The ‘New Antisemitism’, the Left and Palestine: The ‘Anti-Imperialism of Fools’ or an Invention of Imperial Reason?

Fine and Spencer's 2017 publication, Antisemitism and the Left reprises many of the arguments that accuse the left of masquerading its anti-semitism as anti-Zionism. It has the novelty, however, of seeking to uphold this charge by laying claim to contributions on the ‘Jewish question’ by left wing social theorists, notably Marx, the Frankfurt School and Hanna Arendt. The article explores the attempt to distil from these writers a Zionist critique of anti-Zionism. The resulting interpretation of anti-semitism, self-determination, imperialism and several other key concepts helps to shed light on the theoretical and political basis of the case against left-wing anti-Zionism.