The current so-called anti-Semitism crisis in the British Labour Party is founded on a complete misunderstanding of what anti-Semitism really is. It is based on a complete misunderstanding of Jewish history and the real suffering of the Jewish people over the centuries.
Today, anti-Semitism poses nowhere near the danger it once did to the Jewish people. And a good deal of the danger it continues to pose derives from a false conflation of Israel with the Jewish people. When an Islamist militant attacks a Jewish school in France or a Jewish museum in Belgium it is because he falsely believes that Israel and being Jewish are the same thing. They clearly are not.
Israel’s leaders bear a considerable part of the blame for this confusion because they often speak in the name of world Jewry. They assume that the interests of Israel are the same as the interests of Jews throughout the world. They claim, for example, that Iran wants to destroy the Jewish people, when they know that Iran’s quarrel is not with Jews, but with Israel.
Israeli settlers too are guilty of co-opting Judaism in pursuit of their ultra-nationalist goals. They have turned Zionism into a movement that seeks to incite a holy war with Islam. It is no wonder that Islamists have become convinced that Jews are their enemy, when they are not.
Currently, in the UK an alliance of the local Israel Lobby, the Tories and much of the British media have concocted an anti-Semitism scare, declaring the Labour Party is riddled with Jew hatred. In response, Labour has adopted a deeply flawed IHRA definition which posits that most criticism of Israel is ipso facto, anti-Semitic. This was a “cave” to the Party’s enemies in a false belief that giving them half a loaf would make them go away. Any one of us could’ve told them that giving them that half loaf meant they were going to come back for the whole. And they have.
The ultimate goal of this campaign against Labour is not to stamp out anti-Semitism in England or in the Labour Party. Rather, the goal is to tar the Party with the brush of Jew-hatred so that British voters will view the Party as extremist. The purveyors of this canard care not so much about promoting tolerance in Britain, as they do about destroying Labour’s chance of becoming the ruling party in the coming election.
Jeremy Corbyn’s views on Israel-Palestine are to the left of any recent British prime minister. Israel and its allies know that if he becomes prime minister, he will be far more critical of it than any leader in decades. It also realizes that Europe has become a hotbed of pro-Palestinian activism, including the BDS movement.
If Corbyn wins, he will serve as a beachhead, in the view of the Israeli government, for anti-Israel sentiment in Europe. Activists throughout the continent will look to Britain’s Labour Party to lead the march for Palestinian rights.
Finally, real anti-Semitism is hatred of Jews. While there may be some who hate both Israel and Jews who are real anti-Semites, criticism of Israel alone has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Criticism of Zionism (including anti-Zionism) is aimed against a nationalist ideology, not against a religion. Criticism of Zionism is political in nature. It is not based on theology or any sort of racist notion.
Those who propagate the anti-Semitism smear are deliberately confusing politics with religion. Whenever you do this you create an insoluble problem. Political debate is one thing. People may argue about their views on politics and seek compromise. But once you introduce religion, there is no compromise. Each side believes they are doing God’s will and will never compromise when it comes to the divine.
That’s why invoking anti-Semitism is a brilliant but poisonous political ploy. The adherents of this campaign have removed Israel from the realm of politics and transformed it into an issue of religion. Thus, the Labour Party and Corbyn can never win. Unless they refuse to take the bait and reject the witch hunt. So far, they’ve fallen into the trap set for them by their enemies.
Richard.
Maybe you weren’t aware, but the prestigious BBC program, Panorama, just investigated anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006p8c (U.K. only).
Surprisingly, the BBC has arrived at different conclusions than you.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48929244
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/11/bbc-panorama-antisemitism-labour-racism-jeremy-corbyn
@P Spot: “Prestigious?” Says who? The program was a hatchet job produced by a State run media outlet for the purpose of smearing the political opposition to the ruling Tory party. No surprise there. The program represents the worst “journalism” produced in the old days of Soviet media propaganda. The Guardian too adds it’s fulsome voice to the choir. You appear not to have read or ignored the passage of my post in which I noted British media was performing it’s dutiful responsibility to alert the public to the red menace on its midst.
It represents shameful capitulation to the worst the Israel Lobby has to offer.
Here are two links that refute some of your arguments, and lead me to believe that Jeremy Corbyn, and many of his co-party members are in fact anti-semitic, even though they may not even realise how they use memes that have been used to describe Jews long before political Zionism was invented.
https://howiescorner.blogspot.com/2019/05/corbyn-and-anti-semitism-overwhelming.html?fbclid=IwAR0iU_imy4kyCF-a_7bYMRptoGKLCMQeQU7arAWxOYtnlPnqQlPciSYga70
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/04/the-false-distinction-between-anti-semitism-and-anti-zionism/amp/?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR1qJ8PGBlYif8PJksKBHF94h6EuWBQE2-gkBN0YHjMgnIJaeRxHSD6CbCI
@Shai: sorry. Not credible sources. The Spectator is a Tory rag. And I have no idea who “Howie” of “Howie”s Corner” is. But it’s certainly not a credible source.
