In exactly the same neck of the woods as that last post is a letter from Jenny Tonge in today's Guardian explaining to Jonathan Freedland 'that criticism of Israel and Zionists who support that country is not antisemitism'. No, it isn't - unless it is. When are Tonge and her co-isn'ters going to cotton on to the possibility of this last bit?
If someone criticized Ralph Miliband for having had wrong-headed Marxist ideas, this wouldn't in itself be anti-Semitism either. But if the critic happened to be a believer in the myth of a world Bolshevik-Jewish conspiracy, then it just might be. You'd need to look into the critic's habits of argument to see whether he or she had ever deployed the theme before. Some years ago Tonge (you may or may not happen to remember) delivered herself of the following gem at the the Lib-Dem conference in Brighton:
The Pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the Western World, its financial grips. I think they've probably got a certain grip on our party.
Her current protestations about 'look[ing] for antisemitism where none exists' appear in a different light coming from a person ready to deploy that particular 'traditional' theme. (Thanks: E.)