Jeremy Corbyn likely will be the next leader of the leftist British Labour Party. Elections are underway for party leadership.
The Labour Party has fallen on hard times after being crushed by David Cameron’s Conservative Party in the national elections in May 2015. The Conservative Party now holds an outright majority in parliament, but Labour still is the major political opposition in the country.
Which is why there is so much concern over Corbyn’s connection to so many of worst anti-Semitic and anti-Israel elements.
The Jewish Chronicle in Britain gives the big picture view:
The JC rarely claims to speak for anyone other than ourselves. We are just a newspaper. But in this rare instance we are certain that we speak for the vast majority of British Jews in expressing deep foreboding at the prospect of Mr Corbyn’s election as Labour leader.Because, although there is no direct evidence that he has an issue himself with Jews, there is overwhelming evidence of his association with, support for — and even in one case, alleged funding of — Holocaust deniers, terrorists and some outright antisemites….In a nation where, thank heavens, racism and extremism are now regarded as beyond the pale, it is little short of astonishing that a man who chooses to associate with racists and extremists is about to become leader of one of our two main parties and could conceivably become Prime Minister.
In the article, the JC lists a series of questions about those associations it said Corbyn needs to, but hasn’t answered:
1. Did you donate, as alleged by its founder, to Deir Yassin Remembered (DYR), a group that publishes open antisemitism, run by Holocaust denier Paul Eisen — an organisation so extreme that even the Palestine Solidarity Campaign refuses to associate with it?2. Have you, as Mr Eisen claims, regularly attended DYR’s annual conference?3. Why have you accepted an invitation to appear at a conference on August 22 alongside Carlos Latuff, the notorious anti-Semitic cartoonist?4. Why did you write to the Church of England authorities to defend Rev Stephen Sizer, a vicar banned from social media because of his habit of posting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, telling them that Rev Sizer was “under attack” because he had “dared to speak out over Zionism”?5. Why do you associate with Hamas and Hezbollah and refer to them as your “friends”?6. Why have you failed to condemn the anti-Semitic posters and banners that dominate the annual Al-Quds Day rally, sponsored by the Stop The War Coalition, which you chair?7. Why did you describe Raead Salah, a man convicted of the blood libel, as an ‘honoured citizen’?
Here is a video of Corbyn’s comment about “friends” from Hamas and Hezbollah:
Here is Corbyn denying he meant “friends” when he said “friend”:
Politico quotes a Labour Party “insider” as summing up Corbyn’s approach:
But as traditional campaigning issues like apartheid and Irish republicanism have fallen away, solidarity with the Palestinians has become the left’s banner cause. And Corbyn’s approach, as one Labour insider put it, is “every enemy of Israel is my friend.”
But there are even more distrubing associations, including a 2014 conference at which James Thring, a notorious Holocaust denier and Max Blumenthal, a notorious anti-Israel activist, were speakers.
The Daily Mail reports, Notorious conspiracy theorist who believes the ‘world is controlled by Jewish elders’ spoke at Westminster event hosted by Jeremy Corbyn:
Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn hosted an event at Parliament at which a 9/11 conspiracy theorist gave a speech.The hard-left favourite to become the party’s leader unwittingly gave a platform to James Thring, who has previously made bizarre claims that ‘Jewish elders’ control financial markets.Heavily-bearded Thring gave vent to his views at the event organised by a pro-Palestinian pressure group and hosted by Corbyn. Another controversial campaigner also spoke at the meeting and compared Israel to Nazi Germany.The revelation is the latest to hit leadership hopeful Corbyn, whose unexpected success threatens to split the Labour party.While Thring was not scheduled to speak, the actual booked speaker was also a controversial figure anti-Israel figure, Max Blumenthal.Blumenthal gained notoriety by inventing the hashtag #JSIL, implying that Jewish people are as bad as ISIS.In his unscheduled five-minute address, Thring stated that a Palestinian militia should be armed and equipped.He also boasted of having close connections to the Chinese authorities, whom he said he was lobbying to provide weapons to the Palestinians.In Blumenthal’s address, which took place later that evening, he called Israel ‘a racist society’ in which non-Jewish Africans were ‘attacked by right-wing mobs in scenes reminiscent of Kristallnacht’.
