There’s nothing like a crisis to identify your closet enemies. The renewed outbreak of war in the Middle East has done just that. If there is any grain of comfort to be gained from the situation, it is that world Jewry in general, and British Jewry in particular, have learned some hard lessons and some bitter truths.

Those of us who have long maintained that anti-Jewish prejudice lurks just beneath the surface of contemporary British society were, it seems, right after all. I use the term “anti-Jewish” deliberately. I am not talking about anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism. I am talking about hatred of Jews as a people and of Judaism as a religion. I’m also talking about Jewish self-hatred.

In The Times, a Mr Abercrombie, of Surrey, wrote of “TV footage of Israeli armour defiling the streets of Bethlehem” (April 5). No mention of Palestinian gunmen defiling Bethlehem. No mention of gun-toting Islamic fanatics defiling the Church of the Nativity. Mr Abercrombie, bewailing the Church of England’s “muted” response to “the bloody events” in “the Holy Land,” was moved only by the spectacle of Israeli troops “defiling” Bethlehem, birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth.

The following week, on the Classic FM radio station, a reporter described the situation in Bethlehem as “near apocalyptic” (April 15). The Times (April 19) also used the word “apocalyptic” to describe the state of the now- destroyed terrorist training academies in Jenin.

The Christian significance of this phrase lies in the fact that “the apocalypse” refers to the revelation of the violent “end of days” said to have been recorded in the Book of Revelations, the final book of the Christian Bible.

Meanwhile, A. N. Wilson, who describes himself as an “unbelieving Anglican,” announced (Evening Standard, April 15) that the Israeli government had indulged in “the poisoning of water supplies,” presumably in the course of military operations in the disputed territories. The poisoning of water supplies was of course a commonplace accusation hurled at the Jews in medieval Europe.

Over at Westminster, Jewish Labour MP Gerald Kauf-man was busy giving comfort to the perpetrators of the worldwide campaign of hatred directed against the Jewish state by declaring the democratically elected Israeli government to be “repulsive” and branding its democratically elected Prime Minister a “war criminal.”

And “agony aunt” Claire Rayner, who, unfortunately, is Jewish whether she likes it or not, went public on her “loathing for Israel and apparent empathy with Palestin-ian suicide bombers” (Independent on Sunday, April 21).

Two lessons need to be learned by Jews about the present crisis. The first is that the anti-Jewish prejudice of the West is fed much less by pro-Arabism than by very deeply embedded Christian prejudices.

The fundamental Christian view of the Jew is grounded in the theology of St Augustine of Hippo, who lived in North Africa around 1,600 years ago. Augustine argued that the Jews should not be killed off but should rather be spared to wander the earth in a permanently impoverished and downtrodden state. This condition, a perpetual proof, so to speak, of the falsity of Judaism as a religion and of the superiority of Christianity, would serve also as a sign of the divine retribution meted out to the Jews for the killing of Jesus.

Viewed in this context, Israel did not react to the suicide bombers in the way fundamentalist Christians hoped or expected.

The Jew downtrodden, the Jew submissive — this is the Jew whom Christianity is prepared to permit to dwell in its midst. But the Jew triumphant? The Jew proud? The Jew successful? The Jew who fights back?

Worst of all, the Jew re-established in a Jewish state, perhaps in fulfilment of a divine promise? Judaism flourishing in the land where Jesus trod? Jewish soldiers crushing the enemies of the Jewish people — in Bethlehem? These realities are deeply threatening to Christians, and to societies whose value systems are grounded, however subtly or indirectly, in Christian beliefs.

The second lesson is that otherwise clever people are easily misled as to the true nature of evil. We can see this in the tragedy of Neville Chamberlain who, had he had the good sense to retire in 1937 before becoming Prime Minister, would be remembered now simply as a great social reformer.

Yasir Arafat is an evil man, a supporter of terror and murder as well as a corrupt politician and liar who evidently has no qualms about brainwashing gullible young followers into blowing themselves to pieces.

He is totally without conscience. His aim is, was, and will remain the destruction of the Jewish state and the expulsion of most of its Jewish inhabitants. Yet Western leaders remain totally mesmerised by him.

Ariel Sharon, who has come out of this crisis as truly Churchillian in his toughness, should have Arafat ex-pelled. Perhaps Uncle Gerald will offer to put him up. Perhaps Auntie Claire will mop his brow.