Yesterday things took a darker turn for British Jews.
Let us go back to Tuesday 26 April 2016, 7:53am. A Facebook post by Naz Shah emerges on the Guido Fawkes website. It is a post from 2014 suggesting that Israel should be “relocated” to America and praising the “transportation costs”. Within hours, other posts emerged, including one comparing Israel to the Nazis. By 13:30, Naz Shah had apologised for ‘the hurt’ she caused and resigned her position as PPS to the shadow chancellor John McDonnell.
The following day, 27 April, news about the antisemitic posts appeared on the front pages of the Times and Daily Mail. By noon Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn stated that ‘what Naz Shah did was offensive and unacceptable’ Pressure increased throughout the day and at some point during the same afternoon Naz Shah was suspended by the party.
Read the above a couple of times. How simple that all looks now. It shows how far down the slope have we come.
The IHRA definition
The working definition of antisemitism produced by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2016 was created to address a growing rise of global antisemitism. The problem with the definition is simple, it arrived almost two decades too late.
The logic behind the definition is flawless. Antisemites are racists that hate Jews and believe them guilty of all manner of sins. Therefore ‘x%’ of the animosity towards the Jewish State of Israel is driven by antisemitism.
Any look at criticism of Israel immediately confirms this logic. Israel is regularly accused of all evil on the planet. Israel is ‘the global puppet master’ and Israel has a ‘thirst for the blood of Palestinian children’. The single consistent thread through the whole story of Israel’s existence is the disparity between Israel’s character, and how it’s ‘strangely obsessive’ critics view it.
If the correlation between antisemitism and ‘Israel-hate’ had been addressed when it was ‘in hand’ it is doubtful there would have been much resistance. The logic is too solid, the evidence too convincing. But it wasn’t. People sat in relative silence for two decades as they watched the poison spread through the ‘virtual’ veins of the west. Then it erupted in an outpouring of visible hatred on the streets in the summer of 2014.
By the time the problem was addressed in 2016, too many people had been infected. There are ‘carriers’ and there are those who are ‘full blown antisemites’. The antisemites are the easy ones to identify. The carriers are those whose understanding of the conflict has been so twisted by the poison, they can’t identify antisemitism.
It means that when people push back against the IHRA definition, ‘carriers’ will protect ‘antisemites’ by accepting that this is about restricting legitimate criticism of Israel. From the distorted viewpoint of the ‘carrier’, ‘legitimate’ criticism may well include comparisons between Israeli actions and the Nazis.
Laying the groundwork
2016 discussions over the rise of antisemitism showed that Europe clearly felt it had a ‘Jewish problem’ again. Yet in the Labour Party, as more and more of the people around Corbyn were found to share antisemitic world views, the party mechanisms suddenly shuddered to a halt.
Jeremy Corbyn had spent decades swimming in the sewers with hard-core antisemites, and had shared political platforms with many of them. It is no surprise that I found Corbyn actively participating in the antisemitic Facebook Group ‘Palestine Live‘. This is who he was standing alongside just months before he became party leader:
His fan-base, including many members who had joined the party just for him, was crawling with people who had a major problem with Jewish people. There was no logical way the Labour Party could be rid of antisemitism and keep Jeremy Corbyn.
Yet Corbyn wasn’t yet strong enough to fight back. In the initial period there were many cases of Labour Members being suspended or expelled. The strategists with him, like Seamus Milne, must have known that active ‘inactivity’ on the subject of antisemitism would be necessary if Corbyn was to survive. To make it look as if they were doing something, when they had no intention of doing anything at all. The Chakrabarti inquiry is a good example of this.
