The fantastic Howard Jacobson has written a breathtakingly brilliant essay in today’s Independent. With a potent combination of passion and clarity, he shows the recent increase in ‘criticism’ of Israel for what it nearly always is: antisemitism. He takes those who liken Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto and shows once and for all why “there is not the remotest similarity, either in intention or in deed – even in the most grossly mis-reported deed – between Gaza and Warsaw”.

Of those who make such comparisons, he writes: “Given the number of besieged and battered cities there have been in however many thousands of years of pitiless warfare there is only one explanation for this invocation of Warsaw before any of those – it is to wound Jews in their recent and most anguished history and to punish them with their own grief. Its aim is a sort of retrospective retribution, cancelling out all debts of guilt and sorrow. It is as though, by a reversal of the usual laws of cause and effect, Jewish actions of today prove that Jews had it coming to them yesterday.”

Then he takes to pieces Caryl Churchill’s hideous Seven Jewish Children play, in which “lie follows lie, omission follows omission”. He concludes of Churchill’s play: “Once you repeat in another form the medieval blood-libel of Jews rejoicing in the murder of little children, you have crossed over. This is the old stuff. Jew-hating pure and simple.”

Let’s be clear: the Royal Court Theatre has been made fully aware of the dishonesty and racism in the play it is showing. That they keep showing it tells its own story.

Please read Howard’s brilliant essay in full. As regular readers know, I’ve always been a big fan (that’s me below with him last summer). Having read this essay I might have to see if I can find an even bigger pedestal to put him on.

So I did indeed meet up with Ashley Perry, the aforementioned ‘settler’ from Israel who is over in England this week. Sorry Peaceniks, but he wasn’t a monster. Not once – as we sat in a boiling hot Solly’s – did he try and steal my chair from me, for instance. Instead he was exactly what I expected him to be: a brilliant and fascinating man.

It was great to hear the inside story of the Israeli elections and Ashley’s predictions for what will happen next. He worked on the Yisrael Beiteinu campaign and whereas I was aware that Avigdor Lieberman has been unfairly demonised, only listening to Ashley did I realise to what extent this is the case. Lieberman could be a good kingmaker for the next Israeli PM. He could certainly do with more people like Ashley on his side.

We talked on. With the extent of anti-Israel feeling in the UK so high, Ashley asked me how much of this I believe is motivated purely by antisemitism. It’s a good question. I don’t want to think that all Israel basher are antisemites. There are surely other feelings that motivate some of them. But are such feelings any less contemptible?

I believe that a substantial number of European opponents of Israel are motivated out of a sense of guilt from the Shoah. Far from taking that sense of guilt and responsibility and using it for something beautiful, they instead use it for the ugliest of things. Against all evidence, they rush – no sprint – to conclude that Israel is committing war crimes, so they can tell themselves ‘They can be monsters, too -  we’re all equal.’

As well as being factually incorrect, this equivalence does the opposite of what its proponents want. It doesn’t wash Europe’s hands of what happened to the Jews in the 20th century. Rather, it reawakens that hatred in the 21st century under a new cloak. So we are back where we started: antisemitism.

Others are motivated out of a ‘bleeding heart’ belief that in aligning themselves with Israel’s enemies, they are backing the underdog against the big bully, the poor brown man against the nasty white man. Never mind that Israel is a tiny state of seven million people surrounded by billions of people who want it wiped off the map. Never mind either that – not that this should matter – numerous Israeli Jews are darker of skin than many of their Arab enemies.

The truth matters not a jot to those who demonise Israel. But why? Why is Israel constantly misrepresented in the media? Why do everyday people who would openly admit to not understanding other conflicts in the world so happily take such a strong stance against Israel despite not knowing even basic facts about the conflict? Why do they consistently overlook egregious human rights abuses and horrific atrocities across the world, while tirelessly – and wrongly – accusing Israel of such crimes?

Always the Jewish state. Is it not the case that all these roads lead to the same thing – antisemitism?