Honestly and sincerely, I’ve never claimed that Britons were generally anti-Semitic. Wouldn’t know. Wouldn’t care. Probably not. Unless I’m in the London tubes getting beat on by boot boys and nobody lifts a finger, it wouldn’t occur to me to ponder the question.
My understanding of history, however, is that the Cairo-Khartoum cabal used anti-Semitism to incite Arabs into uniting against Jews. That’s why they were so keen to set up Haj Amin elHusseini, a 21-year-old Turkish WW I veteran, as Mufti, so he’d stir up Jew hatred among the masses.
Since Lord Samuels, the civilian governor appointed after the 1921 pogrom, was Jewish himself, he was probably not anti-Semitic (I believe Theodore Hertzel was), just trying to prove himself worthy of the “Lord” at the beginning of his name by being a bloody-minded bastard and getting in on the Cairo-Khartoum cabal.
I would, however, have thought better of them if they had been anti-Semitic, because then at least they’d have been acting out of personal conviction, instead of cynical opportunism.
From the point of view of many in the ME, it isn’t about “anti-semitism”. Since most “Arabs”, racially, also, are semitic, similar to the Jews (in the ME).
Anti-semitism is a “western” created & coined term. Those in the ME object to the state of Israel - hence, they’re “anti-zionists”, not necessarily anti-semitic.
Many, particularly in the ME, view the creation of the current State of Israel a direct result of WWII & the Nazi Germany. — They suggest that it was the *European Jews* who created the state of Israel (Zionism) after WWII, and immigrated to Israel (the current country), taking over “Palestine” & thereafter throwing out the Palestinians.
The fact that Mohammad had his own pathology about the Jews is a separate yet complementary argument to the creation of “Zionism” (State of Israel).
Additionally & historically, Europe (incl. Russia) has not been “Jew friendly”. — Though, many Jewish tribes (in the ME), prior to, during & even after Mohammad (advent of Islam) lived rather peacefully w/ other “semitic” tribes.
Of course, Mohammad & his disciples killed a whole lot of Jews. But, they did the same to Many other “infidels”.
Bottom line: I guess many in the West & the ME recognize that the Palestine/Israel situation is & has been a political matter, rather than, primarily, a racial or faith-based one.