Antisemitic anti-Zionism and the Left | The JC

Left-wing antisemitism got going during the foundations of the socialist movement in the late 19th century when some parts of the left, often as a tactical ploy, identified „the Jew“ with finance and capitalism.

August Bebel, the German Social Democrat leader, shook his head and called this the „socialism of fools“.

There was much foolishness in Britain, too. „Wherever there is trouble in Europe, wherever rumours of war circulate and men’s minds are distraught with fear of change and calamity,“ warned the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1891, „you may be sure that a hooked-nosed Rothschild is at his games somewhere near the region of the disturbances.“…