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I cannot say anything much about the Kirk matter. Chesterton was occasionally prone to an anti- semitic canard, but on balance was not, I think, anti- semitic. Belloc I have not read extensively enough, although as I recall a discussion of the matter I once read, there is evidence, just as there is with Chesterton, and it depends on how thoroughly you search for counter-evidence. Hints are not the same as accusations, and, as I said, there are a couple of things here and there that could certainly be taken that way. T.S. Eliot was anti- semitic, although in a strange way, since he seems to have mainly had a problem with assimilated, rather than religious Jews. Since Kirk followed Eliot, maybe comments derogatory comments about deracinated Jews show up here and there, I do not recall or never came across them. Is Norman overly sensitive? Maybe, but he also grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust, and anti-semitism has been a besetting sin of the Right...... |
