I don't like David Baddiel because of his past racism, misogyny and laddishness - and I never found him funny - but it is right to take his book and Channel 4 documentary seriously, and not just form judgements based on his own past.

There are a few hard core Baddiel fans on here (not just LOM) who have repeated his main points, but I'm not convinced. In the UK especially anti-semitism (or anti Zionism) as an issue has been centre stage for over 7 years. It hasn't been downplayed; it has been elevated and weaponised. I doubt that BLM or other responses to racism came anywhere close to the TV and newspaper coverage that was given to anti-semitiism in that time. The two main political parties in the UK Parliament continue to have big membership 'Friends Of Israel' groups which makes many of them apologists for Israel (including breaches of international law, apartheid and war crimes) but also ensures that there is a high level of sensitivity to reports of antisemitism in the legislature. Maybe it is different in the USA?

Unfortunately anti Jewish hatred, anti Zionism and criticism of the Israeli state have all become deliberately conflated through attacks on the Corbyn leadership of the Labour Party and its aftermath. Anti-semitism has been thrown around wildly - often against Jewish people who do not accept Zionism as their political ideology. Miriam Margolyes is one of thousands of Jews abused online as an anti-semite and 'self-loathing Jew' because of her political stance.

At the same time it appears that real examples of antisemitism in Europe and North America are on the rise. There are anti-semites on the left (always have been) but the main threat continues to be from the political right (establishment as well as populist and neo Nazis). That needs to be understood and combated. But I don't think Baddiel's thesis helps much with that.