Back from how Palestinians are treated in and by various countries in the Middle East to the theme of the thread, leftist anti-semitism in Europe:
I found Fiamma Nirenstein's article much more interesting than Rahola's. Of course, it had weak parts too, in my eyes, and I was not surprised at all that it was McGrath who found what I too consider a weak part in her argumentation.

I liked it more (1) for a much more personal perspective and (2) because it did not pin down the anti-semitism to a kind of mystic hate of Jews in the European soul but tried to argue other sources for that feeling. "A true German has a natural inborn dislike for the (ways of the) Jews" was heard and read over here from at least the 1880s on. That mystic argumentation with the German soul doesn't sound much better if we insert 'Spanish' or 'European' instead of 'German' and if the argument comes from a totally different point of view and serves a completely different purpose.

If there is anti-Semitism in Europe (and there is, in the Right, in the Left and elsewhere) it is counter-productive to explain it by an archaic hate of Jews (for that comes close to declare it unavoidable). Nirenstein has hinted at other explanations and she is to be commended in my eyes for a much better level of analysis than Rahola.

Wolfgang