Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The chilling link between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism

Credit: Getty images

Isn’t it remarkable how similar anti-Zionism is to anti-Semitism? The latest proof of an intimate link between these two ideologies comes from Philadelphia. There, last night, a baying mob gathered outside a Jewish-owned restaurant to accuse the owners of being complicit in ‘genocide’. Guys, the 1930s called, they want their bigotry back.

Last night’s protest was a genuinely vile affair. Actually, ‘protest’ is far too grand a name for this kind of gathering. It was more like a mini-pogrom, the noisy harassment of a restaurant for its sin of being founded by a Jew. The restaurant is called Goldie. It is owned by Mike Solomonov, an Israeli-born, Pittsburgh-raised, award-winning chef. ‘Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide’, the mob screamed.

Everything is fascism except fascism. It is doublespeak on steroids

It was a ‘blatant act of anti-Semitism’, said Josh Shapiro, the Democrat governor of Pennsylvania. Goldie was ‘targeted and mobbed because its owner is Jewish and Israeli’, he said, and that isn’t politics – it’s ‘hate and bigotry’ reminiscent of a ‘dark time in history’.

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