Thread by @mishtal

My position has never been anti-Labour. I am a proud Brit, who waves the flag and whose hard working parents and grandparents came from places such as Woolwich and Newcastle. For most of my life I’ve battled antisemitism found in politically disenfranchised ideologies.

My personal experience left me in no doubt of the moral imperative behind #Zionism. Like most Jewish families, more branches are missing from the family tree than those that remain. Not just from the #Holocaust but from the relentless persecution that preceded it.

Zionism was an outstanding success because it was so tragically right. The Jews don’t just have a right to self-determination but a desperate need for it. #Israel is the home of a globally persecuted people. Here too they are hounded, but in #israel they can defend themselves.

I saw in Israel the attempts to reach peace. I personally worked for years with Palestinians trying to build bridges. Tragically I also lost friends as the buses, coffee shops, shopping malls and pubs became targets for suicide attacks.

I never saw a conflict between my British identity and my Zionism. I always saw British values as supporting democracy, freedom and choice. Those who stood against Jews and their right to live as proud Jews always lived in the shadows, outside of the political mainstream.

So I fought them, whether they were Nazis, radical Islamists or members of the extreme left. I spent years, infiltrating their groups, learning about them and understanding the dangers they posed. And then three years ago EVERYTHING changed

When @jeremycorbyn ran for the leadership of @UKLabour I saw people in all these radical groups join the party to vote. These disenfranchised Jew-haters suddenly became part of a mainstream political party in the UK

I get many people who want social change also joined, but I cannot ignore the threat that Labour became. All those people I had been watching for years, white-supremacists, communists and Islamists were pushing for power in the UK

And it wasn’t incidental. This is part of Corbyn’s main power base. These people were his friends, they ran the groups he belonged to and those he identified with. Whatever he thinks himself, Corbyn is the ship captain.

So I don’t oppose social change or left-wing politics. I stand against a specific threat to everything the UK should stand for. It might target Jews now, but will eventually threaten everyone. And today because they control the Labour Party, that is where I will fight them.