ANTISEMITISM ENGULFS THE BRITISH LABOUR PARTY

Video of the week- Anti-Semitism in the UK Labour Party-http://tinyurl.com/y9t8ngus

by Melanie Phillips, JerusalemPost 28-9-2017

At its annual conference this week, Britain’s Labour Party crossed a chilling and fateful line.

At a fringe meeting there was a call to treat Holocaust denial as a legitimate contribution to debate; Israel was compared to the Nazis; and there was a demand to expel pro-Israel Jewish groups from the party.

On the conference floor itself, a Jewish woman spewed a stream of defamatory falsehoods, distortions and smears about Israel. She then received an ecstatic standing ovation for stating: “I am not an antisemite. This party does not have a problem with Jews.”

Conference delegates seemed beside themselves with joy that they were being given permission by a Jew to hate the collective Jew in the State of Israel.

In the face of all this and more the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn – a hard-leftist who calls Hamas and Hezbollah his “friends” – not only remained silent but failed to attend a reception by the Labour Friends of Israel, pleading pressure of work while managing to attend various other receptions instead.

Labour’s so-called moderates are refusing to face up to what this all means.

Unfortunately, a number of Jewish Labour members are amongst them.

The Jewish Labour Movement drafted a resolution to make it easier to expel antisemites from the party. Although this was eventually passed, it is actually worse than useless.

Crucially, it doesn’t define antisemitism.

And you can bet Labour will never accept that demonization and delegitimization of Israel is the contemporary form of the oldest hatred. If it did so, it would have to expel much if not most of the party.

Moreover, Labour has now reiterated its intention to recognize a state of Palestine as soon as the party takes power. It has therefore committed itself to an act of malice against Israel and a denial of the Palestinians’ own treaty obligations. It is a unique approach which singles out Israel for double standards – a key marker of antisemitism.

The CEO of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission has said Labour antisemitism is now so bad the party must prove that it is not racist.

Yet on Tuesday evening the Jewish Labour Movement put out leaflets calling on people to “help Jeremy Corbyn fight antisemitism.” Having convinced themselves falsely that their resolution has started to draw the sting of Corbyn’s poison, these Jews have actually ended up promoting him.

Much, much, worse though, is that Jews themselves are in the forefront of spreading this venom.

The ranting woman who declared she was no antisemite was a virulently anti-Zionist Jew called Naomi Wimborne- Idrissi.

The man who called for two pro-Israel Jewish groups to be expelled from the party was Michael Kalmanovitz, a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

The individual who called for Holocaust denial to be taken seriously was Miko Peled, the son of an Israeli general.

Now living in America, Peled has made a career out of defaming Israel, telling AIPAC supporters in 2011 that they were “supporting evil.”

Across the West, the demonization of Israel has been dominated by such Jews spreading incitement to hatred and murder by regurgitating incendiary falsehoods and distortions.

Their hallmark is to void Jewish ethics in order to make them correspond to the leftist ideology of a universalist utopia – which inescapably means the destruction not just of Israel but of Judaism itself. Grotesquely, they then claim they stand for Jewish ethics and are thus morally superior to those who support Israel.

The tragic fact is that there’s no disorder quite so pathological as when a Jew turns against his or her own identity. Jews are a unique people; the hatred directed at them is a unique hatred; and when Jews turn on their own people, they behave in a uniquely terrible way.

Israeli Jewish intellectuals are even more afflicted by this pathology. The Israeli novelist Aharon Megged has lamented “a phenomenon which probably has no parallel in history: an emotional and moral identification by the majority of Israel’s intelligentsia with people openly committed to our annihilation.”

In The Jewish Divide Over Israel, which he wrote with Paul Bogdanor, Edward Alexander writes devastatingly: “The disproportionate influence of Jewish accusers depends in large part on the fact that they demonize Israel precisely as Jews; indeed, since religion and tradition count for little in most of them, it is the demonization of Israel that makes them Jews.”

