I grew up in east London, in a working class Labour family. The Daily Mirror was the family newspaper. The family fought in Cable Street. So why now do I fear The Labour Party? Why do I bristle when I hear reports about Israel? Why do I get angry about bias in the media? Why do I spend hours - OK, days, maybe weeks - arguing on social media?
In the last few years - well, let's take a step back. Let's be precise here. Since September 12, 2015, it seems that the climate has changed. Jew has become a subject. Antisemitism has become a subject. Switch on the radio, and invariably there's something about antisemitism. Look at social media, it's swimming in stuff about antisemitism. Drowning in opinion. Antisemitism and Israel. Everyone's got an opinion about Israel. Everyone's got an opinion, everyone knows and everyone cares. Everyone really cares about Israel and Palestine. They really care about Palestine. They've never been further from home than the local Waitrose, but they knew all about Palestine.
September 12, 2015 was when Jeremy Corbyn replaced Ed Miliband as leader of the Labour Party. But nothing comes out of nowhere and when it all changed was during the Gaza conflict in the summer of 2014. Maybe I just hadn't noticed before, but it seemed that suddenly in my world Gaza was everywhere. You couldn't switch on the radio, the telly. You couldn't log on. It was everywhere. It felt... it felt like a bombardment. It felt like an ambush. Lines were being drawn.
Friendships were lost, and I'm not just talking Facebook friends being unfollowed. It got really horrible. And the more horrible it got, the more Jewish I got.