Globalising Hatred: The New Antisemitism

by Denis MacShane

Denis MacShane, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism, argues that we are now facing an ideological assault based on hatred of Jews that threatens universal values and world peace. He considers how antisemitism has become a linking mechanism between different extremisms; how it operates in UK national party politics and in the European Parliament; and how Holocaust denial has hardened into an organized ideological position. Globalising Hatred is both a cri de coeur for a new tolerance and an attempt to throw light on a form of hatred that mobilizes politics across many continents.

Genres: Politics, Antisemitism, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2008

About the author

British MP for the Labour Party (1994-2012) and Labour minister and UK Minister of State for Europe.

MacShane was a supporter of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is pro-Israel and Nuclear Power.

In 2012 he resigned after it was found he he had submitted 19 false expenses invoices.

Reviews

[Liam89 · Rating 4 out of 5]

While by no means a game-changing piece of work, this is none the less an important and well-researched study of a form of racism that the author knows is ineradicable, but must be ceaselessly resisted all the same. MacShane shows that contrary to popular belief, anti-Jewish prejudice today is as alive and dangerous as ever, particularly when expressed by its most ardent adherents: Islamists and jihadists. Most importantly, he correctly re-states what many intellectuals have noted: that since anti-Semitism is a reaction against skepticism, rationality, reason and modernity, it is a threat to all of us who believe in the values of the Enlightenment, and recognise the remarkable contribution to secular life made by Spinoza, Marx, Freud, Kafka and Einstein. He may forever be known as "disgraced former MP" Denis MacShane, but make no mistake, his left-wing credentials can never be in doubt in terms of his commitment to the fight against that most deadly and sinister of prejudices, anti-Semitism.

[Adina Levin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The part that cuts deep about this book is that it’s over 15 years old and what MacShane uncovered in this quick read is dangerously worse.