For two years, the Labour Party stalled on antisemitism as Corbyn’s faction embedded itself. ‘Jewish Voice for Labour’ (JVL) was created as a weapon explicitly designed to deflect accusations of antisemitism. It was the role of JVL to cloud the issue, by placing Jews at the front of the march. ‘How can it be ‘antisemitism’ if there are Jews involved?’ It is a cheap, well worn and effective marketing stunt. For example, the al-Quds ‘Hezbollah’ march always places a fringe sect of Jews called Neturei Karta at the very front, to suggest rabidly antisemitic Hezbollah actually like Jews.
JVL began to move through Labour Party constituencies seeking affiliation. Over the last few months, this has intensified, and with the appointment of Gordon Nardell last month as the new in-house counsel to oversee the disciplinary process on antisemitism cases, it seems that Corbyn was preparing to move out of the defensive position.
From defence to offence with British Jews
The answer for Corbyn has always been a simple one. To hack the definition of antisemitism. If what is ‘antisemitic’ is not actually ‘antisemitic’, then the discussion ends and everyone can move on. Corbyn can declare he is against antisemitism AND he gets to keep all the antisemites in his party. This meant the focus has always been on chopping at the IHRA definition and refusing to accept those clauses that relate in any way to antisemitism that expresses itself as hate against Israel. For British Jews it means Corbyn is creating a party that protects people who hate Jews.
It was always just a matter of timing. Two months ago, before the appointment of Nardell, JVL released a ‘new definition of anti-Semitism’. It was a ‘watering down’ of the IHRA definition. As Corbyn and the JVL team operate in a synchronised partnership, it is now clear this was sent up as a ‘test-balloon’. It carries much of the same message as the new guidelines that the Labour Party have just released. It legitimises racism inside the party.
Yesterday the defensive phase of Corbyn’s relationship with British Jews ended. He feels he is strong enough to ignore the accusations of antisemitism by shifting the goalposts. It would be wrong to underestimate the move. Today we wake up to a different world. The sky for British Jews continues to darken.
———————————————–
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Seems like only yesterday you were telling us you didn’t use the IHRA ” definition”, particularly as you find the idea that there could be agreement on what counted as legitimate criticism to be ” absurd”.
I see the tired old mantra ” it is for Jews to say what is racism against them ” is being trotted out . This too is ” absurd”. However I assume this is supposed to reflect a universal principle that presumably extends to the Palestinians. This being the case it is confirmed that Israelis are racist and Israel is a racist enterprise..
Fascinating stuff.
Yes, Stephen, how dare Jews decide what they consider racist hate toward them. They’re not to be trusted.
Stephen, the Palestinians declared independence in 1948 and renamed their country Israel, because indigenous peoples don’t like it when names are imposed on them from without by imperialists, whether they be European or Arab (a name we might note is very close to “Arabia”).
Well said Jeff!
But, the only thing that is “absurd” is that this unrepentent Israel hater, and suspected antisemite, Bellamy is still allowed to roll up and dump his filth on this website.
Bellemy’s schtick is the same ahistorical nonsense fashionable among Corbynistas, ‘palestinians’, and Nazis.
The Arabs tried to, and keep screaming how they are going to, push the Jews into the sea. Bellamy sees this as damning to Jews, because he figures they just had to have done something to make all those ‘nice people’ feel that way, e.g., provoked them by breathing.
Suspected?? give me a break.
So you declare it not fit fot your purpose but demand that the LP ” use” it
I did say that Stephen and as you know I don’t apply the IHRA in my blog. I am here to prove my point, not to get caught in endless squabbles over whether the evidence I produce is solid or not. Had my reports into the PSC, SPSC and Palestine Live adhered to the IHRA they would hardly have made a splash, because they could have been deflected with suggestions that many of the examples ‘are legitimate criticisms of Israel’. I think the idea that you can ‘agree’ with ‘adversaries’ over what constitutes ‘legitimate’ criticism is plainly absurd. If the discussion becomes bogged down in that area (as it will inevitably do so) you enter a rabbit hole. So I have explicitly avoided it.
I am also a free speech merchant, and there are other issues I have (more with the idea of prohibition than identification), but the one above addresses the point you made.
