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It’s time for Jews to come back to Labour Jew-haters will not be eradicated from the party, but they might be silenced if outnumbered

Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Corbyn in 2018. Photo: TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images

Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Corbyn in 2018. Photo: TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images


November 19, 2020   4 mins

Now Labour has its civil war, where does that leave Labour Jews? The Corbyn-supporting Jews — Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) and Jewdas — live in their crippling delusion that Corbyn is, really, an accident-prone advocate for Jews; see here, in a Skwawkbox crib sheet, 50 things Jeremy Corbyn did for Jews; see, here, he praised the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising; see, here, he condemned the desecration of a Jewish graveyard.

Dead Jews don’t complain and are easy to assemble in support; a true anti-racist, though, will fight racism when its victims are his political enemies. He ignored Luciana Berger’s plea to ask his social media followers to stop attacking her and Ruth Smeeth with racist and misogynistic tropes. That would have been meaningful. Ignore Jews who tell you that the Jewish community is more pro-Corbyn than the media will tell you: it isn’t.

I would like JVL to release its membership statistics, so it can stop pretending to speak for more than a clutch of Jewish people. They have demonised the mainstream Jewish community and they have helped Corbyn supporters chase all but one female Jewish MP from the party. (For now, Margaret Hodge remains, but Corbyn supporters desire her to leave. Read Twitter for the manner in which they ask her. She is entirely dehumanised, and they should know better what that is, and what it means, and where it ends).

If these groups believe, as they say they so, that Zionism is murderous, why do they not act to protect non-murderous Diaspora Jewry, rather than incite hatred towards it? They have no answer. They have, at best – and this is a generous analysis — been used.

But I am, in one sense, in sympathy with them: I am willing, if not happy, to stay in a Labour Party that also contains Jeremy Corbyn. I rejoined the day he was suspended, and I will stay, at least for now. I believe Corbyn to be a Jew-hater for everything he has done to imperil British Jews: that he is not conscious of it is hardly my affair.

I should thank him. These last years have been an education for British Jews. That which was once theoretical — it is true there was a lull in anti-Semitism post-War, and that was the true aberration — has bloomed again. We have returned to the Status Quo. There is no Jew-hate without Jewry and, you might cynically argue, the opposite is likewise true. Why does the only surviving tribe of the ancient world endure? Part of the answer is in Exodus 32.9, and I write that even though I have no faith: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.’”

If you believe that a small minority in Labour, in the world, are fanatical Jew-haters — and I do, and many of them were attracted to Corbyn’s Labour — you need not be too fearful for Jewish life. The Longest Hatred is old news, after all; we should accept it. We should not ask what we desire but what can we live with? It is not the perpetrators who make the pogrom. It is the would-be bystanders who hold the balance; by their actions shall Jews be judged imperilled or secure.

Jew-hatred is many things, but it is, most prosaically, a pressure valve: when society fractures — or believes itself to be fractured — it thrives. Perhaps that is why it found a home in Corbyn’s Labour, for they believe their world is entirely broken. That the ancient Christian Jew-hatred has metastasised into modern socialist Jew-hatred (they are reliably irreligious) is one of the only things in the last half decade that has made me, reliably, laugh; aren’t they supposed to be progressives?

But what if this worldview jumped out of fragments of news, and their own neurosis and rage, and into life: what if the country was entirely broken? What if a series of corrupt, incompetent, nativist Conservative governments, succoured by a warring Labour Party, destabilised the country without end? Would British Jews be safer then — really?  The Weimar Republic fell during economic crisis when the Left was split; we should remember that always.

Conservatives have celebrated this week, happy that Corbyn’s suspension is over-turned, happier that Keir Starmer, in response, has denied him the whip. They congratulate themselves on their anti-racist credentials, even as the Muslim Council of Great Britain has asked the EHRC for an enquiry into Conservative Islamophobia, which is just and is, so far, denied. Even so, they write thorny rebukes on Twitter. They shouldn’t: their Judeophilia is grisly and opportunistic, even if it soothes some Jews. It is also worthless; whatever they offer, it will not last. Racisms rise together. The Left and Right, when engaged in Jew-hatred, will meet each other there in solidarity.

