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.
