By David Collier
Justin Cohen from Jewish News has just done the Jewish community an enormous favour. He has created a piece for the historical record. A detailed and to-the-point interview with Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the midst of a crisis over antisemitism. All we needed to know about the man who wants to be Prime Minister is there for us to read. The conclusion is clear and inescapable. Our community and Jeremy Corbyn are incompatible. Jewish people in the United Kingdom need to fear Jeremy Corbyn ever receiving the keys to 10 Downing Street.
The nice Mr. Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn thinks he is saying all the right things. He speaks of anti-racism and of his willingness to fight antisemitism. Corbyn says he wants to meet with the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies. He suggests he will improve the process investigating accusations of antisemitism against members. Corbyn speaks of a ‘two-state’ solution to the Middle East Peace Process. Jeremy Corbyn also says he regrets mistakes that he has made along the way and that he is concerned Labour MPs who supported the antisemitism rally last week have been abused. Jeremy Corbyn says a lot, and yet says nothing at all. To those who may be comforted by empty platitudes, perhaps he even hit the right notes a few times. Yet to those who understand the contradictions and the blatant insults, the interview would have been extremely worrying.
Hating a Jew for what he isn’t
As I have often pointed out, definitions of antisemitism built around ‘a hatred of Jews for what they are’ have it catastrophically wrong. Antisemitism is all in the *false* charges raised against Jews, or ‘hating Jews for what they are not’. God-killers, child-killers, global political controllers, carriers of genetic impurities, shysters and blood-suckers. Classic Christian antisemites did not hate the Jews because they went to Synagogue or fasted on Yom Kippur, they hated them because they stood falsely accused of deicide. Antisemitism is carried into the mainstream in the veins of falsehoods.
This is why it is almost impossible today to distinguish anti-Zionism from antisemitism. Read almost any anti-Israel propaganda site and it is instantly obvious that it is promoting racism and bigotry. Spreading through society today are untold falsehoods about how Jewish people behave in Israel.
This an example of a post from Facebook Group Palestine Live seven weeks ago:
Antisemites use the term ‘Zionist’ today instead of ‘Jew’, and call Zionists media controlling, money grabbing, child killers. They do this whilst everyone just shrugs and talks about legitimate criticism. It has become culturally permissible to make a racist attack against ‘Israelis’ in a manner that would be unacceptable against any other nationality. The anti-Zionist demonisation of Jewish Israelis has no limits. There is fake news being spread daily, turning a small, low intensity and complex conflict into an act of mindless brutality and genocide perpetrated by the all-powerful evil Zionists against an innocent, peace-loving Palestinian population. Who wouldn’t hate Jews, I mean Zionists? Which is where Jeremy Corbyn comes unstuck.
Jeremy Corbyn’s blind-spot
Jeremy Corbyn does not sit comfortably in the two-state solution camp at all. Many of his oldest political allies are anti-Zionists. People who do not believe in the Jewish right to self-determination and push fantasy tales about the origins of the conflict. The anti-Zionist propaganda against Jewish refugees arriving in British Palestine is material the far-right BNP would be proud of. This isn’t about post-1967 politics or Israeli settlement policy. If you start making up stories about Jewish refugees in order to demonise them, then you are certainly hating Jews for what they were not.
As the factual history of the conflict is for the most part sympathetic towards early Zionism, it is the historical roots that are attacked the most. It is why Rothschild conspiracy is so popular on sites like Palestine Live. It turns an effort to provide a safe haven for Jews into a manipulative plot by scheming Jewish masters. Anything that sees Jews as victims is attacked, so Holocaust denial is becoming fashionable in these circles. Where the stomach cannot digest something so vile, Zionists as active collaborators with the Nazis takes its place. Anything that dehumanises the Jews. Once this has been successfully absorbed, it becomes easy to suggest the bitter 1948 civil war was actually a one-sided rout by controlling, powerful, evil Zionists.
Those pushing these racist fictions are all Jeremy Corbyn’s ideological bedfellows.
The Palestinian cause
If you support the ‘Palestinian cause’ it does not mean you have ‘sympathy for the Palestinians’. Nor is it about just wanting them to have a state. As with any propaganda struggle, those on the hard-left want moderates to be confused by the ultimate goals. There is not a single serious pro-Palestinian movement in the UK that unequivocally supports a two-state solution. When you wave the Palestinian flag, you associate with the call ‘from the river to the sea’. A maximalist position that demands an end to the State of Israel.
Not only is this not going to happen, it is a demand that perpetuates the conflict. Which is why only the hard-left and terrorist groups support it. Supporting the ’cause’ weakens moderate Palestinian factions and strengthens extremist elements like Hamas. This is why Jeremy Corbyn referred to Hezbollah and Hamas as his ‘friends’. One of the major reasons that a peace deal has not been signed is because extremist (maximalist) pressure will not allow the ruling Palestinian factions to give away anything in negotiations. Even if there was a deal worthy of being signed (and many say there have been several), the Palestinian Leadership cannot sign it.