A Jew-hater is no longer leader of the Labour Party. He may be a member still, thanks to an Corbyn-leaning NEC panel who expeditated his case before new processes could be established, but he is denied the whip. He is shrunken.

Starmer has pledged to eradicate Jew-haters from the party, which I think is unlikely, but they might be silenced if outnumbered and that is good enough. His first act as leader was an apology, which I think was heartfelt; he asked to be judged on this. It is early days still. Only Twitter rushes to judgment, because it can’t help it. The Jew-hating rhetoric on Twitter is fierce, but I would be amazed if Labour voters felt the same way.

Judaism is about acts; Christianity is about faith. Yet it is Jews who need faith now: in Starmer’s Labour. I understand as well as any Jew the trauma the last five years has brought: something in memory reborn before us. Even so, Jews who left under Corbyn should return; each one is a defeat for the Jew-hating elements. Britain is a still-functioning democracy. A social democratic Labour Party is something worth saving: if it isn’t, what is?


Tanya Gold is a freelance journalist.

TanyaGold1

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Perry de Havilland
Perry de Havilland
3 years ago

Corbyn is just the most visible pustule, it is not about him. If you support *anyone* who campaigned for a Labour victory that would have resulted in an anti-Semitic Marxist in No.10, then you are part of the problem. No one supporting that party now gets to hand wave that uncomfortable truth away.

David George
David George
3 years ago

“an anti-Semitic Marxist”
How can any religious Jew or Christian support socialism or Marxism, they are utterly incompatible.
Right from the Garden of Eden story the message is clear; you now know what you are doing, you are now responsible. Take up your burden, don’t curse fate, speak the truth and look for what is good.
How do you square Marx, with his materialist ideology and his vile moral and philosophical justifications for envy, resentment and hate with the sublime words:
“seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and
all these things shall be added unto you”
or ” Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”

Robin Banks
Robin Banks
3 years ago
Reply to  David George

Karl Marx and the entire Frankfurt school were anti-Semitic Jews.
How can any religious Jew or Christian support socialism or Marxism
Simple. They were not religious.

Christopher Elletson
Christopher Elletson
3 years ago

A further definition of “contortion”: Tanya Gold writing on why she rejoined the Labour party and is staying put.

Jay Williamson
Jay Williamson
3 years ago

Why Jewish people think that Labour is the party for them is beyond me. Labour has always been riven with anti-Semitism and nothing has changed.

Keith Brockwell
Keith Brockwell
3 years ago
Reply to  Jay Williamson

Jay Williamson,

I share your view and have reasoned that Jewish people escaping Europe sought friendship and felt safer with the left wing majority. Labour was content to have the Jewish vote, but as followers of Islamic faith arrived and outnumbered them the Islamic vote became more important. Tanya shows enormous loyalty.

Jewish people are blessed with numerous qualities including brains, so they should learn from Tanya’s experience.

Caroline Galwey
Caroline Galwey
3 years ago

There’s a saying by a great Jew, ‘straining at gnats and swallowing camels’. This is what Tanya’s desperate attempt to distract from the all-too-concrete reality of Leftist antisemitism by vaguely gesturing rightwards reminds me of. Let’s just deal with real problems first and leave the strictly hypothetical ones for later, shall we?

Vijay Kant
Vijay Kant
3 years ago

I am really surprised that no one has yet realised that Labour Party has now become a useful idiot for the Islamists. Are everyone afraid to be labelled an Islamophobe?

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  Vijay Kant

Are everyone afraid to he labelled an Islamophobe?
that’s a rhetorical question, right?

Daniel Goldstein
Daniel Goldstein
3 years ago
Reply to  Vijay Kant

Yes, including this website.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago

“I promise I’ll never hit you again.”

The Jew-hating rhetoric on Twitter is fierce, but I would be amazed if Labour voters felt the same way.
Why would you be amazed? In the US, crimes against Jews are far and away the most common bias related crimes. In NYC, Jewish homes and businesses are being specifically targeted for daring the flaunt their resistance to Mayor Moron.

