It might look as if we are in the midst of a major political realignment. What we would once have thought were wildly disparate groups – some of whom should be vehemently opposed to one another – are falling in behind a single unifying cause. The Left as we knew it has reconstructed itself and now virtually every form of protest and anti-capitalist dissident is finding a home with the pro-Palestinian front. There is the grotesquely bizarre sight of banners inscribed “Queers for Palestine” paraded through the streets of the most sexually liberal cities in the world when the government of the putative Palestinian homeland they are calling for would probably condemn homosexuals to death.

People during a pro-Palestinian protest on Park Lane in London.

There are young British women, raised in a society where they are accustomed to saying whatever they like, expressing vehement support for a movement whose “morality police” would beat them to death for appearing in the street without covering their hair. Climate activists whose cause, you might think, has little reference to Islam or Zionism, are being harangued by none other than their own child saint, Greta Thunberg, to join the pro-Palestine brigade. (I wonder how the Western political leaders who gathered to touch her hem, feel about this.)

Then there is a whole cohort of the Labour party apparently willing to give Hamas the greatest possible strategic advantage by freezing the current conflict with a “ceasefire” to prevent it being defeated. Even Labour MPs and councillors who do not explicitly describe Hamas as their  “friends” seem ready to align themselves with this pro-Palestine lobby which has become the defining condition of Leftist belonging.

If this is truly the new face of the British Left then the frame of reference of political life must be redrawn. Shall we forget all that social liberal stuff about the rights of women and gay people, not to mention the representation of traditional working class interests and the promoting of equal treatment for everyone regardless of their race or religion, which used to be the fundamental principles of the Left-liberal position? Must all of that be discarded – or pushed into irrelevance – by the great unifying Palestinian cause which has to be excused its transgressions (even the murderous ones) because of the desperation of its plight?

In truth, what is at the heart of this apparently perverse alliance between groups whose values should be inimical to Hamas, is anti-Western self-loathing. Israel is cast as the Western proxy whose usurpation of what would otherwise be a Palestinian state is an unforgivable embodiment of colonialism. (Note: there has never been a Palestinian state.) The key to understanding this perverse phenomenon is that it is not politics at all. What we are seeing is not an ideological revolution – which is why so many of those vociferous demonstrators cannot engage in argument when they are challenged. It is not even a purely opportunist collaboration between forces whose interests momentarily align, although there is certainly an element of that.

This is a mix of well-organised moral coercion on the part of extremist Muslim leaders and the neurotic self-hatred which seems to have permeated what were once liberal circles in Britain. A generation of young people who have been schooled in the repudiation of their own history and culture are particularly susceptible to this thrilling formula.

But let me turn the argument around and give some thought to the people most likely to suffer the greatest damage from this malign fervour. Grateful as I am for the concern that is being expressed for the Jewish community to which I belong, I genuinely believe that it is moderate Muslims who will ultimately be most damaged by this. I have contact with such people on most days: friends and colleagues, the people who run my local pharmacy and manage the health centre, most of the friendly technical support advisers and tradesmen who come to my home.

Some of them may indeed subscribe to opinions which I would find objectionable – not only about Israel but about sexuality and individual rights – but it is clear that they have found a way to live in peace and mutual respect with the majority population of the country. How much longer can that go on? The Left’s adoption of the most aggressive Islamist position means that it is now being propagated with all the professional assiduousness that the Left-wing propaganda expertise of the past century had perfected. (Most of the placards carried on those famous marches have been printed by the Socialist Workers Party, as is proudly advertised along their top edge.)

So the whole of the Muslim community in Britain is being cast into this picture of alienation, hatred and defiance. In the great tradition of Leftist infiltration, the agitators have achieved their objective. There are now representatives of what would once have been the respectable (even socially liberal) Right talking in rabble-rousing nativist terms about an invasion of outsiders – the enemy that is now embedded in our society – who are threatening the destruction of our heritage and our culture. In an ironically perverse twist, some of them are using almost identical words to those used by the Nazis to attack the Jews in 1930s Germany.

This is the universal language of generalised accusation and indiscriminate race hate. To the extent that our culture and our political traditions are under threat, it is as much from this response as from the initial provocation.

To my well-intentioned friends who believe they are defending democratic values, I must, as an old hand at Left-wing propaganda techniques, offer a warning. What the hardcore Left wants more than anything – what it regards as the ultimate triumph – is to drive you to such vengeful fury that you demand vengeance. It wants to make the impressionable public see you as repressive tyrants – “fascists” in common parlance. If you play into its hands by doing and saying precisely the things it wants you to do and say, you – and the country – will lose the most important battle of our time.