Thread by @ragnorakishere

In August 2018 Jim Sheridan a Labour Councillor was reported to the Labour Party for #Antisemitic comments. Sheridan stated that he had lost respect and empathy for the Jewish community.

I am not going to defend his statement. It appears to have been used in frustration at what he perceived to be unwarranted levels of #Antisemitic allegations against the #LabourParty Jim Sheridan has since apologised and been reinstated with a warning.

But what was behind his frustration? Why would someone who stated he had supported the Jewish Community all his adult life, suddenly say he had lost empathy for them? Perhaps we should look at the broader picture?

This is an article written by Andrea Peyser in the Washington Post in 2016 goo.gl/SRxd3n it argues that Bernie Sanders an American Jewish Senator was himself #Antisemitic Bernie Sanders is considered to be a progressive / socialist in #America

This attack was one of many from Conservatives in the USA So what was it they feared? A #Jewish President or someone they considered a Socialist? Why are #Americans using the term #Progressive rather than #Socialist are they the same or are there distinct differences?

The point I am making though is that a presidential candidate who challenged the Status Quo soon found himself accused of the heinous crime of #Antisemtism in the #UK the attempts to undermine democracy started with the 2015 General Election.

The Labour Leader at the time Ed Miliband himself #Jewish was personally attacked and his families loyalty to the UK questioned Having lost the election Ed Miliband resigned as Leader of the #LabourParty His resignation led to #JeremyCorbyn being elected leader.

#JeremyCorbyn has long been a supporter of the #Palestinian people and an advocate of re-nationalisation of some services and industries. I am not going to cover old ground on the accusations of #Antisemitism in Labour. the accusations and counter arguments are well documented.

However, have we witnessed in the UK and USA a correlation between #Antisemitism and potential political change? Perhaps that is for others to debate. So let us step back and look at my original post about Jim Sheridan and his loss of empathy.

David #Baddiel a few hours ago labelled comments made by @Ross_Greer a Green Party MSP #Antisemitic for stating that Winston Churchill was a White Supremacist. No reference was made to #judaism or people of the #Jewish faith. But #Baddiel made a link!

David Baddiel argues that because #Churchill had been an inspirational figure his actions and words prevented the #Holocaust therefore to criticise Churchill as a White Supremacist is in itself #Antisemitic (Jim Sheridan and his loss of empathy).

So what do we know of Churchill? In the early 1900s he made the following comment in relation to what he considered the #Chinese problem and his argument that China should be divided "Aryan stock is bound to triumph."

Yes he said "Aryan stock is bound to triumph." He also expressed a lack of concern for Russian expansion towards China and India, as "Russia has a justifiable ambition to possess a warm water port. It is really embarrassing to think that 100,000,000 people are without one.

In 1943 Churchill presided over the famine in Bengal, 3 million Indians perished, largely as a result of British imperial mismanagement. Churchill was indifferent to the Indian plight and mocked the suffering, chuckling over the culling of a population that bred "like rabbits."

Churchill was undoubtedly a supporter and enabler of the British Empire and had it not been for the Anglo-Polish military alliance it is questionable as to whether Britain would have entered the war. Indeed by the summer of 1940 Churchill considered a negotiated peace!

By 1940 Churchill and the British were aware of Auschwitz as a concentration camp and later extermination camp but repeatedly refused to bomb it! After the war,Zionists believed that the Holocaust justified their demand to establish a Jewish state which Churchill was against

August 1, 1946, after a pogrom against Jews who tried to return to their homes in Kielce, #Poland , Churchill argued that the idea that the Jewish problem could be solved by transferring Jews of Europe en masse to Palestine was too “silly” to occupy parliaments time.

Churchill was a complex person. He was undoubtedly an imperialist and flawed. Was he a White Supremacist that is for you and history to judge. Is it antisemitic to call call him a White Supremacist - NO
goo.gl/xoMRgN goo.gl/uzuGwL
@threadreaderapp Unroll

Was Churchill #Antisemitic who knows? We do know n 1918 he said “There is a point about Jews which occurs to me—you must not have too many of them. Three Jews among seven Ministers might give rise to comment.” @AsaWinstanley @Stephen888WTF @TomLondon6 @PalestinePR @simonmaginn

How to make an "Antisemitic Smear" without accusing the person of Antisemitism goo.gl/2UCM7y . You may want to read the whole thread. David Baddiel accuses a Green Party MSP of Antisemitism because he called Churchill a White Supremacist WOW! @Emily_Benn @melaniekmelvin

@Emily_Benn there is no denial of Antisemitism in Labour. What is questioned is the extent of the problem, This report goo.gl/NCa4Nk by the home affairs committee found “no reliable, empirical evidence” that Labour had more of a problem than any other political party!