Last Jacobin
Last Jacobin
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

According to the FBI there are three times as many attacks on black people due to their race than Jewish people. Google hate crime USA. I’ve corrected you on this before.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  Last Jacobin

Uh, no. To both your numerical claim and that you’ve done this before. There is rash of crimes against black people by non-black people. Black-on-black crime is practically in its own category and there have numerous ‘hate’ incidents that turned out to be hoaxes.

Federal stats lump race/ethnicity/ancestry into a single category, so try again. Being Jewish fits both ethnicity and ancestry.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  Last Jacobin

That’s not what the FBI’s 2018 figures say. In fact, they’re quite the opposite. Jews are nearly three times more likely to be victims. There are stats all over the place about this historic hatred has again reared its head, particularly in some of America’s bluest cities.

Last Jacobin
Last Jacobin
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

FBI Hate Crime Statistics 2018:
Anti Jewish incidents – 835
Anti Black or African American – 1935
Anti Asian – 148
Anti indigenous population – 194

In terms of % of population I’m sure you’re right – proportionately, Jewish people are much more likely to be impacted than black people. But that doesn’t equate to ‘Jews are far and away the most common bias related crimes’.

I can’t believe the numbers are so low. UK Government reports over 100k a year

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  Last Jacobin

when the rate for one group is about 3x higher than the second group on the list, what do you call it? In an election, it would be termed a landslide. If you think ‘far and away’ is over the top, that’s fine, but it’s a big gap. And it is chronically under-reported.

Last Jacobin
Last Jacobin
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

I think you’re right about the chronic under reporting, Alex. Across the board. But the numbers show the number of anti black crimes being higher than anti Jewish crimes. I’m not an expert on US stats – may well be there are State recorded figures that are more relevant than the Federal ones.

David George
David George
3 years ago
Reply to  Last Jacobin

There’s been a lot of fake hate crime claims made, it’s a small but growing “industry” in the US.
The UK government’s idea of “hate crimes” is the reason for the disparity. Make being offended, having hurty feelings from any comment, real or imagined, a crime and the perpetrators criminals is a very foolish idea.
Scrap that BS and get the police out solving actual crimes, if they still know how.

Christin
Christin
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

And the attackers are leftist blacks and antifa.

Dan Martin
Dan Martin
3 years ago

Huge exercise in question begging, as you assume that Labour is the natural home for Jews. Perhaps this is not so. But because of your own rigid worldview you will not be able to grant that possibility, even as an exploratory speculation.

Bullfrog Brown
Bullfrog Brown
3 years ago

Corbyn’s Jew hate facilitated a cesspit of antisemitism & brought the Labour Party to be investigated by an official commission. It’s 18 month investigation was belittled by Corbyn, breaching it’s findings.

Any politician with such anti gay sentiment or anti black sentiment, as ouvert as Corbyn’s anti Jew sentiment has no place in any political role in Westminster.

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago
Reply to  Bullfrog Brown

If Corbyn’s anti-Jewish sentiment is so overt, you will surely be able to find one statement by Corbyn where he expresses anti-Jewish sentiment. But you cannot.

henrysporn
henrysporn
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

Overt it may not be, but obvious it certainly is, evidenced by his utter lack of empathy with the Jewish community’s concerns contrasted with his copious amounts of empathy for those who kill Jews (e.g. wreaths).

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago
Reply to  henrysporn

The man said “overt”. I am still waiting. As for laying wreaths, we lay wreaths on the graves of members of French and Dutch resistance fighters. Are we not to lay wreaths on graves of fighters against oppression because their enemy happened to be the Israeli state?

David George
David George
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

Think about it Matthew.
Regardless of who the fight is against, when the intended victims are innocent members of the public then no, we don’t honour the perpetrators, the terrorists. Ever.

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago
Reply to  David George

If Corbyn has been honouring terrorists I would be as vehemently against it as you. But I would need evidence that he has. So, please, produce the evidence (accusations without evidence are rightly called “smears”). I don’t know whether you are smearing him or not, but in order to know I need to see the evidence you are relying on.

polidoris ghost
polidoris ghost
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

“If Corbyn has been honouring terrorists I would be as vehemently against it as you.”

