In Car Crash Interview, UK Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn Declines to Apologize over his party’s Antisemitism
“Labour leader’s approach to anti-Semitism remains a failure of leadership.”
In what is being described by British newspapers as a car crash interview, UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly refused to apologize over antisemitism claims against him and his party.
Talking to BBC interviewer Andrew Neil on Tuesday evening, Corbyn declined four times to apologize to British Jews over his handling of antisemitism within the party since he became party chief four years ago.
Neil asked Corbyn, how British Jews could trust him when “they’ve seen you share platforms with some of the world’s vilest anti-Semites”?
The Labour leader dodged the question, quibbling instead over the use of the term “they.”
“80 per cent of Jews think that you’re anti-Semitic. That’s quite a lot of British Jews.” Neil quipped.
Refusing to address the issue of rampant antisemitism in his party, Corbyn responded with meaningless phrases: “I don’t want anyone to go through what anyone has gone through.”
Antisemitism is “poisonous and divisive just as much as Islamophobia or far-right racism,” he said. “I want to work with every community to make sure it’s eliminated. That is what my whole life has been about.”
That’s not what sums up Corbyn’s whole life. It has been about fraternizing with Jew-killing Palestinian terrorist groups, calling them his ‘friends,’ and laying a wreath at the grave of terrorists with the blood of Jews on their hands.
British Jews have left the party in droves since Corbyn took over the helm, including leading Jewish members of parliament (MPs). Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger needed police cover to attend her party conference after months of vile antisemitic threats. Lord Triesman, Labour’s general secretary from 2001 to 2013, admitted that the party under Corbyn has become “institutionally antisemitic.”
The BBC interview took place on the day when Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis penned an op-ed, calling Corbyn “unfit for high office.” Earlier this month country’s leading Jewish newspaper Jewish Chronicle published a blistering front-page editorial urging non-Jewish electorates not to vote for Corbyn. The newspaper called out his “racist views” and talked of “the deep fear he inspires among” the Jewish minority of Britain.
Nearly half of the British Jews are “seriously considering” leaving the country if Corbyn comes to power in the December 12 election, a recent opinion poll showed.
British newspapers across the board slammed Corbyn’s disastrous interview.
“Jeremy Corbyn throws away opportunities to address Jewish concerns,” The Irish Times commented. “Labour leader’s approach to anti-Semitism remains a failure of leadership.”
Labour leader “dodged questions of why Labour had not suspended party members accused of sharing anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and holocaust denial,” The Sun noted.
Even the left-wing paper The Guardian had to admit that it will “be difficult to shake [the accusations of antisemitism] after Corbyn’s interview with Andrew Neil last night, in which he repeatedly resisted calls to apologise to the Jewish community.” The interview came at a time when “Labour was seeking to brand itself as the party of equality and compassion,” the newspaper added.
The Daily Express was less forgiving towards the Labour leader’s dismal TV appearance and asked: “Has Corbyn’s horror show gifted Boris keys to No 10?”
“It’s very, very hard to watch that interview and not come to the conclusion, and I don’t like to say this, that Jeremy Corbyn must be anti-Semitic,” British TV presenter Piers Morgan said.
The UK newspaper Evening Standard reported Corbyn’s car-crash interview:
The Labour leader declined to apologise four times to the Jewish community as he was questioned on the BBC on Tuesday.
He also hit out at the Chief Rabbi, who today claimed “a new poison” had “taken root” within the party, saying he was wrong to accuse Labour of failing to tackle anti-semitism.
Mr Corbyn was quizzed by Andrew Neil on Brexit, his tax plans and borrowing as part of a series of BBC interviews with those vying to become the next prime minister.
But much of Tuesday’s discussion with The Andrew Neil Interviews focused on anti-Semitism after Ephraim Mirvis’s unprecedented intervention warning Mr Corbyn was unfit to lead the nation. (…)
The Labour leader was challenged over Rabbi Mirvis’s allegation that Labour’s claims it is doing everything to tackle anti-Jewish racism was a “mendacious fiction”.
“No, he’s not right. Because he would have to produce the evidence to say that’s mendacious,” Mr Corbyn replied.
He insisted he has “developed a much stronger process” and had sanctioned and removed members who have been anti-Semitic.
Mr Corbyn also denied that the blight increased after he took over the party, saying: “It didn’t rise after I became leader.
“Anti-Semitism is there in society, there are a very, very small number of people in the Labour Party that have been sanctioned as a result about their anti-Semitic behaviour.”
But he repeatedly refused to apologise when asked by Mr Neil.
