Warning: thread incoming.
A neo-Nazi kills Jews at prayer while an enabler President who defended neo-Nazis as “very fine people” blames the Jews for not having AK-47s under their prayer shawls. But this thread isn’t about this grimly inevitable act. It’s about us on the left.
A neo-Nazi kills Jews at prayer while an enabler President who defended neo-Nazis as “very fine people” blames the Jews for not having AK-47s under their prayer shawls. But this thread isn’t about this grimly inevitable act. It’s about us on the left.
The support and outrage from so many for the Jewish community has been heartening. But it has shocked me (why am I still surprised?) how many on the left responded to Pittsburgh by linking it immediately to Israel/Palestine.
People who condemn All Lives Matter and their attempt to shut down Black Lives Matter but who, when it comes to Jews, tell me: “yeah but All Lives Matter”. Or who, like LibDem peer Jenny Tonge, blame Israel for the attack on American Jews. 
Perhaps all the victims were anti-Zionist. We don’t know. But it’s enough that they were Jews for people to make the link. Would those tweeting “Yeah but what about Palestine?" have tweeted Muslims after the Finsbury Park mosque attack saying “Yeah but what about Saudi Arabia?”
At the core of the left’s and Labour's failure on anti-semitism is the inablilty to separate out Jews and Israel. Most anti-semitism on the left may be unwitting or due to ignorance but it is still anti-semitism. And it contributes to a mistrust of Jews that helps the far right.
The Pittsburgh murderer wrote how Jews control the American government. A conspiracy theory. On the left I frequently read how Israel (and so often that means Jews) controls the government, or the Blairites, or anyone who points out anti-semitism in Labour. A conspiracy theory.
Momentum’s Jon Lansmann was accused of being in the pay of the Israel lobby etc for failing to support a candidate for Labour’s disciplinary committee (who decide on cases of AS) who is part of JVL – a group who, in my view, consistently deny the anti-semitism in the party.
I hear “Soros” being blamed on the left as well as on the far right. I hear about Jewish media and banking conspiracies on the left as well as on the far right. I hear a dismissal of Jews as having the same rights as others (eg to be defended) on the left as well as the far right
By not dealing properly with anti-semitism in Labour, we risk forfeiting our right to stand up against anti-semitism on the far right; and beyond that, against all forms of racism. That’s why it’s so important to lance this boil which, I fear, remains hard and disfiguring.
This isn't to bash Labour. Or at least it’s to bash Labour into a shape where we're able to truly fight anti-semitism because it doesn’t exist in the party. Where those who call it out aren’t accused of being in the pay of Israel or Tories or, as I saw yesterday, “Gentile haters”
Labour is the party of anti-racism. Who cares that anti-semitism/racism is worse among Tories or in society at large? Who cares that it’s the far right that throws the match that actually sets everything on fire. We must make sure we on the left do not help by offering up petrol.
I know the vast, vast majority of Labour members and supporters are not anti-semitic. And FWIW I utterly condemn Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians. But I shouldn’t even have to say that here.
Thanks for your support and for listening.
Peace out.
Thanks for your support and for listening.
Peace out.