The examples of Corbyn’s supposed anti-semitism all turn out to be distorted in some way, if you take the trouble of looking into them in earnest. Shai’s lists too. I am totally sick of it.
Take this silly quote from one of the links: “In its simplest rendering Zionism is a belief in national self-determination for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland. You could, in theory, be anti-Zionist without being anti-Semitic but if the Jews are the only nation whose rights you deny, it rather trips an alarm.”
This is not only a simplistic rendering of Zionism, it is also patently misleading.
Most peoples exert their ‘self determination’ in the area where they actually live, not in an area where they need to travel first, take over, and expel who were already living there.
There, I explained that for you, Shai. Now stop imagining anti-Semitism everywhere, while people are simply bothered by the violation of a certain people’s rights, that people being the Palestinians (who do not exist in your sanitized version of Zionism).
Could’t agree more: anti semitism is despicible; anti zionism isn’t. Don’t conflate!
‘Anti-Semite’ is an identity. If someone who doesn’t identify as an anti-Semite, is accused of anti-Semitism, there’s no way for them to disprove the accusation. If someone is worried about anti-Semitism, and looks for it, they’ll find it; because they’ll interpret as anti-Semitic, statements that aren’t considered anti-Semitic by those who made them. For those who see an overlap between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, Corbyn will appear to be anti-Semitic; and nothing Corbyn says or does, can change that. So, there’s no way for a party to root out anti-Semitism; because it exists in the eye of the accuser. Each citizen must decide for themselves, which party is their best political home. For those with the perception that Labour has an anti-Semitism problem, they may need to look elsewhere for political association. All members of a party can’t expect to agree about everything; or to always be comfortable with each other. The idea that some members should be purged for subjective criteria, is pretty bizarre. Anyway, it’s all moot. Boris will lead Britain into a no-deal Brexit disaster; and Brits will turn to Labour, without worrying about whether or not Jews are victims.
@ Joshua Laskin: I see your point. But as someone who spent many years in academia including studying Jewish history, I disagree that there isn’t a standard definition of anti-Semitism. There is. And the hoaxsters perpetrating this charade have concocted a completely ahistorical definition that has nothing to do with the real defintion. They are part of an orchestrated plot to devise a way to include criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic, when Israel has nothing to do with anti-Semitism (except in that many Israeli politicians actually encourage anti-Semitism by their statements and actions).
Okay.
You’ve attacked the credibility of the longest running television program in the history of the medium, without even addressing anything the BBC had said in it’s expose of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.
Moving on.
Here are but a few of the awards that BBC-Panorama has to it’s name, and giving me reason to call Panorama, ‘prestigious’.
https://www.google.co.il/search?client=safari&channel=iphone_bm&ei=p6MrXcC9KceckgXm26jYBw&q=bbc+panorama+awards&oq=bbc+panorama+awards&gs_l=psy-ab.12…0.0..16059…0.0..0.0.0…….0……gws-wiz.G6Hh2M9bITk
Your call, Richard.
@ P Spot: The Howdy Doody Show was the longest running television program in the history of the medium” up to its day. What does that prove? That clown shows represent excellent television? The Panorama show was a piece of garbage. A hit piece. And the BBC airs programming that does hatchet jobs on Labour. Moving on…
My call? You’re done in this thread.
“The longest running television program in the history of the medium” must be credible? Oh dear, and Zionism takes pride in seeing anti-Semitism as the longest running bigotry in the history of the WHOLE UNIVERSE. So, does than mean anti-Semitism it is credible?
@ Elisabeth: Not to mention that Israeli Occupation is one of the longest in the last two centuries, if not the history of the planet. That must make it the best Occupation ever.
The Parliamentary Committee that kicked off this fake anti-semitism crisis in the UK was transparent in its shabby political aims and lack of good faith. http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2016/11/critique-of-home-affairs-select.html
Corbyn is the least racist leader of a major UK political party in history, and has the life long CV to prove it. Meanwhile, the Conservative party has an alliance in the European Parliament with real and traditional antisemitic parties, in Hungary, Poland and Austria, among others.
[I’m always surprised when, despite a clear warning to read the comment rules before commenting, first time users ignore it. Those rules make clear I do not permit anti-Semitic or Islamophobic posts like the one you attempted to publish. ]
Restricting the definition of Jewishness to just a religious affiliation is of course a very convenient way to not see antisemitism when it stares you in the face.
@Eric: No, it’s actually the definition of anti Semitism. Look it up. There is no other legitimate definition.