Unprecedented consensus : All papers headlines today are about @jeremycorbyn refusal to apologise to British Jews for #LabourAntisemitism. #votelabourvoteracism #nevercorbyn pic.twitter.com/55iTS1QJrR
— Tal Ofer טל עופר تل عوفر (@TalOfer) November 27, 2019
With less than three weeks to go until the December general election, the Corbyn-led Labour Party trails by double digits in the polls behind Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives. “Boris Johnson’s Tories have established their biggest lead over Labour for two years,” The Telegraph reported, citing polls released over the weekend.
Desperate to narrow the gap, the Labour leader is rolling out a multi-billion government handout plan, offering free high-speed internet to every home and cheap housing. The party is trying to woo the migrant vote by promising to loosen immigration rules and making it easier for them to get their families over.
Corbyn’s antisemitism won’t sit well with most British voters, but it will endear him among the country’s radicalized Muslim population. Losing support of the dwindling Jewish community as part of the cynical payoff won’t harm his political ambitions.
[Cover image via YouTube]
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“Corbyn repeatedly refused to apologize over antisemitism claims against him and his party”
To them it’s a feature. Have to keep the appeal open to the Muzzies who, because of their Qur’an, have a special hatred for the Jew. Their Big Mo was rejected by the Jews, explaining his special hatred.
It isn’t just muslims. By and large, the Brits themselves are Jew-haters.
British politicians pandering to the Moslem vote is like the Indian tribes who allied with the white colonists against their traditional native enemies. Trading short-term gain for ultimate extermination.
I wonder, is there a motive behind this? I would figure UK media would be all in for Labour, so why the attacks on Corbyn over this issue? Don’t get me wrong, Corbyn is an awful PoS, and certainly an antisemite, but it still surprises me UK media is going after him. Perhaps they hope to force Corbyn out ahead of the elections to make Labour more palatable with the Tories dominating in the polls?
It’s my impression that British journalists aren’t quite as partisan as American journalists. They still like to report the news at least some of the time, rather than simply rewriting Party press releases.
I feel British print media is more representative, with Telegraph, Spectator, Daily Mail, Sun and Express giving column space to pro-Brexit/pro-Johnson coverage.
The TV networks are another story.
No, this is not “a failure of leadership”, nor is the problem “his handling of antisemitism within the party”.
A failure of leadership is what’s wrong with the US Democratic Party, whose leaders are not not antisemites, and are privately horrified by it, but rather than confront the antisemitic minority within their party they’re in denial about it, which has allowed it to grow in numbers and influence. Omar and Tlaib merely drew attention to the problem, which has been festering for years.
Corbyn’s problem is not his leadership, or that he fails to handle the antisemitism within his party. It’s that he’s an antisemite. He’s in denial of his own views, pretending that they don’t amount to antisemitism, but they do.
Jewish Progressivism.
“In August 2015, dozens of prominent Jewish activists signed an open letter criticizing the paper [The Jewish Chronicle] for what they viewed as its “character assassination” of Corbyn.
They wrote: “Your assertion that your attack on Jeremy Corbyn is supported by ‘the vast majority of British Jews’ is without foundation. We do not accept that you speak on behalf of progressive Jews in this country.
You speak only for Jews who support Israel, right or wrong.” They continued, “There is something deeply unpleasant and dishonest about your McCarthyite guilt by association technique.
Jeremy Corbyn’s parliamentary record over 32 years has consistently opposed all racism including antisemitism.” Signatories to the letter included Laurence Dreyfus, Selma James, Miriam Margolyes, Ilan Pappé, Michael Rosen and Avi Shlaim”
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Ilan Pappé (Hebrew: אילן פפה, IPA: [iˈlan paˈpe]; born 1954) is an expatriate Israeli historian and socialist activist. He is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, director of the university’s European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies.
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Avraham “Avi” Shlaim FBA (born 31 October 1945) is an Israeli historian, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and fellow of the British Academy. He is one of Israel’s New Historians,[1] a group of Israeli scholars who put forward critical interpretations of the history of Zionism and Israel.
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Micheal Rosen was appointed the sixth British Children’s Laureate in June 2007, succeeding Jacqueline Wilson, and held the honour until June 2009, when he was succeeded by Anthony Browne. Rosen signed off from the Laureateship with an article in The Guardian[…]
In January 2008, Rosen was presented with an honorary doctorate by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust and the University of East London.
In November 2008 he was presented with an honorary master’s degree at the University of Worcester.
[…]the Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature) at the French ambassador’s residence in London.
In April 2010, Rosen was given the Fred and Anne Jarvis Award from the National Union of Teachers for “campaigning for education”
In July 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Nottingham Trent University.[48]
In April 2011, Rosen was awarded an honorary doctorate at the Institute of Education, University of London.
