There are two major problems with presenting Corbyn’s foreign policy as progressive and popular. The first being that his foreign policy demonstrably wasn’t progressive, the second being that his foreign policy demonstrably wasn’t popular.
While Iraqi Yazidis were facing genocide on Mt Sinjar, Corbyn was busy opposing the air campaign that saved their lives. A campaign that was *overwhelmingly* supported by the electorate. No, Corbyn was never “demonised” over this, his supporters don’t even concede he was wrong.
You can disagree with me all you want, but the strength of the polling at the time, even to extend air strikes into Syria, is irrefutable. He got it wrong both morally and politically. You can't learn lessons in politics if you refuse to analyse the evidence in front of you.
Skripal and ISIS are major examples of where Corbyn got it wrong and the public noticed. Corbyn also denied mass graves in Kosovo and invited a member of the Assad regime to parliament to deny chemical weapons attacks. These are times he got it wrong & the public didn't notice.
The reality is that, outside of Hamas/Hezbollah/IRA, and some occasional lines about Venezuela, the mainstream press never bothered to really scrutinise Corbyn's foreign policy history. Far from demonisation, he got off lightly, which is an astonishing thing to say in context.
Here is Corbyn sitting down with the Assad regime's Mother Agnes, who was in London to deny her regime's responsibility for chemical weapons attacks. I never saw this asked about on Newsnight or on the front page of the Telegraph. It should have been. He got off lightly.
The incident above was important enough for Owen Jones to pull out of a Stop The War Coalition event in protest at her inclusion, yet was never important enough for a single question to be asked about it to either of them during his tenure as leader.
Honestly I spend too much of my time worrying about what the foreign policy platform of the country's main opposition party is, but I really have spent years dedicated to this topic, because I passionately believe in a progressive & human rights focused FP thecritic.co.uk/issues/april-2…
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I used to think the term “Islamo-Leftism” which originated in France was an absurd, hysterical overreaction. But watching the British far-left Tribune magazine get bought by an out & out Islamist demagogue with the Corbynites staying on board is beyond what I could have foreseen.
The Green Party’s Mothin Ali being another example of a political phenomenon that is now just too explicit to ignore. Corbyn’s Your Party endorsing a list of unapologetic Islamists another.
They don’t even seem to have any idea that they are being used & played by the far-right
I’m speaking here as someone who has engaged with these people regularly. I know what they think because they have told me many times. As a Democrat I believe Islamists have a right to be Islamists, and stand as Islamists for public office, but endorsing them & co-organising?!
I can’t believe this even needs to be said, but a Muslim man stabbing his Muslim friend before going on an antisemitic rampage and stabbing Jews is obviously not the same. One is a hate crime, the other isn’t.
The fact that the hate crime is being focused on is correct.
The simple truth is that Zack Polanski’s supporters are bending over backwards to lessen the explicitly antisemitic nature of this attack.
They are doubling and tripling down just to avoid acknowledging that Jews are being targeted, and it is shameful.
Nobody, least of all the police, is covering up that a Muslim man was also stabbed. But he wasn’t stabbed because of his religion or ethnicity. You’re being gaslit by bigots.
I think the extreme reaction to the Alaa Abd El-Fattah tweets is risible, but I will concede on this point & it’s a big one, there needs to be a frank conversation in Muslim and Arab communities about how Jewish people are talked about. It’s a major problem & we can’t ignore it.
I’m speaking as a British Arab and Muslim, the views frequently espoused in Britain by members of my own community routinely stray into violent rhetoric, racism and dehumanisation. And anyone challenging this seriously is often labelled as being “in league with” the “Zionists”.
I have been outspoken on this issue with regard to the British left before, but frankly the conversations I have heard in my lifetime among certain members of my community far surpasses that. This problem will not go away unless it is addressed & confronted.
Remembering when the UK's pro-Assad lobby mocked Cameron for saying there were at least 70,000 rebels on the ground in Syria, all the way back in 2015.
Another reminder that you absolutely don't have to listen to any of those people on anything ever.
Corbyn's officials briefing the press that there was "no military solution to the situation in Syria" and that striking a peace deal with Iran and Russia while maintaining the Assad regime was the only hope for "peace".
3.3 million Syrians have returned to their homes since the regime fell just over 12 months ago, the Assad regime enjoyed relative stability for 6 years and not even a fraction of that were willing to return to live under his rule.
I know I should stop wasting my time, but I'm sorry, a man who looked at the slaugher of 1 million people, and prided himself on his policy solution of "let Assad win", has no right ever speaking on Syria post-revolution, and I stand by every word of calling him a sectarian.
Your entire foreign policy position for years has been "let dictators win", and in Syria, despite all of your efforts, the dictator lost and was overthrown by a guy 99% of my Syrian friends hated, but are now willing to give a chance to because of that victory.
And all you've done since then is complain. Complain far louder than you ever did while Assad was bombing schools & hospitals. In fact, no matter how many he bombed, you thought giving him an internationally sanctioned victory was a solution to the war he started.
Israel has demonstrated that it is very capable & indeed adept at neutralising key military objectives, anybody doubting this is fundamentally unserious, but it has no wider strategy for conflict management or achieving its war aims, which it seems incapable of even articulating.
In Gaza they have systematically degraded Hamas, but after more than 2 years of total war are still no closer to articulating what their endgame is. Clearly Ben Gvir et al are hoping to ethnically cleanse Gaza but all of their allies oppose this vehemently, and so indefinite war and occupation are the only things on the table at the moment.
In Lebanon they successfully decapitated Hezbollah, but are now reliant on the Lebanese authorities to dismantle Hezbollah because again they have no post-conflict strategy to deal with Lebanon.