The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
what's your Twitter ?
Jeremy Corbyn's time is up
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Mr Moose
What the hell are we supposed to tell the kids?
The antisemitism/Zionism debate is a very difficult one to have at the best of times. On social media, in the middle of an antisemitism crisis, almost impossible. And shouting won’t win anything, just gives people like Riley a larger platform. But in any case, some sort of win against her personally which comes with a load abuse and conspiracy thrown in isn’t really a win for us at all.
Looks to me like she's been very successful in achieving her aims tbh
'in the middle of an antisemitism crisis,'
Which of course is a real crisis, not at all a manufactured or inflated construction. As I recall the crisis started in October 2014 when Ed Milliband made a half hearted attempt to whip Labour MPs into supporting a motion demanding the recognition of a Palestinian state. Such was the furore surrounding this event that Maureen Lipman, who is an actor/tress, and therefore a very important person, said she would no longer support Labour, which came as a great surprise to everyone as until then no one had any idea that she had ever supported Labour.
And it's been one long crisis ever since then.
oryx
Sitting on the bok of the day
That's interesting, rummo - didn't realise it went back as far as that. Going to Google that when I have finished catching up with all the fast moving Corbyn news!
The beauty of using anti Semitism as a weapon it is that there may be only a miniscule amount of anti Semitism present, or even no anti Semitism at all, it doesn't matter, the tactic still works.
As for instance in this case. I mean no one, least of all Mirwich, actually believes Solley is anti Semitic. It's utterly shameless behaviour, but that's where we are.
Antisemitism: The dividing line
Stephen Solley is a retired QC and former chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee. He is Jewish, a Labour Party member and a critic of Israel. On 28 January he received a campaign email from Miriam Mirwitch, chair of Young Labour, the party's youth section, and a candidate for the London Assembly.
"I know what it's like to face antisemitism every day," Mirwitch wrote, identifying herself as a national committee member of the Jewish Labour Movement. "I've had to fight antisemitism both inside and outside the Labour Party," she said.
Solley recalls: "I got this just a week after Holocaust Remembrance Day. I thought this was the most offensive thing. She lives in modern north-west London. It's absurd. Of course she doesn't face antisemitism every day. It's just whipping up anxiety. I was really upset by it." He replied to Mirwitch with a short, simple email. "The Jewish Labour Movement is, in my opinion, a force for ill and something of a con in that it is destructive of socialism. It is a pro Israel, anti Palestine group. It becomes imperative to vote against you."
'If they really want to expel the Jewish former Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee, so be it'
- Stephen Solley, retired QC
Twenty-three minutes later, Mirwitch wrote to Solley's former chambers, accusing him of antisemitism. She also wrote to the Bar Standards Board. Both rejected her accusations. But three days after sending the email, Solley received notification from the Labour Party that he was under investigation for antisemitism, an investigation that appears to be ongoing.
Solley is aware that by speaking out he may have contravened the party's demand that he "keep all information and correspondence relating to this investigation private." His response? "I don’t give a damn. If they really want to expel the Jewish former chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee, so be it."
'The wrong sort of Jew': How Labour pursued complaints against elderly Jewish opponents of Israel
Labour's investigations into antisemitism raise questions about the nature and definition of what the party is attempting to root out
www.middleeasteye.net
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
It was milibands condemnation of the (latest, as it was then) Israeli invasion of Gaza. But otherwise, yup.
Nah. This complaint only has the legs it has because of the antisemitism that is there.
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
Yup, should simply have called for the expulsion of all Labour Friends of Apartheid members. Kill the enemy.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
Not if there's "zero tolerance" for antisemitism.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
That doesn't quite make sense of your post, though. Surely your question was intended to be 'what should the non-anti-semitic members of the labour left have done?' Otherwise it doesn't really make sense.
But this was a gotcha campaign from certain quarters (Maureen Lipman mentioned above is one - it was clear the intention there was to shut down criticism of Israel). Whatever they did (and it's not like they did nothing - hell, Corbyn was criticised in part for doing too much), they were going to be attacked. Not sure I see easy solutions to that.
Meanwhile that Blair era attack posters featuring Michael Howard as a Fagin-esque hypnotist and Howard & Oliver Letwin as pigs went into the ol' memory hole. Never happened mate, dunno what you're talking about
I didn't ask a question though.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Ok. your 'really good way', then. Your proposal.
For starters, do you agree that the intention from certain quarters is to use this as a way to shut down criticism of Israel?
oh yeah that - it's to boot out the antisemites. if you've already done that, then frivolous stuff like that Mirwitch complaint can be shrugged off, and it isn't being made in an environment where there's a wide perception of the left not dealing with antisemites.
'If people combatting antisemitism in the Labour Party are not combatting antisemitism in the Tory Party then they're not combatting antisemitism. They're combatting the Labour Party. '
Michael Rosen.
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
Aah, bless.
two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
Why is that different from all the antisemitism (and islamophobia and homophobia and racism) demonstrated within the tory party over the years?
Referring to this, or any, complaint as frivolous is in itself grounds for a complaint, and leaves you exposed to being pilloried and smeared as an anti Semite.
That's where we are.
And it has happened by design, not by accident.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
And with Corbyn, you sometimes saw a strange pincer movement - combining accusations of anti-Semitism with anti-Semitic 'North London fellow-traveller' tropes within the same speech often. Priti Patel did that more than once. With Milliband of course, it was just the anti-Semitic North London tropes that featured.
Sure it did, but it wasn't inevitable that it end like this. There were actions that Labour could have taken under Corbyn that could have avoided the situation the party currently finds themselves in.
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
lol.
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