No you wouldn’t.

Vilde Chaye
Vilde Chaye
3 years ago

he was, and you didn’t. So just more BS.

David George
David George
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

He was photographed and witnessed laying wreaths as part of a memorial service for the Munich Olympic terrorists and murderers in Tunisia. He was condemned by his own party and came up with some weaselly excuse.
“Jennifer Gerber, Director of Labour Friends of Israel, said: “It is almost unbelievable that any Labour MP would participate in a ceremony honouring a man involved in the vicious murder of innocent Israeli athletes. Unfortunately, this appears to be part of a very disturbing pattern of behaviour and we are seeking urgent clarification from the Leader’s office on this matter.”
That he has anything to do with these supporters of terrorism at all is bad enough.
A quick internet search will reveal all you need to know, Matthew, something I would have thought you would have done before embarrassing yourself further.

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago
Reply to  David George

You are presumably following the same script as the JLM submission to the EHRC: “a video emerged showing Mr Corbyn in Tunisia in 2014 laying a wreath next to the graves of Black September terrorists, who murdered Israeli Olympic athletes in 1972.” In fact, the men who carried out the Munich attack that year are buried in another country, Libya. Corbyn was accused of laying a wreath for the PLO commander Abu Iyad ” which would certainly be much less objectionable than the presence of British politicians like Tony Blair and David Cameron at the funeral of Ariel Sharon ” but had not in fact done so.

Vilde Chaye
Vilde Chaye
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

Corbyn himself admitted he was there but didn’t participate, whatever that means. Your own guy says he was there, and yet you still require evidence. You reek of the same stink holocaust deniers do, constantly asking for evidence of the most documented horror in history.

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago
Reply to  Vilde Chaye

Where is “there”? He wasn’t in Libya, I believe. So how can he have been laying wreaths for the Munich terrorists, when they are buried in Libya? Show some common sense!

Vilde Chaye
Vilde Chaye
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

dumbo, they’re buried in Tunisia, he was there, he admits he was there, and Libya has nothing to do with it.

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago
Reply to  Vilde Chaye

Evidence, please

Vilde Chaye
Vilde Chaye
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

These are super easy verifiable facts. Do you own confirmation work. Google it.

Vilde Chaye
Vilde Chaye
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

are you seriously comparing Dutch and French resistance fighters to those Black September operatives who murdered Olympians? Unbelievable but hardly surprising, given the source.

Kevin Ryan
Kevin Ryan
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

..

ard10027
ard10027
3 years ago

Advocated this before and got ignored, but what the heck, we live in hope. Can we please have a universally accepted definition of what constitutes an anti-Semite, beginning with the provision that criticizing someone Jewish for something or other that that person has done does not make the critic a “Jew hater”?

Johnny Sutherland
Johnny Sutherland
3 years ago
Reply to  ard10027

Only if we can have the same for racism, transphobia etc

Micheal Thompson
Micheal Thompson
3 years ago

Don’t forget Islamophobia.

Jay Williamson
Jay Williamson
3 years ago
Reply to  ard10027

Just as criticisng somebody who is black, brown or Moslem doesn’t make the critic a racist or Islamaphobic.

Last Jacobin
Last Jacobin
3 years ago
Reply to  ard10027

I think that is a good point, Joe. An MP in the UK apologised for referring to Richard Desmond as a ‘puppet master’ regarding the occasion when Desmond lobbied a minister, got planning permission for a project and then donated to the Tory party shortly afterwards. The MP believably claimed he didn’t know Desmond was Jewish. As far as I know Dominic Cummings isn’t Jewish so to call him a puppet master wouldn’t be anti-semitic. Is it the term we aren’t allowed to use or just if someone may or may not be Jewish? Personally, I’ll never use the term again. just in case.

From another perspective – right wing commentators have been criticised for using the term ‘cultural marxism’ as a pseudonym for ‘woke’ (I know there is a history about the term but I really don’t believe the majority of people who have used it know the history). The term has been used to describe the views of Jewish and non-Jewish people. When used about Jewish people it’s been called anti-semitic.

