The old left and the new anti-Semitism

This  is the English version of a piece of mine that was first published in DIE WELT on 4 August 2018, in which I attempt to explain to German readers why anti-Semitism, of all things, is dominating politics in Britain, of all places.

Germans visiting Britain before Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour party in 2015 would have struggled to find anyone who believed anti-Semitism was worth discussing. I and a few others had warned that the collapse of socialism had allowed a strange post-Marxist left to emerge that endorsed ideas previous generations of socialists would have dismissed as fascistic. There appeared to be no reason for the rest of the country to listen to us. Surely, we were told, you are just talking about marginal extremists.

Never neglect the extremes for they can turn into the mainstream. Today the scale of left-wing anti-Semitism has ‘shocked and ashamed’ moderate Labour politicians.