In These Strange, Savage Times, a ‘Practical’ Antisemitism Emerges in Britain

For years I’ve been oddly intrigued by those poor souls who somehow manage to run themselves over with their own cars, such as the pop singer Brian Harvey of East 17. I always think of this when I consider the Keystone Kommunism of Komrade Jeremy Corbyn.He’s the little man who got behind the wheel of a vehicle far too large for him to handle and eventually went under it when, in 2019, he led Labour to its greatest defeat since 1935. Huge swaths of traditional working-class Labour heartlands — the Red Wall — opted for Boris Johnson. When Sir Keir Starmer got into the driver’s seat in 2020, his first task was sluicing out the shocking level of antisemitism that had diseased and disfigured the Labour Party under Mr. Corbyn. The rap sheet against the man sometimes dubbed “Magic Grandpa” — due to the weird youth-worship he inspired on university campuses — was extraordinary.Between 2009 and 2012, the Iranian government’s TV channel paid him to make appearances, while in 2009 he referred to Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends” and invited them to speak at Parliament.After he was ousted as Labour leader, Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission issued a report confirming that the party under Mr. Corbyn had discriminated against Jews by “political interference in antisemitism complaints,” failing “to provide adequate training to those handling antisemitism complaints,” and “harassment.”Mr. Corbyn was suspended by Sir Keir for downplaying the report, only to be readmitted three weeks later. Sir Keir promptly removed the whip from Mr. Corbyn, meaning that while he remained a member of the Labour Party, he no longer represented it in Parliament and could not run as a Labour candidate at the next general election.We thought we’d seen the last of this nasty little man, as Sir Keir was quick to reiterate his decision as soon as the general election was announced last week: “The first thing I said as Labour leader is that I would tear antisemitism out of our party by the roots. That is why I took the decision that Jeremy Corbyn would not stand as a Labour candidate this election.”Recent events in Gaza, though, saw a strange phenomenon at recent council elections, whereby the Green Party — supposedly pacifist and progressive — put up aggressively Islamist candidates, one of whom yelled “Allahu Akbar” in front of a Palestinian flag upon winning, adding “This is a win for the people of Gaza.” Understandably, the Jewish Labour Movement warned the Greens that they were allowing “those with a history of spreading antisemitic views to represent your party.” Because of this new anti-Israel vote, the Greens find themselves with the highest number of councilors than they have ever had.The pressure group Muslim Vote promptly issued a list of 18 demands to Sir Keir if they were to vote for Labour again. The demands included a personal apology for backing Israel unconditionally after its response to the October 7 massacre, a ban on arms sales to the Jewish state, and for Labour MPS to “return Zionist money.” I once wrote that Mr. Corbyn’s Labour lost because they cared more about Gaza than Grimsby, but considering the size of the Muslim vote now, I seem to have spoken too soon. All of this must be getting Mr. Corbyn’s ancient juices flowing copiously; sure enough, he has announced that he will run as an independent candidate for the London constituency he has represented since 1983.Mr. Corbyn’s victory isn’t certain; only four ex-Labour MPs in the history of the party have won their seats as independents against Labour candidates. Yet whoever is returned for Islington South, these are dark days for British Jews.The Conservative Party, which under Prime Minister Sunak was one of Israel’s most reliable supporters, is due to be sent into the political wilderness this summer. There is, after all, little of the old superstitious antisemitism left in the Labour Party. That led the Labour Party’s founder, Keir Hardie, to allow to be written in the Labour Leader newspaper, of which he was both editor and publisher:“Wherever there is trouble in Europe, wherever rumours of war circulate and men’s minds are distraught with fear of change and calamity, you may be sure that a hook-nosed Rothschild is at his games somewhere near the region of the disturbance.” But the Muslim vote in the UK far outnumbers the Jewish vote.That a “practical” antisemitism as opposed to an ideological one may well become the new normal at the next election is precious little progress, but it may well pass for it in these strange, savage times.

In These Strange, Savage Times, a ‘Practical’ Antisemitism Emerges in Britain

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