And because people assume wrongly that Jews cannot be antisemites, these anti-Zionist Jews offer themselves as human shields to protect and facilitate those who they hope will destroy the State of Israel through demonization and delegitimization.

The problem of antisemitism in Britain, however, goes far beyond the Labour Party.

My Name Is Rachel Corrie is a play first staged in 2005 sanitizing an International Solidarity Movement activist who was killed in Gaza by an Israeli armored bulldozer when she tried to stop demolition work being carried out to eradicate terror tunnels.

Lo and behold, this out-dated piece of meretricious agitprop is being revived by London’s Young Vic theater. Why? Because human-shielded Jew-baiting is now the recreational sport of the British intelligentsia.

So when is the opening night of this revival? Why, Kol Nidrei, the start of Yom Kippur, the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. Right in the Jews’ faces, eh.

Don’t weep for the wretched Labour Party. Weep for what Britain has become, and for the Jews who have lost their way.

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ANGLO-JEWRY CONFRONTS LABOUR ANTI-SEMITIC SURGE

By Isi Leibler 13-4-2016

For the full article go to - http://tinyurl.com/hk3eaja

Ten years ago, I was accused of hysteria when I praised Melanie Phillips’ groundbreaking book, “Londonistan,” detailing the alarming growth of anti-Semitism in the U.K. and predicting further deterioration unless the British government drastically altered its approach.

Many British Jews, especially those living in Jewish enclaves, were in denial, simply unwilling to face reality. The Anglo-Jewish establishment has frequently been referred to as “trembling Israelites.” To quote a former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, a policy was based on “Why must one shout when a whisper can be heard?” Their overriding concern was to avoid rocking the boat by minimizing public protest wherever possible.

Those who assailed Melanie Phillips as an extremist 10 years ago today would concede that her analysis has been absolutely vindicated, and alas, her predictions of intensifying anti-Semitism were understated.

Who then would have dreamed that the alternate government in the U.K. – the Labour Party – would not only be riddled with anti-Semites, but would elect a leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who praises Hamas; maintains that Hamas and Hezbollah are committed to peace; calls for a boycott of Israel; accepts Islamic demonization of Israel; and associates with Holocaust denier Paul Eisen, whom he defends as “far from a dangerous man”; and endorses Raed Salah, who employed the medieval blood libel to justify Palestinian terrorism?

It should therefore not be surprising that Corbyn refuses to purge the increasingly vocal anti-Semites from his party, despite widespread media exposure and repeated pleas from distraught members.

Jews are also shocked with the extension of this hatred which has penetrated leading universities, including Oxford. The depiction by Alex Chalmers, former head of the Oxford University Labour Club, of the anti-Semitism he encountered and the support of Hamas that obliged him to resign, is chilling. Not surprisingly, many Jewish students feel intimidated. To retain their social standing, a number choose to endorse the anti-Zionist chic, others recuse themselves. Some argue that Jewish student bodies should not even engage in Israel advocacy and should restrict themselves to religious, cultural and social activities.

Although Jews living in predominately Jewish areas are less affected, there has been an exponential growth of public anti-Semitic incidents, including acts of violence. Today in Britain there is open chatter that the creation of Israel was a mistake and there are intensifying calls to end the “apartheid Jewish state.”

These events have shattered the myth that anti-Semitism in the U.K. is restricted to Muslims and fringe indigenous elements. The BBC is not controlled by Islamists but its extreme bias and double standards have molded public opinion toward the demonization of Israel. Much of the anti-Israelism that initially emanated from Trotskyite elements has now become intrinsic to the DNA of many left-wingers.

Indeed, in some respects the situation is worse than the 1930s, when at least liberal and left-wing groups defended the Jews. Admittedly, the current prime minister, David Cameron, is a friend of Israel and the Jewish people, but opinion polls indicate that half the population considers Israel a rogue state. In a democracy, such trends ultimately impact on policy.

