How will Jewish voters react to Nigel Farage? asks Gary Mond
'Farage will not "fawn" on the Jewish community,' says Gary Mond
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“I’m not coming here like everybody else to be fawning to the Jewish community, saying you are the most important group of people in the country — although you may be!” exclaimed Nigel Farage in his first and, to date, only major address to the UK’s Jewish community.
This event took place in July 2013 at the Hasmonean (Jewish) school in northwest London, where Farage was being interviewed by the then Jewish Chronicle editor, Stephen Pollard, in front of about 400 people.
That meeting was perhaps the first real opportunity that British Jews had to listen to and question Farage, then leader of UKIP, on issues relevant to the Jewish community.
He won applause for expressing his unqualified support for the Jewish practices of male circumcision and religious slaughter, emphasised that UKIP banned entryism from former BNP members, condemned antisemitism and expressed strong support for Israel.
Over the next seven years, Farage’s political remarks on a wide variety of issues did not lead British Jews to support or oppose him, any more or less than the rest of the population.
There was also no evidence that the proportion of Jews who voted for Brexit in 2016 was materially different from the 52% who did so overall.
Perhaps the first real Jewish-related controversy came in 2020, when Farage was accused, in my view wrongly, of “antisemitic dog whistles”.
He had criticised Hungarian Jewish billionaire George Soros for funding organisations which pressured companies not to advertise on certain TV shows (an accurate statement where Soros being Jewish was irrelevant). He also used the expression “cultural Marxism”, which certain, mainly left-wing Jewish communal groups regard as antisemitic, again wrongly in my opinion.
It is fair to say that the above dispute says more about the Jewish community than it does about Farage. We are so divided that we cannot even agree on what is and isn’t antisemitic.
A further example is Farage’s occasional use of the word “globalist”. Jewish community establishment groups often regard calling someone a globalist as antisemitic, which is blatantly wrong when the term, whether one is for or against globalism, has an identical status to calling someone a capitalist, a liberal or a socialist – a set of political views wholly unconnected with a person’s status as a Jew.
One prominent British Jew who has worked closely with Farage is former Brexit Party MEP Lance Forman.
He comments: “I worked alongside Nigel as a fellow Brexit Party MEP and as someone who has strong antennae against anti-Semites, I can say confidently that I never felt even a twinge! It’s amazing how many people I have met, and especially Jewish “Remainers”, who have told me since 7 October that they have been listening more closely to what Nigel Farage has to say and he seems to make a lot of sense. It looks like his message is now finally cutting through to our community”.
LATEST OPINION:
Since this general election campaign has begun, Farage has come out strongly on several issues that will be of interest to Britain’s Jewish community. The most significant are the concerns on immigration and social cohesion and hence the threat from fundamentalist Islam.
His views regarding some Islamic attitudes to our society, citing the Henry Jackson Society survey which found that 46% of Muslims in the UK back Hamas, will unquestionably chime with some, but not all, Jewish voters. Secondly his clear support for Israel will be noted, especially his criticism of Lord Cameron for the latter’s apparent shift in his stance. His condemnation of the FA for failing to light up Wembley Stadium with the colours of the Israeli flag in the aftermath of 7 October is another example.
I think it is fair to say that, historically, Jews have always preferred moderation in politics, typically support the main political parties and tend to reject extremes of any kind more than most.
However, the concerns regarding Jeremy Corbyn in 2019 turned Jews against Labour in huge numbers at that time and today, Jews note that the political paralysis at the moment has meant that extremists have taken control of our streets and for the most part believe that government policies on this matter are deficient. As the campaign unfolds, we will learn the extent to which Farage’s policies gain traction and how his level of support among Jews differs from that of the rest of the population.
In conclusion, on one point we can be clear. The opening quote to this article is accurate. Farage will state his policies as being in the interests of the UK as a whole and will not “fawn” on the Jewish community.