Hard to avoid conclusion left have played this IHRA drama badly. Polling shows Israel is wildly unpopular among British public, and with justification. If from the start we’d said “no definition of AS should include reference to Israel” ->
And explained that Israel lobby uses claims of AS to silence criticism of Israel we would’ve had public on our side. Instead we argued we’d made the definition “stronger”. What we should have expressed as a political red line has become a technical debate over wording ->
We should’ve had a list of things that are uncontroversially antisemitic and suspended anyone who said them for 2 years on the spot, or if severe, expelled. Then when asked about extent of AS we’d have the numbers ->
Instead we’re having some vague conversation about whether a vast swathe of members who’ve never thought about Jewishness (seriously, I had no idea which MPs were Jewish before this ‘scandal’) but don’t like elites or Israel are harbouring a deep hatred of jews. It’s ridiculous.
I’m saying this without blaming anyone. We’ve all been on a learning curve. But now is the time to take a step back, draw up a strategy Labour know is moral and right, and then argue for it. Israel is our red line, if any organisation won’t except that, we can agree to disagree.