Paul Wright
Paul Wright
3 years ago
Reply to  Last Jacobin

Exactly. Soros is roundly criticised by people on the right for his interference in politics & geopolitics in ways they disapprove, but somehow this is rarely classed as AS. The whole thing just depends on your viewpoint.
Likewise Farage, depsite overt, on the airwaves classic AS “they have too much influence!!”….forgotten, he’s loved by the BOD etc etc.
The bottom line is: if you support Israel 100%, all else is forgiven.

Tom Griffiths
Tom Griffiths
3 years ago

I do try to read any article uncritically, and take it at face-value. However, the casual tossing around of the epithet “Jew-hater” astonished me. If equating any facet of the State of Israel with 1930s Germany is automatically anti-semitic, then what exactly does equating any supporter of Palestinians with “Jew-hating” mean?

henrysporn
henrysporn
3 years ago
Reply to  Tom Griffiths

strawman AND moving goalposts. A) Equating Israel with Nazi Germany IS antisemitic; B) nobody seriously automatically equates “Any” supporter of Palestinians with “Jew-hating.” Only those who hate Jews (which happens to be quite a lot of them).

Vilde Chaye
Vilde Chaye
3 years ago
Reply to  Tom Griffiths

Equating any facet of Israel with 1930s nazi germany is automatically antisemitic. Yes. It is. And it’s also bullsh*t.

G Harris
G Harris
3 years ago

Be you black, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, fat, thin, gay, bi or whatever, when you endlessly seek to define yourself, almost uniquely, as somehow being ‘different’ from everyone else around you and demand that that specific difference be endlessly acknowledged, appreciated and understood, and often that different rules or conventions be applied or observed solely on the basis of that ‘difference’ and yet then paradoxically simultaneously want that ‘difference’ to be magically universally ignored, no wonder we all end up disappearing down this bloody ridiculous, tortuous seemingly never-ending rabbit hole.

Maybe people like Tanya Gold misguidedly see themselves as part of the solution here whereas, as this article perfectly illustrates, sadly they and their divisive rhetoric are actually a major part of the problem.

Angela Frith
Angela Frith
3 years ago

Why would anyone hate Jews? They are respectable people. They don’t blow trains up.

Daniel Goldstein
Daniel Goldstein
3 years ago

“They congratulate themselves on their anti-racist credentials, even as the Muslim Council of Great Britain has asked the EHRC for an enquiry into Conservative Islamophobia, which is just and is, so far, denied.”
Oh come on, Tanya, the MCB is dodgy, the two issues can’t be compared, and you’re engaging in classic whataboutery.

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago

“I believe Corbyn to be a Jew-hater for everything he has done to
imperil British Jews.” I hear the madman on the platform denouncing enemies for fantasy offences.

Mark H
Mark H
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

Yes, “madman on the platform denouncing enemies for fantasy offences” pretty much sums up Corbyn’s behaviour.

Bill Hartree
Bill Hartree
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark H

Mark, sorry to sound naive, but whom has Corbyn thus denounced?

Mark H
Mark H
3 years ago
Reply to  Bill Hartree

“our enemies inside and outside the party” in the statement he put out when the EHRC report was published.

Last Jacobin
Last Jacobin
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark H

He was talking about political enemies not Jewish people.

polidoris ghost
polidoris ghost
3 years ago
Reply to  Last Jacobin

A euphemism for jews.
Face up to what you are.

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago

Even in literary criticism when the term “euphemism” is used, evidence is produced that the meaning claimed is a likely or a reasonable one. Here no such evidence has been produced. Accusations without evidence are mere smears, and smearing people is beyond belief wicked and low.

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago
Reply to  Bill Hartree

I was talking about the author of this piece, who seems demented, not Corbyn. British Jews have in no way been imperilled by Corbyn. To assert that they have is fantasy, dangerously reminiscent of the mad fantasies of the 1930s. If you accuse people of crimes you need to show evidence, otherwise it is mere populism, both wicked and dangerous.

Vilde Chaye
Vilde Chaye
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

Arrogant shmuck thinks he knows better than the jews themselves whether they’ve been imperilled by Corbyn.