And yet when the LP recognise it as a bit of a rabbit hole the storm clouds gather further and all the Jews are going to the gas.
Counter chant this…
From the River to the Sea,
Pal-e-STINE Will NEVER BE!
Antisemitism is the one thing Corbynistas share – Corbyn’s willing to “throw the vast majority of Britain’s Jews down the well’, if it gets him into No. 10 Downing Street. In the words of Corbyn’s friends in Jewdas “Fuck ’em all!!”
Calm down boys the point is a narrow one
If an identifiable and delineable group and only that group can determine what constitutes racism against then…
Given that Palestinian Arabs are an identifiable and delineable group and they overwhelmingly regard their treatment at the hands of Israeli Jews as racist then….
Israeli Jews are confirmed as racists and The State of Israel is confirmed as a racist enterprise.
Elementary my dear Watson. I am sure David will agree.
I could of course be reading this entirely wrong and it is not meant to reflect a universal principle but is merely a statement of Israelist exceptionalism.
Given that Israeli Jews are an identifiable and delineable group and they overwhelmingly regard their treatment at the hands of Palestinian Arabs as racist then….
Palestinian Arabs are confirmed as racists and Palestinian National Movement is confirmed as a racist enterprise.
Elementary my dear Watson. I am sure Bellamy will agree.
Of course I agree Jeff. If this is a universal principle then it must be so.
and by your so-called “logic,” your beloved “palestinian resistance” also is a racist enterprise. Obviously, a jew-baiter like yourself is perfectly happy to throw the whole concept of racism under the bus just to get at the Jews.
“and by your so-called “logic,” your beloved “palestinian resistance” also is a racist enterprise.”
Yep
Crazy isn’t it ?
What a load of bloody BOLLOCKs Bellamy!
How so Norm ?
Bellamy THIS is Bollocks “If an identifiable and delineable group and only that group can determine what constitutes racism against then…
Given that Palestinian Arabs are an identifiable and delineable group and they overwhelmingly regard their treatment at the hands of Israeli Jews as racist then….”
Pals, who only called themselves Pals in ’67 are not an identifiable and delineable group in any meaningful sense.
They must be Norm otherwise you wouldn’t know who I was talking about
Dumb Bellay, Not only don’t we know WHO you are talking about, we don’t know WHAT you are talking about.
Sober up, comrade.
Ha Ha Bollocks Bellamy too funny. Listen! Your village has lost its idiot and they want you to come back!
One again it is 7/7, and the thirteenth anniversary of the London transport terrorist bombings by four British Muslims.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date : July 7, 2005 08:49 – 09:47 (UTC+01:00)
Target: General public aboard London Underground, trains and a bus in central London
Attack type: Suicide bombings, Islamic terrorism
Deaths: 56 (including the 4 bombers)
Non-fatal injuries: 784
Perpetrators:
– Hasib Hussain
– Mohammad Sidique Khan
– Germaine Lindsay
– Shehzad Tanweer
Motive: Islamic terrorism
How will the Islamofascist-philic Laboor Party observe this sad anniversary?
More marches waving Hezbola flags?
More understanding and moments of reverent silence for the 4 terrorists?
It will be interesting to watch in the near future where the Labour conversation on Israel and Jews goes.
Accusations that Israelis/Jews (because the only Israelis included are Jews) are Nazis is such a lazy charge, yet has such broad implications and appeal.
The Nazi claim to infamy and notoriety was their racism, and more importantly, their attempt to wipe out (eradicate) two peoples (Jews and Gypsies) from the face of the earth
The Nazis built factories/abbatoirs to wipe out the Jews and Gypsies using modern industrial organisation and methods.
This is what the world knows of the Nazis.
Yet when you challenge the Jew haters about their Nazi comparison, their inane answer is ‘well look at the checkpoints and arrests’ and yadda yadda yadda etc.
