The co-ordinated attack by Tory elements of the Jewish media, and by the Jewish Tories leading organisations such as the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, on Jeremy Corbyn, has become so hysterical, and removed from reality, that they are now simply embarrassing themselves. If that were all they were doing, it would not be so bad, but by engaging in such an hysterical and so obviously unfounded, and overtly political attack on Corbyn, under the cover of supposedly fighting anti-Semitism, and threats to Jews, they are fundamentally damaging the real fight against anti-Semitism. It's not just socialist Jews like those in the Jewish Voice for Labour, or radical Jews such as those of Jewdas that have pointed out the sheer hypocrisy of these Jewish Tories and the Blair-rights who have been supporting them. The actions of the Jewish Tories must appal the majority of Jews in Britain.
The Jewish Chronicle, Jewish Telegraph and Jewish News co-ordinated their front page headlines to attack Corbyn, and to promote the ridiculous idea that a Corbyn government would pose an existential threat to Jews living in Britain! Let us even assume the ridiculous claims made by Jewish Tories that Corbyn is a racist and anti-Semite were true. What are they saying, when they claim that a Corbyn government would represent an “existential threat” to Jews living in Britain? What does an “existential threat” mean? It means what it says, it means that a Corbyn government would pose a threat to the very existence, i.e to the lives of Jews living in Britain. It is essentially equating a Corbyn government to Nazi Germany, and by implication Corbyn to Hitler. In other words, it is doing the very thing that they accuse others of doing when they compare the actions of the Israeli state to that of Nazi Germany!
The Israeli state, of course, was founded on the basis of a war against the resident Palestinian people, of displacing them and turning them into refugees, and it has ever since sought to expand its territory on a similar basis, which flows from the nationalistic and colonialist ideology of Zionism itself. It did and does represent an existential threat to Palestinians. The actions of successive Israeli governments of different political persuasions, in denying rights to Palestinians, in occupying additional Palestinian lands, like Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Syria's Golan Heights, and their repeated military actions against Lebanon etc., are not accidental or coincidental, but flow from the very nature of Zionism, as the basis upon which the state of Israel was created. Even so, that does not mean that the comparisons of Israel with Nazi Germany are valid. Nor does it justify calls for the destruction of Israel, any more than socialists called for a destruction of Germany, as opposed to the overthrow of the Nazis. It should, however, mean that discussion of Zionism, and the nature of the Israeli state are not off limits, including the links between leading Zionists, at the time, with Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, to try to form an alliance to fight against British imperialism, and its mandate in Palestine. Indeed such discussion might throw light upon why it is that the Tory leaders of Jewish organisations in Britain can attack Corbyn, whilst welcoming the election of Trump, and people like Orban in Hungary, etc!
Does anyone, however, seriously believe that a Corbyn government would begin to, make Jews second class citizens and so on, in the way that Israel does with Palestinians, let alone round up Jews, to send them to concentration camps and so on, as the Nazis did? Of course not, and by claiming that Corbyn does represent such an existential threat to British Jews the Jewish Tories simply make themselves look ridiculous, and provide succour to the real right-wing anti-Semites. The truth is that the Jewish Tories are more concerned to undermine the possibility of a left-wing Corbyn government, than they are in the fight against anti-Semitism, and they are prepared to sacrifice the latter, by using it as a convenient vehicle to attack Corbyn. In fact, it demonstrates, precisely why Corbyn has been right to resist the further attempts to get Labour to capitulate over the IHRA examples.
But, let us assume that the Jewish Tory ridiculous assertions against Corbyn were true, let us then suppose that a Corbyn Labour government began to pass some anti-Jewish laws. Have the Jewish Tories not understood that, in Britain, we have a thing called the “Rule of Law”. Unlike the Bonapartist regime in Israel, where Netanyahu could push through the racist laws making Palestinians second class citizens, no British government could bring about such a change without ripping up the existing state itself. Any such laws, besides provoking a severe public backlash would undoubtedly be struck down by the courts. So, are the Jewish Tories suggesting that a Corbyn government would also scrap the Rule of Law? Are they suggesting that the police, for example, would not act against anyone carrying out attacks on Jews, and so on? And, of course, to do any of those things to scrap the Rule of Law, would indeed require a Labour government to be indistinguishable from that of Mussolini or the Nazis. But, where are the Corbyn Blackshirts or Brownshirts dismantling the Rule of Law, and replacing the police with paramilitary forces and so on?
