First of all, I have to lay some cards on the table. I do
have a vested interest, as my father is Jewish. This makes me Jewish enough
from a Nazi perspective to have been persecuted in Germany in the late 30s and
early 40s. I would have been charmingly classed as a ‘Mischling of the Second
Degree’ under the terms of Hitler’s race laws. My abhorrence of anti-Semitism is therefore
quite visceral.
Labour has done exactly the right thing in suspending Naz
Shah MP and Ken Livingstone for their recent comments. Unfortunately, there
will be plenty of people now in the Party – or affiliated via the £3 sign-up
scheme last year – who silently support their offensive views. That’s because
the election campaign and subsequent elevation of Jeremy Corbyn in 2015 opened
the floodgates to cranks, extremists and a whole variety of people with far-left
affiliations.
The argument of these people is that whenever they condemn
Israel, they are accused of anti-Semitism. This is not true. I’m absolutely
fine with people criticising the actions of the Israeli governments over the
years. I would criticise many of them myself. You cross the line into
anti-Semitism, however, when you confuse the Israeli government with the state
of Israel as a whole or with Jewish people in general.
There are many who would prefer the state of Israel not to
exist at all. These range from extremists on the far right to extremists on the
far left and Islamic fundamentalists. For them, the term ‘Zionist’ and ‘Jew’
are often interchangeable. Privately, they wouldn’t distinguish between them,
but they are usually canny enough to use ‘Zionist’ when publishing their
opinions online or speaking in public. It becomes a kind of defensive shield
for them. When they say ‘Zionist’ they think they are magically protected by a
cloaking device against charges of anti-Semitism. But the Jewish community isn’t
that stupid.
And so the debate goes on. It was much the same when I was
involved in student politics in the 1980s. Now of course, under Corbyn, the
whole of the Labour Party is reminiscent of 1980s student politics.
What’s interesting is that this furore could be a turning
point in the battle to reverse the result of the disastrous leadership election
of 2015.
There is little hope of changing the minds of the three-quid
fly-by-nights who signed up last year specifically to vote for their hero Jez.
These are his loyalists and he has their votes in the bag. I’m interested
though in how other Labour Party members are feeling.
A good proportion of Corbyn’s votes came from well-meaning
people who’d been members of Labour for years and felt uninspired by the
rhetoric of the other candidates. These are folk who are left-leaning, often
working in the public sector and opposed to austerity introduced in the UK
after 2010. Many were disillusioned by
Tony Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq back in 2003.
There has, I’m sure, been a growing sense of unease within this
part of the Labour electorate. They liked Corbyn’s politics, but many will have
despaired over his gaffes and general incompetence since he assumed office.
They will also be troubled by the fact that the Tories still lead in the most
recent polls, despite a catalogue of catastrophic stories and splits in recent
months. After the Budget, IDS, Tata Steel, the doctors’ dispute and so on,
Labour is still behind. In their
heart of hearts, they know Jez to be a loser, but they have a residual loyalty
to him.
I feel the anti-Semitism row might just be a
wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee moment. Most decent people know that Hitler was no
Zionist and that there wasn’t any period before he ‘went mad’. They will know
that Livingstone has previous on this issue and that he has been a big pal of
Corbyn over the years. They will look at Bradford MP Naz Shah and feel distinctly
uncomfortable. Is it really true, as MP Rupa Huq suggested, her behaviour was
simply an example of someone sharing ‘silly pictures’ online?
They will think about two characters who’ve been suspended
from the Labour Party and they’ll recall the embarrassment regarding Oxford
University Labour Club and the other examples of anti-Semitic behaviour that
have been documented recently. Will they conclude these are all isolated
incidents that have been overblown? Stories about nothing which have been
whipped up by the ‘pro-Israeli’ lobby?
I suspect – honest and sincere people that most of them are –
that they will start to rethink their political stance just a little. The
Labour moderates may be sensing some light at the end of a very long and dark
tunnel.
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