Yes; their reply is correct if one has blinkered vision and/or an agenda.
The Nazis did all of these things; but they are associated with the mass murder of millions as a policy
The Nazis are not notorious for checkpoints etc, but for pre-planned mass murder
What these anti-Israel accusers are trying to do with their allegation is to link Israel to the crimes commited against the Jews in the minds of those ignorant of the truth, in the hope that they will then propogate those accusations until by constant repetition they become fact/truth.
These accusers don’t bother trying to compare Israel to Russia/Soviet Union (unknown number murdered – between 30 to 65 million), and China ( about 50 million murdered), and other similar regimes, because the Holocaust is not involved; ie: no link to Jews.
This is a cynical move made by the accusers because they simplify the issue down to checkpoints and arrests while hoping that their audience will take the bait and link Israel to the mass murder of Jews and others
This Nazi linkage is not done by mistake, but done in the hope that no one will challenge the accusation, and that an association will be made between the total evil of the Nazis and the totally dissimilar situation that exists for Israel and the Arabs
Who are you arguing with Richard ?
Hi Bellers. Missed me?
Who wouldn’t. I got worried that you might have gone all allegorical on me.
Actually I had assumed it was a dastardly plot cooked up by you and David whereby you had agreed not to feed the trolls
Bellamy asking questions!
Bellamy, who has never answered a question asked of him, asking a question.
Get real
Interesting
“It must be a priori that any group / individual claiming sole right to define / control any meaning must be attempting to stop use of any questioning of their decision which itself is a priori objectively dangerous on many levels and must always be resisted”
Paul Theroux
4:06 AM – 8 Jul 2018
This is the Jew hate of the Left right here!!
Bellers! why should a Jew not be able to say what is or is not antisemitic?
Why would you even want to define what Jews consider antisemitism?
Check mate, I think!
Norm I think we have agreed that Jews can say what is or is not antisemitic. The issue is whether this is a privalege enjoyed only by Jews or whether it is a reflection of a universal principle. What do you think ?
No, no, no Stephen Bellamy. You still dont get it. The Palestinians are an invented people created by antisemites to knock Israel over the head with, for 50 years. You know exactly what Hamas and Hizbullah want to do to the Jews living in Israel. How can you, as a principled person, support Arabs that don’t want other races ‘fouling’ their lands, while being opposed completely to Right wing racists in the UK, Europe and the US who want exactly the same thing. Please explain?
No, no, Norm. What you or I think doesn’t count. Only the perception of Palestine Arabs counts. Thats the principle.
I have to agree with Bellers here Norm. What he thinks doesn’t count. If he goes into The Santa Convention and shouts ” Grow up you idiots. It’s all made up from fairy stories. You’re just Keith from accounts and you’re the milkman”, it doesn’t matter that they’re pretend, like Bellers’s causes. It’s what they think that matters. Got it?
It wasn’t me that propounded the principle Ian. Why are you laying it on me ? I feel quite upset about the unfairness of this.
I feel so sorry for you Stephen Bellamy. You had an opportunity to actually say something meaningful. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people will end up reading this page. You could have changed some minds! Instead you spouted stupid meaningless nonsense. Like your friends the ‘Palestinians’ you never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Long may it continue!
Hundreds? Lol. Thousands? MegaLol.
Mind changing is not the name of the game Norm. One may as well try to herd some cats
Beelers what exactly do you imagine ‘the name of the game’ is?
Empowerment Norm, empowerment. Do you think David has changed a single mind ? OK one or two at most, which is an abysmal return for all the effort he has put in. Or would be if that was his game.
Which makes Ian’s herculean efforts to influence the ” readers ” all the funnier.
44 words in that quote Bellers. See if you can put them in the right order.
Ian Kay
18.09 PM – 8 Jul 2018
Richard is right Bellers never answers questions. Probably a paid troll.