In July 2011, honorary doctorate by the University of the West of England.
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Miriam Margolyes is a pro Palestinian activist, having been a member of the British-based ENOUGH! coalition that seeks “a just settlement between Israelis and Palestinians”.
She is also a signatory of Jews for Justice for Palestinians. “What I want to try to do is to get Jewish people to understand what’s really going on”, she has said, “and they don’t want to hear it.
If you speak to most Jews and say ‘Can Israel ever be in the wrong?’ they say ‘No. Our duty as Jews is to support Israel whatever happens.’ And I don’t believe that. It is our duty as human beings to report the truth as we see it.”
Margolyes is a lesbian. On becoming an Australian citizen, on Australia Day 2013, Margolyes referred to herself as a “dyke” live on national television and in front of the then Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.
Margolyes is a member of the Vauxhall Constituency Labour Party. In August 2015, she was a signatory to a letter criticising The Jewish Chronicle’s reporting of Jeremy Corbyn’s alleged association with antisemites.
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Selma James is an American writer, and feminist and social activist who is co-author of the women’s movement book The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community (with Mariarosa Dalla Costa), co-founder of the International Wages for Housework Campaign, and coordinator of the Global Women’s Strike.
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Lawrence Dreyfus In August 2015, Dreyfus was a signatory to a letter criticising The Jewish Chronicle’s reporting of Corbyn’s association with alleged antisemites.
Socialists don’t always have to lie, sometimes they just refuse to answer as Corbin did.Trump just fired another flake for “lack of candor” or you can call it mendacity.Words without truth.
If Corbyn ran as dem in US against Trump for Prez he Corbyn would get 75% of Jewish vote.
He might, but there’s a significant difference. Antisemitism in the general population hardly exists in the US and that which does exist is not accepted in American society. You can’t say the same for the UK They have a long history of it.
No, he would not. UK Jews in general are not to the right of US Jews. If Labor under Corbyn is likely to get no more than 15% of the UK Jewish vote, it’s not possible that a majority of US Jews would support him. 40% at most.
Corbyn would get 75% of Jewish vote if he ran as Dem against Trump for Pres.
Again, that is simply not true and without any basis in fact.
A Labour victory would freeze British relations with the civilized world in Corbynite.
Unfortunately it wouldn’t. It would soon become the new normal.
At least Corbyn is honest.
“I want to work with every community to make sure it’s eliminated. That is what my whole life has been about.”
It seems obvious that they believe they are helping, not hurting Corbyn. They are just making sure the Muslims, progressives and general anti-semites know who to vote for.
Likely bought/paid for by the islamic constituency.
What bothers me is the “I see 5 lights, don’t you see 5 lights – THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!” (ST:TNG Chain of command where Picard is being tortured).
ADMIT YOU ARE AN EVIL ANTI-SEMITIC JEW-HATING NAZI – since you are and we will destroy you whatever you say and will take any apology as an admission of guilt and spin it that way.
This is the same problem as blacks (or virtue signalling whites and liberal jews) use with the charge of “racism”. It ceased meaning anything.
Is E Michael Jones “Thou shall not harm the Jew” racist? Is Nick Fuentes (today)? Do Europeans or Poles “drink anti-semitism with their mother’s milk” as the Daily Signal (Shapiro’s?) leaders or the foreign minister of Israel says respectively?
Anti-Semitism has been reduced to a kafka trap.
Instead of discussing the evils of his actual positions or claims, e.g. supporting Palestinians, and presenting reason and evidence, now Jews are just SJWs screeching insults.
Institutional anti-Semitism of a peculiarly British kind, whose virulence is masked by the sophisticated-sounding accent, has been endemic in the UK for centuries. An old saw there goes that being an anti-Semite means hating Jews more than is necessary. Maybe they still resent the fact that the Jews chased them out of Palestine, and in the process Begin blew up the British HQ (they refused to evacuate after he warned them) and hanged three sergeants in retaliation for British hexecuting Jews.. Corbyn is as much a symptom of this problem
Put a rocket down this maggot’s throat. Seriously.
Remember the 1932, you stupid Jewish liberals.
Corbyn is a turd.
Cornyn is a fascist monster.
We have them too. Obama was a warm-up.
Hillary Clinton was supposed to seal the deal.
Though Obama-Jarrett seeded the nation with immigrants electing the likes of tlaib and Omar, and the cancer of fascism is spreading.
When it comes to the “Socialism of Fools,” there’s never been any shortage of fools, have there?
What’s different now, perhaps, is the apparent ease with which these fools have been able to achieve electoral gains, in the USA as well as the UK.