Ian Buruma explains that anti-Semitism knows no ideological divide, and that "left-wing anti-Semitism is as toxic as the right-wing variety." The political debate on Israel in the West "shows how prejudices can shift from one group to another, while the underlying sentiments remain exactly the same."

In recent months, amid Brexit debate, Ken Livingstone, former London mayor and left-wing Labour politician drew a flurry of criticism with his anti-Semitic remarks, "claiming that Hitler was a Zionist in the early 1930s." His suspension from the party in March didn' pacify an angry public. Meanwhile the party had to expel two activists for overt racism, following an inquiry into the Labour club at Oxford University, which is said to be riddled with racism - the hatred of Jews. The incident revealed the reality that racial prejudice and anti-Semitism are no longer "a uniquely right-wing phenomenon" but also a "leftist" problem in Europe.

According to the author, the Dreyfus affair in the 1890s highlighted anti-Semitism in France, which still continues to haunt the society today. Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew and a brilliant young army captain, was demonised by a virulent anti-Semitic press as a traitor, leaking French army secrets to the Germans. The affair divided France, pitting the pro-Dreyfus liberal intellectuals against the conservative right-wing "anti-Dreyfusards," backed by the clergy and military. Despite the clear lack of evidence, Dreyfus was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island, French Guiana. Actually his real crime was that he and his supporters fought to expose the anti-Semitic conspiracy.

In modern history anti-Semitism has been on the agenda of - mainly - reactionaries, "blood-and-soil nationalists, right-wing Christians, fanatical anti-Bolshevists, and authoritarians obsessed with social order." It isn't all true that "Jews fared best under leftist governments." In the Soviet Union Stalin called them the “rootless cosmopolitans”and accused them of being "natural agents of capitalism and traitors." Karl Marx, a Jew himself despised Jewish stock brokers, saying “Money is the jealous God of Israel.”

According to Buruma, the state of Israel gained much sympathy from leftist and communist governments, when it was ruled by Russian and Polish socialists in the first two decades since its foundation in 1948. "Zionism was not yet regarded as a noxious form of racism," and there was "no need to 'hate the Jews in Israel.'”

Since the right came to power in the early 1970s Israel has been criticised for its Palestinian policies, and has become the symbol of "colonialism, oppression of a minority, militarism, and chauvinism." The author makes a cynical remark: "for some people, it was perhaps a relief that they could hate Jews again, this time under the guise of high-minded principles."

What is paradoxical is that "for much the same reasons, Israel became popular on the right." Former anti-Semites have discovered the beauty of Israel being a bulwark against Islam, and support its "tough line with the Palestinians." Islamophobes in Europe laud Israel as a "bastion" of “Judeo-Christian civilization.” The Dutch demagogue Geert Wilders even says: “When the flag of Israel no longer flies over the walls of Jerusalem, the West will no longer be free.”

What Buruma remarkably points out is the interchangeability of vitriol towards Jews and Muslims. "Old anti-Semitic tropes turn up in the rhetoric of these cheerleaders for Israel" are being recycled for anti-Muslim diatribes. In fact "modern-day anti-Dreyfusards" in Europe are the crusaders of the 21st century. Yet in their efforts to "exclude an unpopular minority from mainstream society," they don't subdue "Islamist violence" but "boost the politics of hatred and fear," undermining an interfaith dialogue.