Last night’s decision by Maccabi Tel Aviv to not take up its allocation of away tickets is deeply depressing. The statements of principle that have come from across the political spectrum, arguing that it is wrong to ban Jewish fans because of the sectarian bigotry of many in that area, are now irrelevant. Castigation of West Midlands police for deciding it was easier to tell Jews to stay away than to protect them is now wasted breath. And the work of ministers to try to facilitate the fans’ attendance has now been shown to be ineffectual.
It is now unarguable that anti-Semitism is out of hand
But appalling as it is that Britain is now a county that refuses to protect visiting Jews from the mob, the decision by Maccabi Tel Aviv does have one benefit: it brings clarity to the situation.
It is now, for example, unarguable that anti-Semitism is out of hand. We are at a stage in Britain in which West Midlands police have only one message to Jewish football fans, and thus to Jews generally: stay away. But while it is West Midlands police who are in the frame for this decision, the rot is nationwide.
For two years the authorities – the police, the CPS, government, mayors, the whole lot of them – have stood and watched as anti-Semitic mobs spew out their hatred, with their chants of ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free’. The prime minister said last week he accepted this chant and ‘globalise the intifada’, which we saw in action in Manchester on Yom Kippur, are anti-Semitic.
Where else did they think all this was heading, other than Jews being told, as the next step, to stay off the streets? Today it is Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, but soon – mark my words – it will be British Jews who are told that, on ‘safety’ grounds, it would be ‘advisable’ for them to stay away.
One consequence of allowing Jew hate to roam free on our streets for two years (and at a lesser level for many years before) is that it will continue to roam free on our streets. A further consequence of that, and of the police making clear that they do not feel able to protect Jews from mobs, is that visiting Jews will decide – as Maccabi have done – that they will stay away, whether from Birmingham in this case or, as I am sure will now happen, elsewhere in Britain. The message has gone out loud and clear to Jews across the world that Britain doesn’t want them.
But the past few days have brought another form of clarity, too. Many of those who have spent the last two years pretending that their only issue was with Israel, rather than Jews, have been outed. On social media, in debates, on the streets, so swept up have they been in delirious fervour over an actual ban on Jews in Birmingham that they have dropped their guard.
This has been obvious since the ceasefire came into effect in Gaza. For two years the marches have demanded a ceasefire but when it came it was as if the rug had been pulled from under them. So they have carried on as if nothing has changed. Another national march, for instance, is planned for next month.
But the frothing over the presence of Jews at a football match has also exposed what really drives these people. They have clutched at every straw to make a case that isn’t simply ‘keep the Jews away’. They have spread lies about the violence of Maccabi fans in Amsterdam. Yes, some said some awful things about Arabs and some fought back against their attackers. But as the Dutch police reported and the Dutch courts convicted, the Maccabi fans were the victims of a pogrom planned online for weeks. And even were it true that some of the Maccabi fans were responsible, fans from an entire club should not be banned because of the actions of a small minority from it.
They have then said – at the same time – that it is really about banning Israelis from sport, as if you can simply choose whichever argument you prefer, so long as it ends up with the Jews banned.
The real argument, however, is the precise reverse of the case made by the anti-Semites. The real argument is that the problem isn’t that visiting fans will riot or cause a disturbance, it is that the safety of the Maccabi fans – of the Jews – is at risk, because of the Jew hating mob, the same mobs that have been marauding for the past two years.
The one positive is that now they are there in plain sight. So many of the ‘anti-Zionist’ and ‘Free Palestine’ crowd, from smooth talking pundits to hate preaching Imams, have dropped their guard over the Maccabi affair. They won’t ever again be able to pretend again that they’re not merely the latest in the long historical line of Jew haters.
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