Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Loony-left front-runner for Britain’s Labour leader gives anti-Zionism a bad name
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.666966...The fear among Labour’s senior leadership, that an insurrection of the party’s left wing could actually lead to Corbyn’s election, has led to dark mutterings of Labour spending decades in the wilderness of opposition and a split in the party should he win.
There has been another strain of concern over Corbyn’s surge, beyond the unelectability of a politician holding old-school socialist views and that is with his militant abhorrence of Israel. Corbyn isn’t just the run-of-the-mill pro-Palestinian activist prevalent on the left, supporting either a one or two-state solution - he has visited the most radical groups in Lebanon and Gaza. In a speech in London Corbyn spoke of his “pleasure and honor” at hosting “our friends from Hezbollah” in parliament and his regret that “friends from Hamas” were prevented by Israel from arriving. [font color = "red"]He referred to them as people promoting “peace, understanding and dialog” and denounced the British government for designating them terror organizations....[/font]
....The Community Security Trust, the main Jewish organization monitoring all forms of racism, highlighted on its website that Corbyn is also scheduled to appear soon at a conference of the conspiracy-theory peddling anti-Israel organization Middle East Monitor, along with the anti-Semitic and Holocaust denier cartoonist Carlos Latuff. As the CST's communications director Dave Rich writes, "The problem is not that Corbyn is an anti-Semite or a Holocaust denier – he is neither. The problem is that he seems to gravitate towards people who are."
...It is probably a mistake to focus too much on Corbyn's views on the Israel-Palestine conflict since foreign policy is not really an issue in the Labour leadership elections (nor did it feature very much two months ago in the general election). It is ironic however that while Ed Miliband, who was seen five years ago as the more leftist of the main candidates, was not only Jewish but had even reluctantly admitted to being a Zionist, the man who could be succeeding him freely associates with anti-Semites. The fact that a large part of party members don't see that as problem is certainly a worry to Jewish supporters and members of Labour, since it shows just how much antipathy there is in the party toward Israel. But at the same time, committed party activists are a small minority among the already shrinking number of Labour voters, so this doesn't necessarily reflect deeper public attitudes. In the same way, it is unthinkable that a Corbyn-led Labour would ever come to power.
While the debate between the four leadership candidates has mainly been on economic and welfare issues, the complexity of these issues has made it much easier for pundits and interviewers to personify Corbyn's hard-core positions by quoting his "our friends Hezbollah" remark. In some ways there is even a positive side to Corbyn's, most likely fleeting, success for Israel-supporters in Britain. While many of Israel's fiercest critics are anxious to portray themselves as being pro-peace and anti-violence, as Corbyn does himself, his embracement of Hezbollah and Hamas makes him a ridiculous caricature of a peace activist and could well end up discrediting the anti-Zionist cause as just another pet-hate of the loony left.
There has been another strain of concern over Corbyn’s surge, beyond the unelectability of a politician holding old-school socialist views and that is with his militant abhorrence of Israel. Corbyn isn’t just the run-of-the-mill pro-Palestinian activist prevalent on the left, supporting either a one or two-state solution - he has visited the most radical groups in Lebanon and Gaza. In a speech in London Corbyn spoke of his “pleasure and honor” at hosting “our friends from Hezbollah” in parliament and his regret that “friends from Hamas” were prevented by Israel from arriving. [font color = "red"]He referred to them as people promoting “peace, understanding and dialog” and denounced the British government for designating them terror organizations....[/font]
....The Community Security Trust, the main Jewish organization monitoring all forms of racism, highlighted on its website that Corbyn is also scheduled to appear soon at a conference of the conspiracy-theory peddling anti-Israel organization Middle East Monitor, along with the anti-Semitic and Holocaust denier cartoonist Carlos Latuff. As the CST's communications director Dave Rich writes, "The problem is not that Corbyn is an anti-Semite or a Holocaust denier – he is neither. The problem is that he seems to gravitate towards people who are."
...It is probably a mistake to focus too much on Corbyn's views on the Israel-Palestine conflict since foreign policy is not really an issue in the Labour leadership elections (nor did it feature very much two months ago in the general election). It is ironic however that while Ed Miliband, who was seen five years ago as the more leftist of the main candidates, was not only Jewish but had even reluctantly admitted to being a Zionist, the man who could be succeeding him freely associates with anti-Semites. The fact that a large part of party members don't see that as problem is certainly a worry to Jewish supporters and members of Labour, since it shows just how much antipathy there is in the party toward Israel. But at the same time, committed party activists are a small minority among the already shrinking number of Labour voters, so this doesn't necessarily reflect deeper public attitudes. In the same way, it is unthinkable that a Corbyn-led Labour would ever come to power.
While the debate between the four leadership candidates has mainly been on economic and welfare issues, the complexity of these issues has made it much easier for pundits and interviewers to personify Corbyn's hard-core positions by quoting his "our friends Hezbollah" remark. In some ways there is even a positive side to Corbyn's, most likely fleeting, success for Israel-supporters in Britain. While many of Israel's fiercest critics are anxious to portray themselves as being pro-peace and anti-violence, as Corbyn does himself, his embracement of Hezbollah and Hamas makes him a ridiculous caricature of a peace activist and could well end up discrediting the anti-Zionist cause as just another pet-hate of the loony left.
A true darling and hero of the Israel hating brigades.
Not much of a difference between Corbyn relating to his friends from the Nazi party who want peace.
21 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