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago
Reply to  Vilde Chaye

Despite the view taken by the professional denouncers of
Labour antisemitism that social media is alive with Labour antisemites calling Jews nasty names, I, who follow many blogs and twitter accounts, mostly on the left, have never seen any of this, never seen it in the Party, and never heard of it from my wife’s reading club members, which includes a couple of Labour members of 40 years, standing. Nor may I say have my friends seen it. Even those who believe that the Party is anti-semitic do not bring me such evidence – presumably because it does not actually exist, but they believe that it cannot be true that all this fuss is about nothing, and after all, the Guardian, which they trust, is reporting it (of course without evidence, simply repetition).

But it took only 5 minutes after posting a comment about an
anti-Corbyn article by Tanya Gold for me to be told to “lick my own Jackboots” and “crawl back into my anti-semitic hole” – and this wasn’t just one commenter, but a whole raging gang of them.

So I conclude that the popular newspaper and popular viewpoint at Labour MP level is entirely wrong – the appalling behaviour is very clearly concentrated in this Zionist pack, which has assumed a completely unreasonable position of power in British politics. Ultimately this, and not the fate of one man, uncomfortable though that is, is what should concern us.

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

Odd how these Corbyn-haters insult you, call you nasty names, and then draw back end delete the insults. Apparently there is some residue of shame, which is heartening.

Vilde Chaye
Vilde Chaye
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

I didn’t delete the insults. I deleted my entire account for technical reasons that have nothing to do with this or any other discussion, and as it happens when you do that, all your posts get deleted. You’re such an arrogant p***k you think everything is about you. So you see, no shame. Disgust. With your jew-baiting crap.

Vilde Chaye
Vilde Chaye
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

The evidence is right there. In the EHRC report, and many other places too. It’s only invisible to those who refuse to see it.

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago
Reply to  Vilde Chaye

Strange then that you cannot produce it!

Vilde Chaye
Vilde Chaye
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

I have to produce the EHRC report? Get stuffed you disingenuous baiter.

matthew1
matthew1
3 years ago
Reply to  Vilde Chaye

I don’t think you have read the EHRC report, otherwise you would realise how difficult it is to take from it anything that credibly implicates Corbyn.

Vilde Chaye
Vilde Chaye
3 years ago
Reply to  matthew1

it implicates the labour party leadership. Corbyn was the leader of the Labour party. “Our investigation found that the Labour Party breached the Equality Act 2010 by committing unlawful harassment through the acts of its agents in two of the complaints we investigated. These included using antisemitic tropes and suggesting that complaints of antisemitism were fake or smears. As these people were acting as agents of the Labour Party, the Labour Party was legally responsible for their conduct.
This is by no means the full extent of the issues we identified within the files in our sample; it represents the TIP OF THE ICEBERG.[iceberg, goldberg, what’s the difference, eh?]. We also saw:
“¢ A further 18 ‘borderline’ cases. In these cases, there was not enough
evidence to conclude that the Labour Party was legally responsible for the
conduct of the individual. These were people such as local councillors,
local election candidates and Constituency Labour Party office holders.
“¢ In many more files, evidence of antisemitic conduct by an ‘ordinary’
member of the Labour Party. These members did not hold any office or
role, therefore the Labour Party could not be held directly responsible for
their conduct under the Equality Act 2010.

But hey, you and your pals haven’t been able to identify a single example of labour antisemitism, right?

Paul Wright
Paul Wright
3 years ago
Reply to  Vilde Chaye

It simply isn’t, and never was.

William Cameron
William Cameron
3 years ago

Who said the art of politics was being able to count.
Apparently there are ten times as many muslims in the Uk as there are Jewish folk.That surprised me.

Geoffrey Simon Hicking
Geoffrey Simon Hicking
3 years ago

No.

It is not a safe place for Judaism, and it cannot be so until Corbyn and co are expelled totally and utterly.

Christin
Christin
3 years ago

And that will never happen.

tynyfedw
tynyfedw
3 years ago

Is this satire?

