Never Again? How the West betrayed the Jews and itself

Book review by Dr Anne Sarzin

The recent exposure of the BBC’s bias and editorial ‘doctoring’ of speeches delivered by President Trump to convey the impression that he incited the violent attack on 6 January  2021 on the Capitol in Washington, DC, has triggered a crisis resulting in an apology and the resignation of the BBC Director-General Tim Davie and his Head of News Deborah Turness.  This debacle was clearly triggered by the President’s threat to sue the BBC.

But what of the BBC’s endemic bias against the Jews and Israel? Former editor of the London Jewish Chronicle, acclaimed author Jake Wallis Simons, rates the BBC’s prejudice against Jews and Israel as the more serious problem of the two. When interviewing Palestinians, for example, the BBC regularly mistranslates the Arabic word ‘Yehud’ as ‘Israeli’ rather than ‘Jew’, thus covering up the base antisemitism that is sadly so widespread in Gaza. The onslaught of disinformation has been profoundly effective in turning public opinion against Israel.

Simons states that antipathy towards the Jewish minority and their national home is simply the tip of a spear of hostility towards the West and everything it stands for. ‘When activists in London, New York, Toronto, Barcelona, Paris and everywhere else march to “globalise the intifada”, what they are saying is that they wish to overturn the democracies they live in.’ Simons states categorically that the BBC has effectively lent its corporate heft to that same message. ‘With every misleading piece of reporting sent out into the world, public opinion is hardened against the Jews,’ he says. ‘As has been the case for thousands of years, anti-Semitism is based on lies. The modern loathing of Israel is no exception.’

The exposure of BBC bias against Jews and Israel echoes major themes in Simons’ recently published book Never Again? How the West betrayed the Jews and itself. There is naught for our comfort in this chilling, insightful, intelligent and cogently argued account of contemporary ideologies, fanaticism, bigotry and shape-shifting antisemitism that have saturated Western democracies and hijacked Western values, supplanting them with overt forms of jihadism propagated by organisations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,  the latter working covertly overseas, using intimidation, assassination and military operations.

Simons, who has covered many war zones, was one of the first journalists to arrive on the scene of the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, where 22-year-old Salman Abedi murdered 22 children in a suicide attack. He describes the confusion of a security guard at the Manchester Arena, who failed to raise the alarm when Abedi walking in with a heavy backpack because he was ‘worried’ that his ‘bad feeling’ was an expression of Islamophobia. ‘There have been many other examples and—probably out of the same dulling ideology that had been drummed into the head of Kyle Lawler—the antisemitic motive is always either downplayed or covered up by the authorities,’ Simons writes. ‘When those who are charged to keep people safe fail in this duty because they have been bullied out of their senses by centrist zealots, it underlines the vulnerability of the community that is doomed to be the first target of Islamist radicals.’

Many Jews in Britain and throughout the world looked on this tragedy with what Simons describes as ‘a special shudder’. But what they were witnessing was already evident in countries throughout Europe. Simons points out that antisemitism in Germany has skyrocketed. Hours after the October 7 attacks, Muslims in Berlin were handing out sweets and openly telling reporters in Hamburg that they were celebrating. Before the month was out, the headquarters of the Kahal Adass Jisroel Jewish community in central Berlin was firebombed, and a Rabbi’s house was strafed with bullets. ‘The shame of such scenes in the epicentre of Never Again can hardly be believed,’ Simons writes.

While Simons maintains that there is nothing inherent in Islam that condemns its followers to harbour antisemitism or hate the West, he warns that ‘to ignore the soaring levels of bigotry in contemporary Muslim societies is a folly that their first victims  cannot afford to indulge’. He states that unless the problem of Islamist extremism is tackled, the threat will only continue to grow. He outlines an approach towards Islamist radicalism that embraces those Muslims who have, in turn, embraced our way of life, while adopting a profound intolerance of those who foment hatred, divisiveness, radicalism and violence. He adds that the Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have clamped down hard on extremism in recent decades.

Simons cautions that, while optimism is vital, we can’t downplay the vast and complex scale of the task. ‘We must roll up our sleeves and embark upon the job of restoration in a way that combines muscular enforcement with our democratic ethos and fosters a spirit of national togetherness between Muslims and non-Muslims alike. …if we want to keep hold of both our way of life and our values, what is the alternative?’

Turning his attention to the United States, Simons contends that, as with the British left, the Democrats had also betrayed the Jews. ‘In an extended mirroring of the shameful antisemitism of the Corbyn years in Britain, the party had long become infested with the kind of Israelophobia embodied by the “Squad”.  Among countless outrages, three of its principal activists, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Cori Bush, voted against a House resolution condemning the global rise of antisemitism in 2024. With these people in its ranks, the administration proved itself unable to stand strong behind Israel as it battled Hamas, did nothing to confront the open antisemitism at Ivy League universities after October 7, and pursued a laughable policy of appeasement towards Iran.’

The author canvases opinions from leading thought changemakers, such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who denounced the fundamentalist habit of bracketing Islamophobia with antisemitism. ‘Islamophobia is a ploy to silence any criticism of the Islamist agenda,’ she said. ‘Number one on the Islamist agenda is to annihilate Jews and to destroy the State of Israel. So when people say they oppose Islamophobia and antisemitism in one breath…I cringe.’

This is an essential book by a courageous author. It has the power to enlighten the reader with its astute analysis and clarity of thought. It will stimulate discussion and elucidate many of the complexities with which we all grapple in these troubling times. It should be required reading for students, politicians and the general public. Above all, it is a clarion call to action, for political leaders and for ordinary men and women in civil society. One that we cannot afford to ignore.

 

Never Again?

Jake Wallis Simons

Constable, London

2025