Commenting on Rebecca Long-Bailey’s sacking, Jonathan Goldstein, chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, said:
Today we saw significant action from Sir Keir Starmer in ensuring there is zero tolerance for antisemitism within the Labour party. His actions show he understands the severity and harm that antisemitic conspiracies do to our politics. We welcome this decisive leadership and firm action.
Yeah, I was glad to read about this. I'm keeping tabs on Starmer — he's a very good opposition leader, and is doing well in parliament, so even if I don't entirely trust or like him, there's a chance I'll vote for him to get the Tories out finally. However, it'll be a hard job weeding out the antisemites, as we saw how prevalent they were only just recently, and how antisemitism is, in many ways, endemic to modern Labour.
He's still a massive step up from terrorist-pal and communist antisemite Jeremy Corbyn, but I'll have to wait until I see what he ends up doing with the current trans stuff going on in the UK, as he's apparently "stood back" from the debate whilst Tories try to stop people from self-identifying on their legal documents (which is something I actually agree with the Tories on, for once).
If he ends up toeing the line of "trans women are women and biology doesn't exist" then I probably won't vote for him, but we'll see. I'm just glad he's trying to undo the damage that Corbyn wrought on the party, so that we can have a viable opposition again.
Am suspicious that alleged criticism of Israel is branded anti-semetic. The American left criticises Israel all the time here. And paradoxically, the right treats them like they can do no wrong.
Frankly, Israel deserves to be criticised, given its history of verified shady dealings.
Kidnapping a whistleblower out of England, for example.
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
A claim that US police learned the kneeling on back of head from Israeli services.
I have no idea if this is true, but it wouldn't surprise me if so.
I certainly don't see it in any way anti-semetic, as the target is the state of Israel, and nothing specifically jewish about the theory.
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
I think when we accuse people of racism, we imply intent, though. One can say seemingly racist things without being a racist.
I also believe you're building an argument that puts Israel as a state above criticism, which is quite a dangerous track imo.
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
I agree — I do not think Israel should be beyond reproach, so we need to be able to identify antisemitism when we see it in its true form, and be able to argue safe from unwarranted accusations when the situation is more complex. We have to establish that criticism of Israeli policy is not inherently antisemitic.
But the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn was rife with actual antisemitism, which is all well-documented, so for now Starmer needs to take a hard line and do what Corbyn couldn't (and didn't want to). Corbyn and his ilk go beyond just criticising Israel, he was known to be a terrorist sympathiser, particularly towards the IRA and the Palestinian terror organisations; it was also clear from inner party conflict that Jewish Labour members were facing regular abuse and discrimination, among many other things.
I agree. There's many practicing Jews who stand up against Israel. So a distinction has to be made that Keir Starmer is clearly unwilling to.
That said I do get that Israel can be used as an tool/excuse to be Anti-Semetic, but that can't be used as an excuse to just shut down any criticism of the Israeli army and their treatment of the Palestinians.
With this sacking the Left is basically irrelevant now in U.K. politics. At least for the time being. So it's very much like U.S. politics.
No one thinks Israel is above criticism (they aren't perfect, no nation is) but people who're constantly bashing it (like the United Nations constantly does) are anti-semitic, imo. If you think that Israel has no right to exist as a nation then yes, you are anti-semitic I don't care what anybody says.
The Jewish people have a right to have their own damn country. God promised their ancestors that land and, as their descendants, the modern day jews have every right to it. Period. End of discussion.
__________________ Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth bound feathered dinosaur. But it is not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of 'paleobabble' is going to change that.-- Alan Feduccia-a world authority on birds, quoted in "Archaeopteryx:Early Bird Catches a Can of Worms," Science 1994, p.764-765
Last edited by eThneoLgrRnae on Jun 26th, 2020 at 04:31 PM
It wouldn't surprise me if CDTM also thought that Linda Sarsour and Ilhan Omar weren't actually antisemitic either lol.
"Naw, they just hate Israel, they don't actually hate jewish people."
__________________ Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth bound feathered dinosaur. But it is not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of 'paleobabble' is going to change that.-- Alan Feduccia-a world authority on birds, quoted in "Archaeopteryx:Early Bird Catches a Can of Worms," Science 1994, p.764-765
This is probably a good thing in terms of the precedent it will set (zero tolerance for anti-semitism), but there is something to be said about the way Long-Bailey has been essentially thrown under a bus to make a point.
I don't see the tweet that Rebecca Long Bailey shared as anti-semitism for multiple reasons.
I see this as a Labour internal power struggle, Starmer used the first opportunity he had to sack his main rival, weaken the left arm of the party and to firmly take control of it. I see this as a sign of establishment interest asserting itself and firmly controlling both main parties again now. I think we can view it as a return of Blairite New Labour, which in fact was basically just a continuation of Thatcherism "with a human face".
I'm relatively sure that Starmer is going to win the Prime Minister spot at some point, because he is perfectly in line with establishment interest, the UK press will give him a fair shot, but it won't fundamentally change the trajectory of exploitation the British people have suffered under for 40 year.
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