Anyone with even a toe planted firmly in reality, knows that any suggestion that a Corbyn Labour Party is setting about dismantling the police, the courts and other aspects of the Rule of Law is totally ridiculous. If anything, the people who have been doing that over the last few years have been the Tories themselves, as they tried to prevent democratic scrutiny of their Brexit chaos. It could only be put forward by people who have lost all contact with reality, who have abandoned all sense of shame in being prepared to hysterically make any allegation, not matter how ridiculous, so as to undermine the possibility of a Corbyn Labour Government. That they repeatedly rush out with such accusations every time that Labour look set to do well in elections, or begin to take a lead over the Tories in the opinion polls shows the real political motivation of these Jewish Tories, and it has absolutely nothing to do with really fighting anti-Semitism.
On the news the other day, they interviewed a young girl in Manchester who has faced the kind of routine anti-Semitic abuse from right-wing idiots that many Jews living in Britain face every day. She was asked about the abuse in relation to the attacks on Corbyn by Jewish Tories, and she said words to the effect, “I don't know how much of the abuse I have been getting is down to the things that Jeremy Corbyn has been saying.” But, the obvious question that the reporter should then have asked, and didn't was “Exactly what statements by Jeremy Corbyn do you think might have led to you receiving this anti-Semitic abuse?”
In fact, whenever Labour canvassers have asked ordinary members of the Jewish community that question, when they have been canvassing, no one could actually give any comment from Corbyn that they were aware of that was anti-Semitic, or promoted anti-Semitism. All of them said that they were basing their opinions solely on what the Tory Jewish media organisations like the Jewish Chronicle, or the Tory leaders of Jewish bodies like the Board of Deputies were saying. In other words, the Tory leaders of these Jewish organisations are whipping up a moral panic, and an anti-Corbyn hysteria, that Jews, in particular, should be familiar with, because it is the kind of hysteria and hatred that has repeatedly been whipped up against them, in the past.
The Jewish Tories are undermining the real struggle against anti-Semitism, by using the issue for their own short term political objective of undermining Corbyn, as I wrote some time ago. The Jewish community at large needs to be aware of that, and begin to call them to account over it. The vast majority of cases of anti-Semitism brought before the courts involve members of right-wing organisations, not members of the Labour Party, or real supporters of Jeremy Corbyn. The Blair-right, and Jewish Labour MP's who spoke in parliament a few weeks ago, themselves had to admit that where those guilty of abuse against them had come to court, they were all members of right-wing organisations. So, why are the Jewish Tories focussing their attacks on Corbyn, rather than the real culprits when it comes to anti-Semitism?
As I wrote a while ago, the suggestion that Corbyn is an anti-Semite is thoroughly ridiculous. As the comrades of Jewish Voice for Labour put it recently ,
“The concocted hysteria generated by a small but loud, privileged, rabidly Zionist, section of the Jewish community about the prospect of a Labour Government led by Jeremy Corbyn has descended into complete farce with this “unprecedented step” of three Jewish newspapers with declining readerships all about to publish the same page, declaring that a Corbyn-led government will be an “existential threat” to the Jewish community. The politician who is the most consistent and committed anti-racist, human rights supporter, champion of the homeless and oppressed, fighter against poverty in the House of Commons is painted in this way. it is phenomenal nonsense. Alice in Wonderland stuff.”
Clearly, it is time for Jewish socialists to begin to expose the activities of the Tories in the organisations of the Jewish communities, and to begin to bring about the same kind of progressive transformation of those organisations that Corbyn supporters have brought about within the Labour Party.
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