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Nigel Farage and antisemitism: a brief thread on the views he repeatedly expresses, the unsavoury company he keeps, and why there's there's perhaps an argument that media outlet should be more wary of featuring him as a guest/pundit.
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Firstly: Farage has *repeatedly* used themes, tropes and language very closely linked to far-right antisemitic conspiracy theories, and has been condemned several times by various Jewish groups and others. It is blatant, and clearly conscious, but he continues doing it.
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Latest example here, which brought condemnation from Board of Deputies of British Jews, Community Security Trust, and (Tory and Labour) co-chairs of all-party committee against antisemitism. That's a pretty broad consensus:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/28/jewish-groups-and-mps-condemn-nigel-farage-for-antisemitic-dog-whistles
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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/28/jewish-groups-and-mps-condemn-nigel-farage-for-antisemitic-dog-whistles
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Farage's language & themes closely mirror antisemitic conspiracy theories of far right: ideas about 'globalists' led by George Soros, Goldman Sachs etc, seeking to establish a world government. Not subtle stuff. And he's been doing this for years, amid some very odd company.
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Eg Farage was interviewed a series of times by far-right US radio host Alex Jones, he who claimed the Sandy Hook school massacre was faked. He also did six interviews with an antisemitic US pastor/radio host Rick Wiles, who called Trump's impeachment a "Jew coup".
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Now, Farage dismisses all the criticism. The one time he has responded to coverage of it, he called the condemnation a "manufactured story" and "pathetic". He has no apparent intention of stopping the use of such themes.
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So, why for so many years has Farage been a regular feature on TV/radio? In part, of course, it's because he led two very successful political parties, and won lots of votes. But it's also because he kept the hard right/antisemitic-themed stuff mainly for US interviews.
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But it raises the question: would any other politician have expressed such openly antisemitic views – and been unrepentant about them – and not been more regularly challenged on them? It is something of a mystery, in part due to his different UK/US approaches & rhetoric.
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Now, though, without a party to lead, Farage is being more openly hard-right, eg his tweeted response to the Glasgow asylum seeker killings about "illegal immigrants" (which he now seems to have deleted). And this approach certainly contributed to his departure from LBC.
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BUT: he still appears regularly on the media (he's on Talk Radio this morning). The question is: how much more open prejudice (esp linked to antisemitism) does Farage need to express before he's treated more like a Kate Hopkins/Tommy Robinson figure?
Time will tell.
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Time will tell.
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