Jewish Chronicle: 'The vast majority of British Jews consider Jeremy Corbyn an anti-Semite'

[Denzil_DC]

6. I believe, back in 2013, he actually referred to "British Zionists", not Jews as a bloc,

as not understanding British irony.

Would I have expressed myself as Corbyn did? No. To allow him his defence and definitions of terms back in 2018:

Mr Corbyn nonetheless stood behind the comments, insisting that he was referring to a specific group of “pro-Israel activists” and had not used the term Zionist as a “euphemism” for the Jewish community.

He said he had spoken at the conference to “defend the Palestinian ambassador in the face of what I thought were deliberate misrepresentations” from people “for whom English was a first language, when it isn’t for the ambassador.

“I described those pro-Israel activists as Zionists, in the accurate political sense and not as a euphemism for Jewish people – and that is made clear in the rest of my speech that day,” he said. “I am now more careful with how I might use the term ‘Zionist’ because a once self-identifying political term has been increasingly hijacked by antisemites as code for Jews.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-zionists-speech-english-irony-reports-parliamentary-standards-antisemitism-a8507196.html

I've learned over the years to try to avoid discussions of Israeli issues online, particularly on boards where there are a lot of American posters, as it almost never ends well and usually ends up with a lot of antagonism and nobody's mind being changed.

I'll break my little rule for, I think, the third time while I've been posting on DU.

The Board of Jewish Deputies and the Jewish Chronicle represent one particular school of thought among Jewish people. I could compare the Jewish Chronicle to media outlets on the political spectrum occupied by the Telegraph, Mail, and at its extremes, the Express. It doesn't speak for all Jewish people, nor does the Board of Jewish Deputies.

I've also learned not to use the lazy term "Zionist" as it has several meanings, including (1) supporters of the existence of the state of Israel, (2) a more generalized one, as the Jewish Chronicle is trying to appropriate, as code for "all Jews", which I consider contemptible, and (3) another which refers to supporters of the hardline - and often illegal - policies of successive right-wing Israeli governments in their support of land grabs by settlers, disproportionately violent reactions to threats from Palestinians etc.

If the Jewish Chronicle wants to label me an "anti-Semite" because I oppose the horrible policies of the right-wing Israeli governments under definition (3), well, it can go ahead, and I'll treat the accusation with all the gravitas and credibility it deserves. I can't think of any other country whose government behaves as it does where it wouldn't be entirely valid, if not expected, for most on DU to condemn it. In fact, that would be in solidarity with many Israeli citizens and Jews around the world who feel the same way.

If it or any of the vested interests who want to stir this particular pot for their own agendas want to claim that "all Jews" think a certain way, that would seem to me the very definition of racism, and a very dangerous tack.

If somebody on the strength of all this thin evidence wants to label Corbyn a "demagogue", as another poster on this thread has chosen to do, with no explanation of supporting evidence, then I'll ask what terms we can meaningfully use for the true demagogues who afflict our politics nowadays, and there are plenty.

The whole debate would be a bit less muddied if we didn't have hard evidence of Israeli lobbyists seeking to destabilize Corbyn's leadership with a tidy slush fund to direct towards certain politicians, some within the Labour Party, who'll parrot the line of widespread "anti-Semitism" with Corbyn at its heart (I can fish out the footage if I must, but one such "diplomat" was recalled very rapidly by the Israeli government not that long ago when his activities were exposed). We also have politicians like Priti Patel - last seen manifesting as our Home Secretary, heaven help us - going covertly freelance on foreign policy by meeting in secret with Israeli officials, which was seen as serious enough that even Theresa May felt driven to demand her resignation.

It's thin evidence all told. All I've seen about Corbyn specifically is the (mis)quote you objected to, gripes about his use of the term "friend" in the context of trying to be diplomatic at a gathering discussing the prospects for peace in the Middle East etc. The rest seems to be complaints about how some hotheads in Momentum etc. have conducted themselves, and the hamfisted and often flat-footed way Labour has tried to deal with the situation in the face of a concerted media onslaught.

Anti-Semitism is real. It exists in many of our political parties and among the wider public. At the moment, if the sanitized UKIP that is the Brexit Party gains seats at the next election, we could see bona fide, no argument, overt anti-Semites as MPs.

By conflating many complex issues to further its own agenda, editorials like the Jewish Chronicle's do Jews as a whole no favours and actually feed the othering of Jewish people, wherever they live.