The politicians say ‘It must never happen again’, and then it happens again the following week
You would think that we Europeans might have learned a thing or two about antisemitism over the past century or so — and perhaps come to understand pragmatically, if nothing else, that what begins with the vicious persecution of Jews usually moves on to murdering lots of other people, too. But no. Or if we did, then it has conveniently slipped our minds, as things tend to do in these complicated times. Or perhaps we think that the persecution of the Jews we are seeing right now in Europe is of a different marque to that which began in the early 1930s in Germany. Yes, it’s sort of antisemitism — but it’s of a nicer kind than that instigated by that psychotic little Austrian with the performative mustache. A little more excusable.