Joseph Berger
Joseph Berger
3 years ago

This is truly a sad article. The poor woman cannot let go but clings to her blankie or doll that she has grown up with and to her it is not a tattered shattered piece of cloth, but still a potential jewel, just needing a little sewing and polishing here and there.
Truly pathetic.
Young idealists are seduced into believing that the left stands for equality, fairness, justice, etc, and these idealized notions should be manifested in things like free education, free health care, much higher taxes on the productive sectors of society to bail out not the handicapped or unable – but a large number of the unwilling.
War of course should be abolished, but if nasty people come along who want to ruin the lives of millions – well, who are we to judge other people’s cultural differences and preferences, and shouldn’t interfere.
Socialist societies everywhere have failed miserably in two main ways, they lead to economic stagnation and poorer living standards, and they can only be maintained with a rigid controlling police/totalitarian state apparatus.
The writer’s mythological labour party of her childhood long ago abandoned its ideals and became further detached from reality.
Descending into blatant anti-semitism has only increased the speed of the descent.
No, there is no place in a party of the left for a traditional Jew.

Paul Wright
Paul Wright
3 years ago
Reply to  Joseph Berger

What is a socialist society exactly? One that takes circa 40% of GNP in taxes? A health service? Not having people dying of cholera on the streets?

That’s nearly every desirable country you’d want to live in.

Last Jacobin
Last Jacobin
3 years ago

I know this is an opinion piece – and I do respect the writer’s opinions though I disagree with some of them.

However: ‘Why does the only surviving tribe of the ancient world endure? Part of the answer is in Exodus 32.9, and I write that even though I have no faith: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.'”

Sorry, that is blatantly racist (anti semitic) – categorising a whole race or religion as stiff-necked? You might as well say all Scots are mean, all Irish are stupid and black people have a great sense of rhythm.

Katy Randle
Katy Randle
3 years ago
Reply to  Last Jacobin

I rather think it’s God being racist there – and he makes the rules, LOL!

Vilde Chaye
Vilde Chaye
3 years ago
Reply to  Last Jacobin

wow. the bible has some racist bits. who knew????

bsema
bsema
3 years ago

Can anyone think of a group, other than Jews, that is hated by both the far-left and the far-right?

polidoris ghost
polidoris ghost
3 years ago
Reply to  bsema

A good point.

Dominic Straiton
Dominic Straiton
3 years ago
Reply to  bsema

Whats “far right”?

philipthood
philipthood
3 years ago

I think the author is being a bit sanguine about the LabourParty. There is much evidence that JC was quite sympathetic to many people and organisations that showed all the signs of anti semitism, and a substantial part of the Labour Party was sympathetic to JC.

Dominic Straiton
Dominic Straiton
3 years ago

The German National socialist workers party was on the left. They preferred shooting people in the back of the head because of race rather than class. The communists murdered people for class rather than race. It really didnt and doesnt matter to the people getting a bullet in the head. Its all the same thing. In group, out group.

henrysporn
henrysporn
3 years ago

afraid not. the nazis were a radical right-wing party, supported by rich industrialists and other parties of the right like the nationalist party, etc. On the other hand, the social democrats were the nazis biggest enemies, after the Communists. The Nazis were totalitarian. They were NOT communist, and they weren’t of the left.

kinelll086
kinelll086
3 years ago

Antisemitism in Islamic scripture

The Qur’an

The following is a list of some of the anti-Semitic statements found within the Qur’an.

According to the Qur’an; Jews are only satisfied if you follow Judaism.

Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with thee unless thou follow their form of religion. Say: “The Guidance of Allah,-that is the (only) Guidance.” Wert thou to follow their desires after the knowledge which hath reached thee, then wouldst thou find neither Protector nor helper against Allah.

Quran 2:120

Jews must believe in the Qur’an or else Allah will distort their faces and take away their fame so that they become unrecognizable, turning them backwards, or curse them.

O ye People of the Book!* believe in what We have (now) revealed, confirming what was (already) with you, before We change the face and fame of some (of you) beyond all recognition, and turn them hindwards, or curse them as We cursed the Sabbath-breakers, for the decision of Allah Must be carried out.

