Some British Jews’ attachment to Israel stems from their sense of domestic insecurity

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

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme (from the book’s intro and prior chapters) that security concerns, not ideology, can drive attachment to a homeland — parallels the ‘survival kit’ framing with diaspora group strategies elsewhere.