"Mayor in new Race Row" posted by Richard Seymour

That is what the Evening Standard sandwich boards say on Oxford Street. Because mayor Ken Livingstone has a) called Ariel Sharon a war criminal and b) claimed that Israel and its supporters are inflating claims of anti-Semitism in order to cow critics of Israeli policy. See the article for yourself. The Jerusalem Post seems more upset that Livingstone described Sharon as a 'war criminal' than anything else. We needn't detain ourselves - Sharon is an epic murderer, a toxic racist, and a jaw-dropping hypocrite. This is unfortunately a common human type.

However, because of point b), Jason Pearlman of the Board of Deputies has issued a statement:

"He seems to be claiming anti-Semitism doesn't matter," a spokesman said. "Once again the Mayor has shown an inability to understand and show consideration for the Jewish community."

Is Livingstone claiming that anti-Semitism doesn't matter? Let's parse the article:

Today the Israeli government is helping to promote a wholly distorted picture of racism and religious discrimination in Europe, implying that the most serious upsurge of hatred and discrimination is against Jews.

All racist and anti-semitic attacks must be stamped out. However, the reality is that the great bulk of racist attacks in Europe today are on black people, Asians and Muslims - and they are the primary targets of the extreme right. For 20 years Israeli governments have attempted to portray anyone who forcefully criticises the policies of Israel as anti-semitic. The truth is the opposite: the same universal human values that recognise the Holocaust as the greatest racist crime of the 20th century require condemnation of the policies of successive Israeli governments - not on the absurd grounds that they are Nazi or equivalent to the Holocaust, but because ethnic cleansing, discrimination and terror are immoral.

He plainly isn't saying that anti-Semitism doesn't matter, otherwise why must it be "stamped out"? But is he right that the main targets of racists in Europe today are Muslims and black people? Duh. Is his point in anyway invalidated by the figures indicating a rise in anti-Semitism? No.

Well, then. Actually, it seems more likely that the Board of Deputies are pissed off by Ken's criticism of their support for Israeli murder. He says:

Throughout the 1970s, I worked happily with the Board of Deputies in campaigns against the National Front. Problems began when, as leader of the Greater London Council, I rejected the board's request that I should fund only Jewish organisations that it approved of. The Board of Deputies was unhappy that I funded Jewish organisations campaigning for gay rights and others that disagreed with policies of the Israeli governmen.

Relations with the board took a dramatic turn for the worse when I opposed Israel's illegal invasion of Lebanon, culminating in the massacres at the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shatila. The board also opposed my involvement in the successful campaign in 1982 to convince the Labour party to recognise the PLO as the legitimate voice of the Palestinian people.

The fundamental issue on which we differ, as Henry Grunwald knows, is not anti-semitism - which my administration has fought tooth and nail - but the policies of successive Israeli governments.

That, in a nut-shell, is the "new race row".