(video via @NuritBaytch)(more video here)
Thring according to The Daily Mail, is associated with David Duke. Blumenthal is notorious for trying to compare Israel to Nazi Germany as part of his anti-Israel obsession (which included chasing a German lawmaker who accused Blumenthal of anti-Semitism into a bathroom).
We have covered Blumenthal’s antics many times here, including how he has become a campaign issue in the U.S. due to his father Sidney’s close ties to the Clintons.
[Max Blumenthal with convicted supermarket bomber Rasmea Odeh]
But Corbyn’s creepy associations don’t end there.
Corbyn has endorsed the anti-Israel academic boycott with regard to any university involved in weapons research plus an arms embargo announcing his position in an exclusive interview with the virulently anti-Israel Electronic Intifada website.
EI is run by Ali Abunimah, who has toured U.S. college campuses with Max Blumenthal preaching the need for the end of Israel, and whose commentary demonizing Israel is similar to Blumenthal’s.
Corbyn is the only one of the four candidates for Labour Party leader to call for an arms embargo on Israel.
Corbyn also defended a well-known Muslim hate preacher, via The Daily Mail, Jeremy Corbyn caught on video calling Muslim hate preacher ‘honoured citizen’ and inviting him to ‘tea on the terrace’ at the House of Commons:
Labour leadership favourite Jeremy Corbyn has been caught on video praising a hate preacher and inviting him to ‘tea on the terrace’ at Parliament.In the latest of a string of revelations about his connections to alleged extremists, Corbyn can be seen referring to Sheikh Raed Salah as an ‘honoured citizen’ and even inviting him to tea in the House of Commons.Salah, a prominent member of the Islamic Movement in Israel, was excluded from the UK because of concerns over his ‘virulent anti-semitism’.In 2011, he was able to slip through border control at Heathrow and give a number of speeches before he was arrested on the orders of the Home Secretary.The video shows Corbyn speaking in praise of the Islamist preacher in 2012.If shows Corbyn saying: ‘[Salah] is a very honoured citizen. He represents his people extremely well and his is a voice that must be heard… I hereby renew my invitation to Sheikh Salah to come to Parliament, meet with me, meet with my colleagues.’He will be assured of a very warm welcome. I look forward to giving you tea on the terrace because you deserve it.Salah, who served two years in prison for raising millions of pounds for the Palestinian terror group Hamas and for having contact with an Iranian intelligence agent, has made a number of incendiary and extremist remarks on camera.In a speech broadcast by Qatari Al-Jazeera in 2012, he said: ‘Very soon, Muhammad will be the most popular name in Europe.’I say to you who harbor hatred towards the Messenger of Allah that it will not be long before Allah grants us victory over you.’Last year, Salah was filmed delivering a sermon in Nazareth in which he said, ‘Inshallah, Jerusalem will soon become the capital of a global caliphate.’The caliphate will spread justice throughout the land after it was filled with injustice by America, the Zionist enterprise, the Batiniyya, reactionism, Paganism and the Crusaders,’ he said.And in 2011, Salah gave an interview in which he laughingly recalls drawing a swastika on a blackboard to taunt a Jewish schoolteacher.Salah also believes that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks. In a 2001 article for Sawt al-Haq w’al-Huriyya, the journal of the Islamic Movement, he wrote:’A suitable way was found to warn the 4,000 Jews who work every day at the Twin Towers to be absent from their work on September 11, 2001, and this is really what happened.’Were 4,000 Jewish clerks absent [from their jobs] by chance, or was there another reason? At the same time, no such warning reached the 2,000 Muslims who worked every day in the Twin Towers, and therefore there were hundreds of Muslim victims.’When approached by MailOnline, Corbyn declined to comment.
