I know, I know - but the optics of the current self-implosion of Labour on this issue are terrible.
Two candidates losing party support in such close proximity to their respective by elections looks incompetent whatever the justification.
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As I understand it, the meeting in which the things were said occurred last October. The Daily Mail reported it only recently, I imagine with the intention of causing mischief.
Iâm struggling to see that what was said was anti-Semitic, rather than critical of the State of Israel.
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That is often the problem because people automatically assume that all Jews support actions of the Israeli government when in fact most just want peace.
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A common confusion, unfortunately the West is siding with Israel and Starmer is toeing the line so it doesnât matter whether a prospective candidate attacks the state of Israel or Judaism in general.
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There do seem to be some recognised definitions of antisemitism that consider saying bad things about Israel as being automatically antisemitic. After Corbin, Labour are having to be very careful.
I was talking to the MiL of the agent of a quite left wing Labour MP this evening. She reckons thereâs a fair amount of discontent about the direction Starmer is taking the party. I imagine theyâre keeping quiet until (if) they win.
The impression I have is that a group saw Corbin as an opportunity to embed a hard left faction, who are now significantly out of step with the leadership but impossible to dislodge at this time. IF Labour gain power then expect to see a war between the various bits that renders it dysfunctional and divided. I really hope we donât end up with a situation where this bunch are so useless that we long for a conservative party return, even with all their faults, but I fear it could happen.
As I understand it there were two issues:
1 Did Netanyahu allow the Oct 7th attack to happen.
The answer IMHO is we do not know. It is true that Israel was warned by Egypt and even its own border watchers that something was afoot, and no action was taken. Is it possible that the Israeli right wing religious nutcases would have considered an incursion as an excuse to reclaim the promised land. Did that incursion turn out to be much worse than expected? I didnât donât know, but itâs possible, and it not anti Semitic to postulate what might have occurred.
2 Mr Ali also allegedly said Labourâs suspension of a left-wing MP was driven by âpeople in the media from certain Jewish quartersâ.
Thatâs either a matter of fact and Ali should provide evidence or else he is out of order.
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Politics is a game and clearly Ali doesnât know or understand the rules. He was standing for a party whoâs leader has made it his mission to stamp out anti-Semitism yet he chose to make comments that could easily be miss-construed as offensive, a rookie mistake which will hurt his career.
Ali has been in politics 20 years according to one of his colleagues on R4 yesterday. Heâs no rookie, and his career is probably over.
This is teh problem with parties that take pride in being a broad church,
For Labour, the Corbynites were their bete noire in taking pokicy to far to the left for the electorate.
The Tories have had the ERG Group and now some have actually broken away to join Reform.
Thank goodness, know we can start to know where these extreme factions have their base and avoid them like the plague.
This post has gone to pot.
Somehow there was not enough space to type and it came to a full stop and I couldnât make it go up or down to check it.
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Oh, he knew exactly what he was saying as did his target audience.
Iâm inclined to agree with you on this one.
Corbyn could be said to be over fond of men with beards and semi-automatic weapons (IRA, Palestinians) and (as mentioned in several threads passim) it is a very complex situation with little right and much wrong on both sides but overall I think Corbyn was right to support Palestine over Israel.
Unfortunately in Corbynâs case he was rather clearly not merely pro-Palestine but also rather obviously anti-Semitic as well.
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Iâve taken the liberty of fixing it.
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Many thanks billybutcher.
Actual proof please.
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Also was there not an issue that the border defences were left depleted because troop were taken away to reinforce the imposition of settlements in the west? (probably by the right wing defence minister)
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Systematic filaure to root out anti-Semitism within Labour while leader:
Corbyn personally
From the above document:
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All this news coverage about a couple of politicians being possibly anti-semitic. Also charities warning of anti-semitic attacks on the increase since the outbreak of war. So who is driving this anti-semitic expression? Could it possibly be anything to do with Israel mass murdering Palestinian civilians? I do despair!
You would imagine Netanyahu were a benevolent neighbour.
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