were driving forces during the Third Reich and it is difficult to see why anyone would need to have this explained to them.

5) JEWS WERE EXPELLED FROM 109 COUNTRIES

I assume that the people who post this canard can name the 109 countries. I would expect also that they can explain why so many countries wanted to expel Poles (or Khazars).

6) ZIONISTS ARE WORSE THAN NAZIS

This is a very popular canard. The source of imminent or present danger always seems worse than other dangers. Thus I have seen people claiming that Hamas are worse than the Nazis, which is meaningless and unhelpful. The reason why such a grotesque comparison is made concerning Zionists (among whom I count myself) and Nazis is that it suggests the Nazis were in some way vindicated in their attempt to eliminate the ultimate evil. Neonazis are less bothered by Zionist/Jewish distinctions and want us all exterminated, but they do not fall within the middle-of-the-road mainstream.

7) JEWS ARE WHITE SUPREMACISTS

This applies likewise to black or Mizrahi Jews. Grist to the mill is the non Jewish perception of Chosenness and what they think Jews mean by it. I would say it refers to Jews being chosen for certain jobs in the world, in fulfilment of the 613 commandments. Saint Paul was the first to say that gentiles were under no compulsion to circumcise, keep kosher or recite the Shema twice daily. Contemporary Jews have laws and customs, culture and folklore, as do all peoples. As to whether national consciousness is supremacism, it is often suggested that this applies to English but not Scottish or Irish nationalism.

8) JEWS DOMINATE GOVERNMENTS AND MEDIA

This is difficult to insist on as so many western governments are now antagonistic to Israel while the broadcasting companies sometimes get themselves into trouble over their passionately anti Israel point of view. Yet I know this is not how it is perceived by people who want the government to desist from putting difficulties in the way of anti Israel action. They would want the government to cease all commerce and exchange of intelligence with Israel, to emphasize that Israel is an outcast among the nations. I don’t think they will achieve this as the UK needs Israel’s cooperation and they have already compromised trust by their anti Israel rhetoric and sanctions.

9) ZIONISTS ARE PRONE TO INFANTICIDE

I wondered if this belonged with a different list of principles, belonging to the fanatical far right or fanatical far left but I see it so commonly, it must have its place in the middle of the road. If we say this is malignant nonsense, we are shown images of children’s corpses, said to be Gazan, and given horrific statistics of the deaths of children, as estimated by the ‘Hamas run Health Ministry’. If we say that children are killed in all wars, they will say ‘No!’ as emphatically as Dawn French in her notorious video. It is indeed a horrible war when the military and the civilians are entwined in the over-crowded debris of Gazan cities and towns. Whether the war could have been fought differently without the devastating death toll, I do not know. All I know is that I and other Jews on social media are called ‘baby killers’ most days and I know it is a gross insult, informed by a medieval hinterland of which they may not even be aware.

10) KEIR STARMER IS/JEFFREY EPSTEIN WAS – A MOSSAD AGENT

As Naftali Bennett recently said in reply to the Epstein rumour, he wasn’t. And neither is Keir Starmer, nor his Jewish wife. We are not all Mossad agents.

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Would that there were only ten of these commandments but I know that the popular misunderstandings, clichés and libels vastly exceed those I have mentioned. We Jews have not 10 but 613 commandments, codified by Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah (Repetition of the Torah) in the twelfth century. The Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 are called the Aseret Hadibrot – the Ten Sayings, very important but by no means the totality of the commandments.

The extremists and hysterics who suffer from a fanatical hatred of Jews have other sets of commandments, including those above but tending towards cosmic and apocalyptic perceptions of the place of Jews in the world. It would not surprise me if they had more than 613 statements which have ebbed and flowed through the ages.