Because Israel has become, in recent years, an icon for the Left of everything that is bad - American imperialism, oil wars, suppression of human rights - and since Jews, even Jews who do not support the state or its policies, are (at least in the minds of, say, Hamas) associated with it, knocking Jews may just be a blow for the oppressed, rather than to them.
As a result, people talking the anti-Jew talk can do it not as racists, but, paradoxically, as if they are somehow sticking up for other races. Underneath one of the various web films of John Galliano looking weirdly cold and lonely at that café that I watched the other day, there were a slew of comments, an awful lot of them supportive of the designer. One of them, johntron67, began: "What is it with the Jews! They're the only group you just can't say anything negative about…" What's amazing about that – the same poster went on, later, to say, sinisterly, that "the cauldron will boil over though, one day soon, and guess who's gonna get scalded…" – is not so much that johntron67 thinks that saying generally-OK and not-to-be-remarked-upon things about the Jews would include the comment "I love Hitler - your forefathers would've been gassed"; but that he really thinks that other ethnic minorities are, in comparison, fair game. Two words: Michael Richards. Charlie, Mel, probably even Galliano – they'll work again: Mel Gibson is, even as we speak, in a big Hollywood movie, The Beaver. Since his n-word-fuelled outburst onstage in 2006, Kramer is toast.
Similarly, I've made a short film recently, for Kick Racism Out of Football, called The Y-Word, which is about the chanting of the word Yid or Yiddo at games. For those of you who don't know, Yiddo is an appellation that Spurs fans – Spurs has a slightly larger percentage of Jewish fans than most other clubs – call themselves. Because of this, opposing fans chant it back at them with menaces. I've sat through hundreds of games at Chelsea where fans – perfectly respectable, politically correct-looking fans – will suddenly, on the arrival of, say, of an ex-Tottenham player on the pitch now playing for another team, start chanting this word aggressively at the top of their lungs. The last time it happened, a man behind me ended up shouting: "F*** the Jews! F*** the f***ing Jews!" Despite not insisting on the banning of the chant – it is intended simply to raise debate over the issue – any public showing of the film, at the moment, is being blocked, by various bodies within football. The argument is that, in context, the Spurs chant is "affectionate". OK. Just imagine for a second if the word we were talking about was the N-word. If a club with mainly white fans decided to chant, en-masse - y'know, affectionately, in context - the word n*****r: and then had the word thrown back at them, with menaces, by opposing, mainly white, fans. All the clubs involved would be shut down tomorrow.
There are various reasons for this, but the basic one is: anti-Semitism isn't quite considered proper racism. Most of the reports accused Galliano of anti-Semitism and racism, as if the two were different. The point was made continually that the women in the café were not Jewish: as if somehow his comments might have some qualifying validity if they were. A man who tweeted "you Jewish prick" at me once was called a racist by some of my followers, and he tweeted back at them: "Course I'm not a racist – I'm Pakistani!"
For him – and he's not the only one – racism is black and white, and black and white only. But sadly, racism has many shades of grey: what should not have those shades – what should simply always be an unqualified shutting of the door – is the reaction to it.
• David Baddiel's latest novel The Death of Eli Gold (HarperCollins) is available from Telegraph Books at £16.99 + £1.25 p&p. Call 0844 871 1516 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk
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