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Today @CST_UK has released its 2018 Antisemitic Incidents Report. You can read all the grim detail here cst.org.uk/news/blog/2019… but I want to focus on one point: the spread of extremism /1
This isn't about formal membership of extremist groups or about extremist groups orchestrating antisemitic activity. It's about the spread of language, ideas and ways of thinking. Look at this word cloud of social media incidents recorded by CST in 2018 /2 
It's a jumble, right? Holocaust, Labour, Nazi, Corbyn, Gas, Soros, Rothschild, Mossad, Hate, Kill, Kick, Die, Jewish, Jew, Money, Troll, Lobby, Brexit - you can find whatever you want in there. It's an antisemitism free-for-all /3
Don't assume this all lines up neatly into far right, far left, anti-Zionist, Islamist or any other clearly-defined type of extremism. One of the main findings of the report is how much this language is all mixed up and used by every-day antisemites /4
Sometimes it's easy to work out where someone is coming from. Here's two bits of graffiti, one obviously far right, one obviously anti-Zionist, and both are antisemitic /5
This letter sent to a Jewish journalist has Nazi hatred of Jews ('the ovens are coming back for you') and anti-Zionist hatred of Israel ('murderers of Palistinian [sic] babies'). Which came first? Which drives the other? You may as well flip a coin /6
And what is the ideological inclination of the people behind these tweets? You could argue far right or far left or just angry conspiracist Jew-haters using extremist language to express their hatred /7
It's what @JournoStephen described in @spectator yesterday: Left & right are "making it safe for antisemites to come out from behind their various guises and hate Jews in the open once more." /8
45% of incidents logged by CST last year used extremist language, but they weren't all carried out by extremist people or members of extremist groups. Extremism of left and right is polluting the mainstream of our society and our politics - and it's getting worse. /End
