British Jewish attachment to Israel can stem from survival anxiety, not conviction

Evidence

Michael, whom we quoted earlier, drew a direct link between his concern about antisemitism in the UK and the question of Jewish–Muslim relations. When we asked him what, in his opinion, the main issues in these relations were, he stated that all the problems between local Jews and Muslims were stemming from the conflict in the Middle East. However, though he was critical of Israel, it was hard for him to stop supporting it because of the possibility of antisemitic persecution in the UK: … I have to say I can see both sides of this because I’ve dealt with a lot of Muslims … and the prejudice begins and starts really with Israel and Palestine, that’s where the prejudice is, it’s nothing to do with [what we do] on a day-to-day basis—in other words we can get on well … I am not the greatest Zionist in the world … I’m not a person that says Israel is wonderful and it’s faultless. But I’ve got to survive, you see, so if it became bad here I’d go there and that’s my survival kit. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1737 (#expands, via linked claim)

This factual constellation gave rise to an optical illusion under which both Jewish and non-Jewish historians have suffered ever since. Historiography “has until now dealt more with the Christian dissociation from the Jews than with the reverse,” thus obliterating the otherwise more important fact that Jewish dissociation from the Gentile world, and more specifically from the Christian environment, has been of greater relevance for Jewish history than the reverse, for the obvious reason that the very survival of the people as an identifiable entity depended upon such voluntary separation and not, as was currently assumed, upon the hostility of Christians and non-Jews. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 18 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Some British Jews’ attachment to Israel stems from their sense of domestic insecurity — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 1737; For Jewish scholars orientalism expressed cultural anxiety, not imperial confidence — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 376; Jewish survival depended on voluntary self-separation, not on Gentile persecution. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 18 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Some British Jews’ attachment to Israel stems from their sense of domestic insecurity #expands (0.92) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1737
• Jewish survival depended on voluntary self-separation, not on Gentile persecution. #complicates (0.80) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 18