The current communal leadership is responding courageously, in contrast to its predecessors. Last year, the Board of Deputies elected as its 47th president, Jonathan Arkush, a traditional Jew and a passionate Zionist, who dismissed the “court-Jew” policy of relying almost exclusively on “silent diplomacy”.

He was, from the outset, respectfully outspoken in his condemnation of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to confront anti-Jewish bigotry in his party. Indeed, Arkush could well serve as a role model for many American Jewish leaders who in the past made a point of ridiculing British leaders for their timidity, but have been singularly silent in relation to President Barack Obama’s outbursts against Israel.

Last week, Corbyn defended his brother Piers who dismissed allegations of anti-Semitism as “absurd,” claiming that “Zionists can’t cope with anyone supporting rights for Palestine”. Corbyn’s defense of   Piers’ remarks is all the more problematic considering they were uttered directly in aftermath of the exposure of a number of incendiary anti-Semitic outbursts by Labour politicians.

For example:

•     Labour’s shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s website was exposed as having ”paid tribute to suicide bombers,” shared links to websites promoting boycott of Israeli goods, compared Israelis to Nazis and posted an article stating that Israel should be “dismantled.” Only after media exposure did McDonnell withdraw the offending websites.

• Labor MP, Vicki Kirby, implied that there was a sinister reason why ISIS failed to attack “the real oppressors”, Israel, stated Adolf Hitler could be regarded as a “Zionist God” and that Jews have big noses;
• Labour MP Gerry Downing was expelled from the party for the second time, but only after Prime Minister Cameron drew attention to his views, which included re-opening “the Jewish Question” and stating terrorism was the legitimate response of the oppressed;
• Former Labour mayor of Bradford, Khaddim Hussain condemned Holocaust education and accused Israel of arming ISIS;
• A Labour councillor in Luton, Aysegul Gurbuz, last week referred to Hitler “as the greatest man in history” and expressed the hope that a nuclear Iran “would wipe Israel off the map.”

Arkush described Corbyn’s insistence that his brother was “not wrong “in dismissing allegations of anti-Semitism, as “belittling” the issue and “deeply disturbing.” He stated: “We cannot imagine any other minority’s concerns would be dismissed in this way. In the last few weeks, we have witnessed a stream of clear-cut cases of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party which can’t just be fobbed off as differences over Israel. Most of the Jewish community, Labour peers, and Labour’s London mayoral candidate are crying out for their leader to take action on anti-Semitism. It would be incomprehensible for Mr. Corbyn to remain inert and refuse to take this form of racism in his party seriously.” He stated explicitly that, “Frankly, most people in the Jewish community can’t trust Labour.”

One might hope that public exposure might shame Labour leaders into taking remedial action. Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, is pessimistic. He noted: ’If your politics are anti-imperialist, nothing else matters. So Mr. Corbyn happily describes Hamas and Hezbollah representatives as ‘friends’, despite their penchant for murdering Jews … and with the party leader openly – proudly – alongside these people, anti-Semites swarm to Labour, assured of a warm welcome from their fellow anti-imperialists. This isn’t political debate – it’s racism. And it’s Labour’s racism.”

According to the Daily Mail, over the past two decades, Jewish support for Labour has plummeted from 70% to 25%. In last May’s General Election, it was reported that Jews contributed a third of the 9.7 million pounds donated (approximately $13.7 million) to Labour by private donors. This year, no major Jewish donor contributed.

If Arkush has the support of the community and if the so-called “Jewish Leadership Council,” an unelected body mainly comprising wealthy Jews, which frequently undermines the representative role of the Board of Deputies, sets aside personal egos and backs the elected Jewish community leadership, Anglo-Jewry will act with dignity and maximize its ability to reverse the tide.

At the very least, the leadership will demonstrate to the next generation how, as proud Jews, they will not be intimidated or run for cover but stand up for their rights.

Video of the week: Flashmob in Tel Aviv; http://tinyurl.com/nco4cfx

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