True friends of peace within Labour understand that the moderates need to be strengthened *and* made to understand that compromise is vital for peace. Jeremy Corbyn’s friends work alongside groups like Hamas to undermine peace talks.
This from a statement by Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman two days ago:
There is also little more absurd than someone suggesting he opposes Zionism because he believes it contradicts his ‘universalist values’, whilst at the same time waving a flag of maximalist Palestinian nationalism.
Jeremy Corbyn and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC)
Which is why it is no coincidence that Jeremy Corbyn was inside the antisemitic Facebook Group Palestine Live with people who sympathise with Hamas and Hezbollah:
And when rockets do fly (also from Palestine Live), the Jews are accused of firing them:
It is also why it is no surprise that Jeremy Corbyn has been a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign for a decade. How can someone who wants to be Prime Minister be a patron of a group that works for the destruction of the only stable democracy in the Middle East? Is nobody inside the Labour Party paying attention?
PSC antisemitism
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign is also riddled with antisemitism. They seem to realise that without antisemites manning the stalls, there are not enough activists to man them. So the PSC have distanced themselves from their own activists. They act almost by remote control, barking orders via Facebook events, without being willing to take any responsibility for what type of people show up. They give lip-service to fighting antisemitism in the same newsletter that spreads the demonisation messages about Zionists.
In research I undertook in February of 2017, I found that 40% of activists that turned up to a PSC demonstration shared hard-core antisemitic material. In similar researchinto the Scottish PSC (commissioned by Jewish Human Rights Watch), levels were as high as 50%. When you consider the levels inside Palestine Live were even higher, you begin to realise that the connection between anti-Israel activity and hard-core antisemitism is almost absolute.
So when Jeremy Corbyn surprised everyone and won the Labour Leadership election, a whole army of people (racists) who demonise Zionists joined the party in support. When you mix the idea of controlling and manipulative Zionists, with a hard-left global vision of a rich and powerful elite, you may as well start reprinting the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion‘. No surprise then, that within days of Palestine Live being created, Protocols had already been shared in the group.
For an antisemite, ‘anti-Zionism’ is a ‘get out of jail free card’.
Jeremy Corbyn deletes his Facebook account
In the last forty-eight hours, Jeremy Corbyn deactivated his Facebook Account. I believe his team ‘knows’ what we ‘believe’, that the worst is probably yet to be found. Corbyn’s activity on social media has been problematic, and when it was originally cleaned up it was done in amateurish fashion. Corbyn left Facebook groups leaving his activity (comments and likes) behind. He cannot delete them today, because he is no longer a member of the group. He would have to remember every group where he was active, rejoin and then delete comments. But who remembers every group they were in and how can Jeremy Corbyn rejoin toxic groups? And what about inactive groups, that people can no longer access at all?
Corbyn’s team knew that people were busy searching group by group, looking for Facebook communities that Jeremy Corbyn was active in. The only action that could be taken was to deactivate the account. This is an image of a message stream before and after the account deletion:
Everything Corbyn did, has now gone. What does it say about someone who wants to be Prime Minister, that his own personal Facebook account is too toxic to remain public? For me, the moment he did this all chances of future reconciliation were washed away. It isn’t that I don’t trust him, but that now I never will. From this point on, Jewish leaders are caught in a trap that expects them to play diplomatic nice guys, but the truth is that Corbyn has indicated we do not know the worst of it.
Corbyn’s thugs
Anyone who is publicly fighting against the antisemitism has become a target for constant and vicious abuse. I stopped reading the anonymous messages I receive. For two years, I have been vilified, with people posting blogs about me suggesting I am a racist (untrue), a member of a right wing Zionist group (untrue) and a far-right extremist (untrue). Accusations range from suggesting I hate Muslims and Palestinians (untrue) to the most recent one which says I actually collaborate with neo-Nazis (untrue). This material is disseminated in Labour forums as fact and in turn I receive abuse daily, some of it from moderates who have bought into the lies. I am not alone.
Anyone who criticises Jeremy Corbyn becomes a target for abuse. Anyone who stands up for the Jewish people becomes a target for abuse. Quite incredibly, British Politicians who joined the Jewish anti-racist demonstration have been abused and threatened with deselection.
These are the thugs currently turning the Labour Party at the constituency level, into the most racist political party in the UK. They also behave like fascists.
The dam bursts
This isn’t just abut Corbyn. In fact the main problem with Jeremy Corbyn is that he is the relatively ‘respectable’ face of the sewer of twisted ideologies that joined the party to support him. Christine Shawcroft’s resignation from the NEC came about because of her opposition to the suspension of a council candidate accused of Holocaust Denial. When did this level of hatred become normalised in a major political party? These latest accusations aren’t against random members, but those standing for official positions.
