Thread by @DavidHirsh

[Thread] On Corbyn's Friday night defence of his words about the Englishness of irony and the inability of Zionists, even those who have lived in England all their lives, to understand it.

Corbyn says:

"I described these pro-Israel activists as Zionists, in the accurate political sense..."

"I am now more careful about how I sue the term "Zionist" because a once self-identifying political term has been increasingly hijacked by antisemites as code for Jews."

Even in the apology you can hear the sneer in the word "Zionist".

As if 2013 was another age.

It was 1968 when Jews were purged from East Germany (where Corbyn spent his hols) and Poland, by the Stalinists who used the language of opposition to Zionism the pretext.

In 1975 UN adopted Resolution 3379 which "determine[d] that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination".

In 1988 Hamas (dedicated to peace and justice according to Corbyn), adopted its Covenant blaming Zionists for all the revolutions and wars of history.

It was in the 1980s when there were moves to ban Jewish societies in some UK Student Unions for being "Zionist" and therefore racist.

In 2013 Corbyn said, with sneer:

"They clearly have two problems: one is they don’t want to study history and secondly having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony either."

Corbyn could have said he thought the critics of the ambassador had mis-understood his irony. Fine.

But he chose to racialize it by introducing the notion that irony is "English" and these Zionists, no matter how long they live in England, are unable to understand it.

Now he says he was using the term "Zionism" in the "accurate political sense".

He says he was defending the Palestinian ambassador from the 'dutiful' Zionists.

In fact the words of the Palestinian ambassador which he was defending, by claiming irony were:

"You know I’m reaching the conclusion that the Jews are the children of God, the only children of God and the Promised Land is being paid by God!"
and
"Israel will never continue to exist as a pariah state. Israel could never continue to fight wars against the Palestinians..."

"The US is not going to be Israel’s strategic ally for time immemorial. And today we have 1.5 billion Muslims. In 20 years we will have 2 billion. And those 2 billion, ... will not allow Israel to continue desecrating their religious rights (in Jerusalem). And then what?”

Defending the Palestinian ambassador?
Sure, Jews are always aggressors; antisemitism is always defensive against Jews.
Corbyn could have just apologized and moved on. But as always he ploughs through & obfuscates, he hopes we won't see his sleight of hand, and he blames Israel.