Quran 4:47

According to the Qur’an, the Jews knowing full well that Isa was a Messenger of Allah, attempted to kill him in defiance of their deity.

That they rejected Faith; that they uttered against Mary a grave false charge; That they said (in boast), “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah”;- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:- Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise;- And there is none of the People of the Book but must believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Judgment he will be a witness against them;-

Qur’an 4:156-159

Because the Jews are sinful, Allah made more rules for them than for anyone else, and they have hindered many from the way of Allah.

For the iniquity of the Jews We made unlawful for them certain (foods) good and wholesome which had been lawful for them;- in that they hindered many from Allah’s Way;-

Quran 4:160

Jews will listen to any lie.

O Messenger! let not those grieve thee, who race each other into unbelief: (whether it be) among those who say “We believe” with their lips but whose hearts have no faith; or it be among the Jews,- men who will listen to any lie,- will listen even to others who have never so much as come to thee. They change the words from their (right) times and places: they say, “If ye are given this, take it, but if not, beware!” If any one’s trial is intended by Allah, thou hast no authority in the least for him against Allah. For such – it is not Allah’s will to purify their hearts. For them there is disgrace in this world, and in the Hereafter a heavy punishment.

Quran 5:41

The Jews were stamped with humiliation and wretchedness.

And when ye said: O Moses! We are weary of one kind of food; so call upon thy Lord for us that He bring forth for us of that which the earth groweth – of its herbs and its cucumbers and its corn and its lentils and its onions. He said: Would ye exchange that which is higher for that which is lower? Go down to settled country, thus ye shall get that which ye demand. And humiliation and wretchedness were stamped upon them and they were visited with wrath from Allah. That was because they disbelieved in Allah’s revelations and slew the prophets wrongfully. That was for their disobedience and transgression.

Quran 2:61

Muslims must not take the Jews as friends and protectors or else Allah will not guide them.

O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust.

Quran 5:51

Jews are the most hateful towards Muslims.

Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews and Pagans; and nearest among them in love to the believers wilt thou find those who say, “We are Christians”: because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant.

Quran 5:82

The Jews say Ezra is the son of Allah which makes them perverse, and even Allah fights against them.

And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah (Himself) fighteth against them. How perverse are they!

Quran 9:30

Allah turned some Jews into apes and pigs for breaking the Sabbath.

And well ye knew those amongst you [Children of Israel] who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: “Be ye apes, despised and rejected.”

Quran 2:65

Most of the Jews are faithless, perverted transgressors.

Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah. If only the People of the Book had faith, it were best for them: among them are some who have faith, but most of them are perverted transgressors.

Quran 3:110

And Muslims must fight the Jews, until they submit in shame and pay the Jizyah.

Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute [Jizya] readily, being brought low.

Quran 9:29

Since the Jews have said that Allah’s hand is tied up, their hands will be tied up and they will be cursed. They are obstinant, rebellious, and blasphemous, and Allah has cursed them with enmity and hatred until Judgment day. Allah halts their efforts of warfare, and they are always causing mischief.

The Jews say: “Allah’s hand is tied up.” Be their hands tied up and be they accursed for the (blasphemy) they utter. Nay, both His hands are widely outstretched: He giveth and spendeth (of His bounty) as He pleaseth. But the revelation that cometh to thee from Allah increaseth in most of them their obstinate rebellion and blasphemy. Amongst them we have placed enmity and hatred till the Day of Judgment. Every time they kindle the fire of war, Allah doth extinguish it; but they (ever) strive to do mischief on earth. And Allah loveth not those who do mischief.

Quran 5:64

Satan (Iblis) too is cursed by Allah in the same way the Jews are cursed. He also granted respite to Satan until the Day of Judgment. Therefore, in Islamic theology there is no difference between Satan and Jews, because both are accursed.

Jonathan Jones
Jonathan Jones
3 years ago

It is time for the beaten wife to return to her violent husband.

yousopar1
yousopar1
3 years ago

We are still within our rights to be anti zionist and anti Israel, they are the oppressed become the oppressors, the persecuted become the persecutors, they have learned nothing in their 2000 years of suffering, no humility, no humbleness, nothing.