All this has led former Labour Party leader and Prime Minister Tony Blair to write, Even if you hate me, please don’t take Labour over the cliff edge:
The Labour party is in danger more mortal today than at any point in the over 100 years of its existence. I say this as someone who led the party for 13 years and has been a member for more than 40. The leadership election has turned into something far more significant than who is the next leader. It is now about whether Labour remains a party of government….The party is walking eyes shut, arms outstretched, over the cliff’s edge to the jagged rocks below. This is not a moment to refrain from disturbing the serenity of the walk on the basis it causes “disunity”. It is a moment for a rugby tackle if that were possible….If Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader it won’t be a defeat like 1983 or 2015 at the next election. It will mean rout, possibly annihilation. If he wins the leadership, the public will at first be amused, bemused and even intrigued. But as the years roll on, as Tory policies bite and the need for an effective opposition mounts – and oppositions are only effective if they stand a hope of winning – the public mood will turn to anger. They will seek to punish us. They will see themselves as victims not only of the Tory government but of our self-indulgence….Go over the edge if you want. But think about those we most care about and how to help them before you do.
Blair thesis was proven out in the 2015 national elections, when British voters threw out of office such anti-Israel firebrands as George Galloway, David Ward and Natalie Bennett. While Labour voters may not reflect the nation, they have to be wondering whether Corbyn simply will continue the party’s slide.
Corbyn hearted Hugo Chavez after his death, calling him a “True Friend of the Poor.”
The Chavez connection apparently will do Corbyn no harm in the election. In fact, it it that sort of populism that seems to be gathering excitement for the Labour Party.
We’ll see if the other associations make a difference.
A poll by The Independent shows that Corbyn would reduce Labour’s chances of winning in the next national election:
A victory for Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership race will reduce the party’s chances of winning the next election, a poll for The Independent on Sunday reveals.As ballot papers arrive for more than 600,000 members and supporters, the wider electorate thinks Mr Corbyn stands the least chance of returning Labour to power in 2020, the ComRes poll shows. In a dramatic twist, David Miliband, defeated by his brother in 2010, would stand the most chance of winning for Labour.
Some in Cameron’s Conservative Party must be praying for a Corbyn victory.
UPDATE: Britain’s Sunday Express has this (unsurprising) story, Vile Corbyn trolls are abusing me for being Jewish:
The Labour Party confirmed it had launched a formal investigation after John Mann, who has chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism for 10 years, received more than 40 emails and additional Tweets referring to him as “utter filth” and a “Zionist stooge”….Mr Mann said he had been shaken by the hate campaign, which began six weeks ago after questions he raised about the leadership contest rules. “I have very serious concerns about Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters,” he said. “I’ve received some vicious anti-Semitic abuse and I’m expecting the Labour Party to take action against this….I have been described as a servant of the Israeli Prime Minister, a Nazi Zionist, a Zionist scumbag. This is all because I chair the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Anti-Semitism and it’s to do with my being Jewish.”The MP for Bassetlaw, in Nottinghamshire, said he had been the victim of anti-Semitism in the past but the orchestrated campaign he had been subjected to over the past six weeks had been particularly vicious.“I’ve received more than 40 emails and a few Tweets since Jeremy Corbyn became significant in the Labour leadership campaign. I know they’re from Corbyn supporters because they all express this openly.”He claimed that in one, a man from Manchester describing himself as a Marxist said he was a Zionist stooge. “He called me utter filth and asked when I was going to meet my Master, the Israeli Prime Minister,” he said.
UPDATE 8-22-2015: Add another creepy association, with the anti-Israel “Al Quds Day” organizers. A typically far-left one-sided view of the conflict in which Israel is pure evil and the Palestinians are pure victims:
[Featured Image Source: The Daily Mail]
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