Antisemites are racists that hate Jews and believe them guilty of all manner of sins. Therefore ‘x%’ of the animosity towards the Jewish State of Israel is driven by antisemitism.
Do you REALLY believe that is flawless logic David ?
Dumb Bellamy, Are you really a F’n Moron? Your idiotic posts tend to support that conclusion.
Since you are responding for David, Edward…..Is that a yes or a no ?
Anyway Edward the Israelists are putting it about that the CPS has adopted the IHRA thingy. Is this the truth or is it a lie ? After all, the truth matters.
Dumb Bellamy, Aren’t you even a teensy-weensy bit “irrationally” ISLAMO-P-H-O-B-I-C…
especially after London’s 7/7 and Manchester and the London and Westminster bridge ramming attacks, Lee Rigby beheading, Paris’ Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan massacres, Bastille Day (7/14) truck ramming attack in Nice France, bombing of Pan Am 103, 9/11, thwarted sneaker and underwear bombings, Boston Marathon bombing, Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, San Bernardino, thwarted Garland Texas Art Contest attack, murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, ISIS beheading videos, Mumbai India massacre by Pakistani terrorists, Nairobi Kenya mall massacre, Rotherham rape gangs, Moscow subway bombings, Brussels airport bombings, Beslan school massacre, Bamiyan poison gas attack, public threats of 9/11 scale attacks on Europe, Bali attack, Madrid train bombings?
Are you still upset that F’n De Valera’s guy in Berlin blew his brains out rather than SURRENDER, UNCONDITIONALLY to the US and UK and his estranged Socialist pal Joe Stalins USSR?
Edward if you are going to answer for David you are going to have to up your game.
Dumb Bellamy, Happy Nakba!, and may ALL your Jihads turn into personal Nakbas!
“Mind changing is not the name of the game Norm. One may as well try to herd some cats”
Mr. Stephen 7.38 am GMT 11/7/2018
Have to agree again here Norm. If you can be bothered, go and select 4 or 5 articles in the archive going back as far as you like. Check out the comment sections and see how many times there has been proper ‘discourse’ between opponents, between anyone for that matter. If you can count beyond 3 fingers, Bellers has offered to stand you a pint of Awld Ihn-Jowke at his local Con Club. I reckon his gelt is pretty safe.
Remember, it’s only about the posturing here or the subversion of someone elses. Ask yourself this; If you and Bellers carried this on for another 15 years what would either of you gain? If your response is anything other than ‘absolutely fuck all’ you’ve come up with the wrong answer.
Wot Ian said
Well, I am glad we have finally found something that Ian and Stephen can agree on. I am going to leave you all to your posturing. Enjoy!
Nice to see that beyond these deeply unpleasant and futile threads some people do this.
https://www.israel21c.org/800-jews-christians-muslims-sing-one-love-in-jerusalem/
Jezuz wept
de valera cries himself to sleep in HELL.
Thats Merrykans for you. Great big cry babies Just because you are in hell there is no need to make a drama and a crisis out of it.
Eire-onicly nazi friendly Demon De Valera was elected President of The Eire Republic by the Eire people who today have a thing for sand nazis.
How about a BDS of Fascist Eire???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89amon_de_Valera
“Controversially,[75] de Valera formally offered his condolences to the German Minister in Dublin on the death of Adolf Hitler in 1945, in accordance with diplomatic protocol.[76] This did some damage to Ireland, particularly in the United States – and soon afterwards de Valera had a bitter exchange of words with Winston Churchill in two famous radio addresses after the end of the war in Europe.[77]
The De Valera government was reputedly harsh with Irish Army deserters who had enlisted to fight with the Allied Armies against the Axis.[78] The legislation in question was the Emergency Powers (No. 362) order which was passed in August 1945. It was revoked with effect from 1 August 1946,[79], but was in effect continued by section 13 of the Defence Forces (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1946.[80] On 18 October 1945 Thomas F. O’Higgins moved to annul the order.[81] He did not condone desertion, but felt that the order was specifically harsh on those deserters who had served in the Allied forces. General Richard Mulcahy also spoke against the Order, disagreeing with the way in which it applied to enlisted men and not to officers. ”
Eire President Demon De Valera should have been strung up.
