According to multiple sources (like this one), during his learned discourse on the subject, Shimon Peres remarked, among other things:
There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary.I have done a few quick searches on the intertubes, and my conclusion is that our President is in error: there is a widespread agreement that the phrase was coined by Joseph Eötvösz, a Hungarian nobleman, in the 1920’s.
Pity. It was a good one...
Update: Now I am wrong too, almost like good ole Shimon. Thanks to Peter the Hungarian, here comes another update:
The phrase was coined by Kalman Mikszath a very famous Hungarian writer in the end of the XIX century. He was severely criticised by other Hungarian intellectuals including Baron Karoly Eotvos who was the lawyer of a Jew accused by killing a Christain girl before Pesach.Well, at least the country was correct. And here is the source of the saying:
Oh well...Update 2: As it appears, our good ole Shimon didn't actually accuse Britain as a whole. Details by Soccer Dad.
6 comments:
The phrase was coined by Kalman Mikszath a very famous Hungarian writer in the end of the XIX. century. He was severely criticised by other Hungarian intellectuals including Baron Karoly Eotvos who was the lawyer of a Jew accused by killing a Christain girl before Pesach.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiszaeszl%C3%A1r_blood_libel
Mikszath accepted the criticism and wrote one of his best book - St. Peter's umbrella - a very philosemite story.
It is a sort of all-purpose remark, applicable in many places.
British or Hungarian It is just 2 types of the same hatred.
That true.
The face of anti semitism has changed in Britain as it has elsewhere. No more PJ - at the end of letters and the like. The biggesst reason why things have changed is that the lumpen masses have been given easier targets over the years to hit rather than a successful and and well assimilated community
That said, most of the crap thrown against Israel, especially by fellow leftists is a disgrace.
I tend to agree with you, Jams, although the government and the so called "upper classes" in Britain remained traditionally pro-Arabic. And just to stress it: Peres did not accuse Brits as a whole of anti-Semitism. That jokular definition of anti-Semite, besides being attributed to wrong people, is not by itself an accusarion of the whole country. It is some media outfits that made a scoop out of it...
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