An interesting post by James Kenyon on Conservatives Global.
Jeremy Corbyn may not be an overt blood libel anti-Semite as such, but he does otherize Jews. Reading between the lines in his tortured remarks on British Jews, Hamas, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it’s clear that whilst he doesn’t hold any overt hatred towards the Jewish people, he essentially sees them as foreign, not as a part of the fabric of British society. Perhaps he was not lucky enough, as many of us have been, to have lived his life with Jewish friends or relatives and can afford therefore to see them as the other with a clean conscience. This allowed him to be far too comfortable in his association and platforming-sharing with out-and-out anti-Semites.
Not a radical angle on Mr Corbyn and his inability to shake off anti-Semite associations, but the piece does offer a useful reminder of his obvious failure to distinguish ancient and enduring religious hatreds from standard political class narratives.
He has been quoted describing Hamas as “an organisation that is dedicated towards the good of the Palestinian people and bringing about long-term peace and social and political justice in the whole region.”
Since, in his mind, nobody really believes in God or religion anymore, their extremism must really find its roots in poverty, colonialism, and class struggle, and that we only need appease, befriend, and morally support them in order to reach peace. It certainly isn’t unprecedented for leftists to defend Hamas on the grounds that they have at various points formed a democratically elected government in the Palestinian territories, as if Hamas themselves could care less about democracy or freedom.
The problem with this is that anybody who has ever lived outside of the secular elitist Guardianista bubble knows that this isn’t the case, and that believers of all faiths really do believe, some of them violently so. Hamas and similar organisations make clear in their founding documents that they do not merely seek for the liberation of Palestine (to allow their terminology), but for the destruction of the State of Israel and even of worldwide Jewry. These are the people whom Corbyn, in his utter blindness towards the power of the religious impulse, combined with his indifference towards the wellbeing of the Jewish people and state, has no qualms describing as his ‘friends’.
We may be bombarded with coronavirus propaganda for some time yet, but it is worth reminding ourselves that older and more intractable problems haven't gone away. For example, not everyone is unhappy about the current police state, rolled out in response to the coronavirus debacle. Not everyone would like to see things go back to normal.
5 comments:
My guess is that Corbyn's antisemitism was initially unthinking; something you absorbed as part of the Palestinian liberation narrative parrotted by dopey student left-wingers.
Later, when he became leader, I think it became something to be carefully cultivated, in a deniable sort of way.
Total number of Jews in the population: c. 260k, and falling.
Total number of Muslims in the UK population: over 2.5 million, and rising.
Yes, it fits. Corbyn saw the Israel problem through the prism of oppressors and the oppressed. It does seem odd that he had no historical viewpoint but I guess he was the kind of person who went for geography rather than history.
The problem today is that the majority have known nothing else other than how it is now, so all is accepted, as long as they can spend the day engrossed in their i phones and contact one another over the web in some form that is all they require.
As with Brexit few can remember before we joined and equate with that time.
As for the Labour party, Sir Kier Stammer has shown how he is not that different from Corbyn, giving a place on his shadow cabinet to the appalling racist Naz Shah and the equally racist David Lammy shows how votes trump any probity.
Starmer is a lawyer who specialised in human rights' cases, ergo not a real lawyer. For him, it's about perceived grievances. For fs he helped the MacLibel morons. He is Chérie Blair on platform soles
Sam - I'm sure you are right in that Corbyn's antisemitism probably was initially unthinking. He doesn't appear to have done much thinking, as if he never discussed anything with anyone outside his bubble.
Graeme - I suppose whatever historical viewpoint he ever had was always tightly framed by his political outlook. Which is true for most of us but not to that extreme degree.
"Chérie Blair on platform soles" - very good.
Wiggia - yes his front bench is no better than Corbyn's and as for his deputy leader...
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