Yesterday saw another one emerge. Roy Smart:
Images with credit to @gnasherjew
There are those who are simply in denial. People like Owen Jones are becoming more frustrated. They are looking more isolated and desperate every-day and they refuse to believe this is anything other than a political stunt. Those voices in his ear supporting him are part of the problem. Until they realise this, they are doing little more than defending racists. The Labour Party is currently the only mainstream ‘racist party’ of UK politics.
The blurring of lines
There has been an active process of conflation. Supporting peace in the Middle East and supporting the Palestinian cause are not the same. Opposing Israeli settlements and anti-Zionism are not the same. Wanting to end the occupation and supporting BDS are not the same. Anything that should be almost definitive, that would help to distinguish a badge carrying antisemite, from a person with sympathy for Palestinians, is being blurred.
The suggestion that anti-Zionism is not the same as antisemitism is often mentioned by people who can define neither term. Corbyn activists have created an entire Tower of Babel to leave those with sympathy for Palestinians buying into a myth – that the Jewish problem with Corbyn activists is a political stunt designed to stop criticism of Israeli policy. This isn’t about Israel because this Jew-hate isn’t about Israel. It is part of a world-vision far larger that the confines of a minor conflict in the Middle East.
The Jewish enablers
If the Jewish community scream antisemitism, and the only defenders were non-Jewish Corbyn activists, the battle would probably not have lasted long. The only possible defence would have to be a Jewish one. So in the spring of 2016, when the antisemitic accusations against Ken Livingstone and Naz Shah were making headlines, a small group of hard-left Jewish activists came to blur the lines even further. This small band are Marxist in origin and they do not associate with the wider Jewish community. They have been firm allies of Jeremy Corbyn for decades. For most the only part of their Jewish identity that they hold onto, is the part they needed to weaponise to stifle the accusations of antisemitism.
They set up a group called Free Speech on Israel. The organisational goals were clear:
This group went on to form ‘Jewish Voice for Labour’ inside the Labour Party as a way of taking up the fight from within the Labour Party apparatus. These people are not about fighting antisemitism at all. The best and quickest way to contextualise their activity is to read the Wiki page on an early Russian Communist group called the Yevsektsiya. I will soon be publishing a detailed report into the activity of these anti-Zionist Jewish activists. I hold them chiefly responsible for Labour’s inability to conquer the disease.
This a recent comment about Alan Bull’s Holocaust Denial post, made by one of the JVL founders, Rachel Lever:
Not only does this post blatantly disregard many other of Alan Bull’s unacceptable posts, Rachel Lever actually turns the tables back and attempts to blame Jews for the spread of Holocaust Denial material. Just like examples earlier that suggest Hamas rockets are sent by Mossad, Rachel Lever is actually blaming Zionists for ‘planting’ articles about Holocaust denial.
A note for Rachel Lever
For future reference Rachel, the article came from Renegade Tribune, (NSFW), and Alan Bull shared the article directly from the Neo-Nazi website. This is white-supremacymaterial. To suggest this is an elaborate Jewish hoax is as antisemitic as claiming the Mossad were behind the Charlie Hebdo attack.
Jewish Voice for Labour are currently trying to convince Labour Constituencies to refuse ‘antisemitism training’ from the Jewish Labour movement. Instead they want to place themselves as the authority. Anyone who thinks Jewish Voice for Labour are actually trying to fight antisemitism are part of a deceptive and dangerous political game.
The Jeremy Corbyn interview
Which brings us full circle to Justin Cohen’s interview with Jeremy Corbyn. To suggest Jewish Voice for Labour are committed to fighting antisemitism is to insult the intelligence of everyone listening. These people mingle with antisemites everywhere they go. I refuse to believe that to reach the political heights that he has, Jeremy Corbyn can be that stupid. So either it is a deliberate blindness, or he has become too desensitised to ‘Zionist as manipulative devil‘. Jeremy Corbyn can no longer distinguish what is real antisemitism himself.
He calls JVL ‘good people’, and he is unable to separate himself from the extremism in the Labour Party. He is part of a radical faction that is weighed down with antisemitism. Any notion that regular voters have, that Jeremy Corbyn may align with moderates against extremists is misplaced.
He does not see a problem being a ‘patron’ of a group that sends antisemitic thugs out to demonstrate against the Jewish state. Jeremy Corbyn is not a leader and he cannot bring people together. That has never been his strong-suit. He is an agitator.
Don’t get me wrong, I have been in a room where Jeremy Corbyn entered. I know that he has a magnetic presence and that his cult following adore him. But he cannot untangle himself from the very pillars that placed him in power. Corbyn cannot present anything but a threat to British Jews. If he does untangle himself, he will lose power, and he will not allow that to happen. Jeremy Corbyn and British Jews are destined to struggle against each other.
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