Edward there isn’t and never was such a place as The Eire Republic. It follows that there never was such a thing as its President.
I hate censorship but I sometimes am tempted by the idea that there should be a minimum number of brain cells for certain activities. No need to set the bar too high.
Dumb Bellamy, Your stupidity is boundless.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89amon_de_Valera#President_of_the_Republic
As I have said previously, the reason I sometimes get involved in threads is to offer an alternate view to those who are the audience
especially after the offerings of the likes of Rodgers etc.
Richard, If this is a response to anything of mine please be assured that there is absolutely no need to justify your posts to me. I am not an activist, have zero sphere of influence and no intention in ever using this section as a forum for serious debate with people of an opposing view. They are not and will never be here for that and neither am I.
Wondering what Ian and David think about the recently departed boss of the Israeli Labor Party ( JLM’S sister party koff ) describing American Jews marrying goys as a ” plague”.
This was, of course, was on taking over The Jewis Agency which regards young Jews who inter marry as ‘lost’, and which ask people to contact them if know of such lost souls.
No racism here. Move on
Sorry Bellers. No time for this now. I’m far more concerned wondering how much more pustular matter will come out of a massive zit that a bloke is squeezing off his mate’s neck on YouTube. He’s nearly filled a beaker.
I see Mark Gardner is still lying his arse off. The truth matters
https://www.thejc.com/comment/analysis/what-is-the-international-holocaust-remembrance-alliance-definition-of-antisemitism-1.466841
Eeeew, It’s like a huge yellowy green worm splurging out. Disgusting!!!!!
Sick puppies that film and post this stuff. Ain’t that the truth!
Sure fire guarantee of the success of a thing. Scoffie launches a campaign against it. Hows it going down at the coop ?
(((Jonathan Hoffman)))
@jhoffman1
Jul 10
More
Replying to @wesstreeting @BoardofDeputies and 2 others
If you don’t change it we will start an ABC campaign. Vote Anyone But Corbyn. Nationwide and community-wide. It’s a disgrace.
OMG!!! There’s a second core. The hole’s the size of a crater. People post this stuff!!!
Oh dear JLM’s sister party quits the Socialist International. Its not looking good.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180711-israels-labor-party-quits-socialist-international-over-latters-support-for-bds/
David’s argument that if the ” problem” had been addressed earlier it would all be ok is spurious. It was addressed in 2005, but the scam was so transparent it all fell apart.
Mr. Stephen; “….three…four…five. YES!!!”
Mrs Stephen; “Love! For the fifth time please try and keep it down. Your Nan’s having a nap. What are you doing anyway?”
Mr. Stephen; “Jeezus wept woman isn’t it obvious? I’m defending our hard-won freedoms from that shit Collier and his Hampstead Garden Suburbists.”
Mrs. Stephen; “Oh right love. It just looked like you were playing Kerplunk to me.”
Mr. Stephen; “Oh Mrs Stephen. You just haven’t got a fuckin’ clue what’s going on. Three more moves and my plan is complete. Then they’ll see. They’ll all see!”
Mrs. Stephen; “ Hmmm. the only thing they’ll see is that dog of yours pissing all over the new Axminster if you don’t get him out for a walk.”
Mr. Stephen; “IT’S A CAT !!!”
Mrs. Stephen “ You’re fucking nuts…”
You have done better than that. There was one I quite liked. The one about the pie I think.
Bellamy
You speak weasel to try provoke
Take a long bath
Thats what my wife says Richard. She doesn’t grasp that after two minutes I am as clean as I am ever going to get even if I stayed in it for two hours.
Dumb Bellamy, the flies swarming around you like the smell of dung.