Maybe, as you claim, the BBC did a hatchet job on Labour, but that doesn’t explain why 60 Labour peers have just taken out a newspaper advertisement accusing party leader Jeremy Corbyn of “failing the test of leadership” amid the ongoing anti-Semitism row.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/07/17/labour-peers-take-newspaper-advert-tell-corbyn-failing-test/
That’s sixty Labour peers, from his own party.
@P Spot: 60 Labour PEERS. Members of the House of Lords. Washed up old fatcats. Captains of industry. Appointed by the likes of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. I’m surprised more didn’t sign.
Naturally you used Torygraph as a source. You are transparent, aren’t you?
How about, you know, getting this out in the mainstream media? It might do a but more good being reported on BBC news, and the main political programs.
Lord Triesman’s resignation from the Labour Party.
It seems that Lord Triesman has used the media to his own advantage as he often did in other circumstances.
David Triesman, as union official in NATFHE, displayed this ‘quality’ in the 1987 Weaver v NATFHE Industrial Tribunal case when he claimed after the union had denied advice and assistance to a victim of racial harassment by a union officer, under oath, that the union had an extant policy which did not provide advice and assistance to victims of racist harassment but gave those responsible for the racist harassment trade union representation. The Industrial Tribunal, despite criticising NATFHE officials for their actions in the Weaver case, accepted this policy. Subsequent information from within NATFHE circles showed that, contrary to Triesman evidence at the Industrial Tribunal, this policy was non-existent and had been put to the Industrial Tribunal to avoid he union being found guilty of racial discrimination. For further information you should consult ‘The Anti-racism Myth: A Flight into the Cuckoo’s Nest’ by G Weaver, especially chapters 7,8,10,15,16. This can be downloaded free at http://www.gordonweaver4.wixsite.co/LegalFerret
Of the ten people who participated in the Panorama program (anonymously except for one) and were ‘presented’ as ordinary Jewish Labour Party members, seven of them were executive committee members of the Jewish Labour Movement (who have been central to the claims of A/S in the LP during the course of the past four years), and one of the other three was their former Campaigns Officer, and I expect the other two were buddies of theirs. The young women who kicked off the program looking forlornly into the camera – ie looking forlornly at the viewer – with a voice-over of her claiming that someone came up to her and screamed abuse in her face when she was handing out leaflets at a LP conference, was Ella Rose, JLM’s Equalities Officer and former National Director. And prior to joining JLM – and as disclosed by Electronic Intifada in September 2016, she worked at the Israeli Embassy in London as public affairs officer between September 2015 and August 2016.
Needless to say, her claim about someone screaming abuse in her face was/is complete fabrication (as was all the absurd claims the other ‘ordinary Jewish LP members’ made on the Panorama program). The following is a clip from another Electronic Intifada article posted in January 2017 which, in effect, reveals the REAL Ella Rose:
The director of the Jewish Labour Movement has been caught on camera expressing a wish for violent revenge against her enemies.
“I saw Jackie Walker on Saturday and thought, you know what, I could take her, she’s like 5’2 and tiny,” Ella Rose unwittingly told an undercover reporter working for Al Jazeera in September.
“That’s why I can take Jackie Walker. Krav Maga training,” she said, referring to the Israeli army hand-to-hand fighting technique. “Yeah. I’m not bad at it. If it came to it I would win, that’s all I really care about.”
Her comments can be seen in episode two of Al Jazeera’s film The Lobby which was broadcast on Thursday evening and can be watched above.
(Ends)
Funny how she didn’t use her Krav Maga training on the person who supposedly came up to her and screamed abuse in her face!
There is a full list of their names and the positions they hold (or held) in the JLM in an article entitled Sticky Fingers on the jewishdissident blog.
Get a grip and vote Labour in December. I am a non-observant Jew. This corny smear, shamefully engaged in by the BBC & The Guardian – of all people who ought to know better. I have a long memory but, it wasn’t too long ago when Thatcher and Tebbit (shudder) went all out with “Reds under the bed of Auntie Beeb. Remember?
This is just another example of a shabby schoolyard attempt to get more Tory Bastard votes… Yet, people are falling for it in droves!
It seems that the more information is available, the fewer chances that people will trouble themselves to obtain information from credible sources and cogitate before spewing (sorry ‘blogging’) reactionary bile, which then becomes respected as a cornerstone of reliability. Since when did the ability to post on the Internet, automatically make anybody a credible, respected, responsible authority on the subject they have chosen? Many of these folk are the equivalent of those queueing up at Speakers Corner. It is so juvenile that it would be funny if there wasn’t a general election at stake.
If you have any conscience, any moral compass at all, please vote Labour to get these Tory criminals out. I am from the poorest, most disenfranchised part of society. The area I live in is crying out for a Labour central government. We are literally dying from austerity cuts. I have to use a food bank three times a week, every week, or my children would be hungry. I have not seen the inside of a supermarket or greengrocers since last Christmas. To me, these middle-class diversions seem petty in comparison. Please, look at the bigger picture and vote Labour.