We need to talk about Israel, the Labour Party, anti-Semitism and the rise of the far-right
Back in 2016, I warned that the Board of Deputies, the press and The Barking MP Dame Margaret Hodge were playing a dangerous game throwing around accusations of anti-Semitism like confetti. This culminated in many people being thrown out of the Labour Party, including many members of Jewish Voice for Labour #JVL, an organisation of which I was a member. Long established grass roots activists were subject to unsubstantiated witch-hunts based on the flimsiest of evidence. I warned that the adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism with examples was a bear trap to reinforce this, and this was subsequently acknowledged by its author, Kenneth Stern. I said at the time that this was been weaponised to close down legitimate criticism of Israeli policy on Palestine and to target Corbyn because of his stance on it.
There were internal investigations and a highly publicised investigation by the EHRC which led after some considerable time and expense to nothing. I take no pleasure in that vindication. The damage was done. Then there was the Forde Report, which backfired on Starmer when it failed to provide the smoking gun he expected it to, but instead criticised the Labour Party. Yes, there was some identified anti-Semitism, but nothing like it was blown up to be and Corbyn was thrown out of the party for pointing this out.
In March 2023, Martin Forde complained that the real issues within the Labour Party of hierarchical racism and Islamophobia were not being addressed and the Labour Party had largely ignored his recommendations. Once again, the Labour Party didn't care because their objective of using faux accusations of anti-Semitism to purge the left were achieved.
Jeremy Corbyn terrified the ruling class in Britain.
Following the General election of 2019, the press that had ran and ran with accusations of anti-Semitism and smears on an industrial scale against Corbyn and the left almost daily as front page headlines stopped overnight. The Labour Party continued to persecute its left-wing Jewish members: who the arrogant right wing kapos in the BoDs continued to call the them the 'wrong type of Jews'. Meanwhile, Corbyn still attends the annual Seder at his local Synagogue in his constituency as he has done for years. I warned that playing fast and loose with accusations of anti-Semitism would come back and bite Jewish communities around the world. Let's be honest, apart from areas where there are recognisable Orthodox Jewish Communities, would most people even recognise someone that was Jewish? This ignorance and ambivalence works well for Jewish communities because it is a historical fact that when the public do take interest in Jewish communities, it is seldom benevolent.
Contrary to how it has been portrayed in the press over the past few years, Jews are not a singular entity. They are not the Borg. Different communities have different cultures and beliefs, and individuals have their own views which sit on one hand as ultra-orthodox and on the other as secular atheist and all points in between. Just like any other community.
I have a difficult relationship with Israel, and I am not alone. It’s a wonderful place I feel a spiritual affinity to it, but equally it troubles me. There are as many opinions of Israel as there are Jews. Some will back Israel unquestionably irrespective of what it does. Some are anti-Zionist. Some don't even recognise the right of Israel to exist and say it should be a theoretical and theological concept. Some just have a big problem with its minority far right Government and its behaviour and interaction with its neighbours. Some favour a two-state solution, some see Eretz Israel and a return to the boundaries of the Davidic Kingdom. As we are seeing at the moment there are some that are just out of control fascists intent on land grabs and committing war crimes.
Then October 7th happened.
October 7th was a wake-up call. The actions of HAMAS were chilling. What they did was they brought back memories that many elderly people would rather forget. Innocent people were slaughtered or kidnapped. This was inhumanity in its most gruesome form. What Israel did next was wrong. It has set itself on a path which Iit couldn't control. No one would expect Israel to stand by and do nothing when something as abhorrent as that happened, but rather than surgically going after HAMAS it chose shock and awe. It chose collective punishment, ethnic cleansing, and it chose genocide. On a YouTube statement Bibi said, 'Never Again', before equating Israel's intended response to that of Saul against Amalek. This is chilling because it clearly laid out his intentions. In Samuel 1 15:3 it states: [Saul]
"Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay bot man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass".
This is not biblical hyperbole. We saw this played out on the news every day. To underline this point Amir Avivi, who used to head up the Gaza Division of the IDF said "When our soldiers are manoeuvring, we are doing this with massive artillery, with 50 aeroplanes overhead destroying anything that moves". Unsurprisingly, there was pushback. Around the world there have been huge demonstrations against the disproportionate response of Israel and the wholesale indiscriminate slaughter. In response to this, Tzipi Hotovely, the Israeli Ambassador, used gaslighting of epic proportion and claimed that there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Likud and its supporters in the BoDs, in the British Government, Opposition and in some Jewish communities doubled down. They claimed that anyone who was critical of Israel was victim shaming and as such are binarised as a supporter of HAMAS. Equally, anyone who is Jewish who was critical was ridiculously accused of being a self-hating Jew. Jewish Voice for Labour were called self-hating Jews - well, here's the thing, I'll let you into a secret, we don't hate ourselves at all. Not one bit, we have always appreciated our Jewish heritage. What we do hate is war criminals murdering children in our name. So fuck you.
This attempt to close down criticism has one flaw. It won't work this time. It won't work this time because the social compact around the stigma of anti-Semitism has gone. And we did it to ourselves. It was eroded over 4 years with the hounding of Corbyn. Many none Jews are quite frankly sick of claims of anti-Semitism and these accusations no longer hold the power they once had against perpetrators of this. The world is a less safe place because of the rabbit that Jonathan Arkush and Margaret Hodge set off in 2016. Thank you Bods. Thank you Margaret Hodge. Thank you Labour Friends of Israel. No amount of bulging briefcases from Shai Masot can put this right this time. I hope you are proud of yourselves.
On October 7th, any of us that know Israel knew exactly what was going to happen next. On October 17th I wrote an open letter to the Israeli Government.
The events of the past week are horrific. The level of tragedy from the events carried out by HAMAS is indescribable. The loss to the families of those needlessly slaughtered and abducted is something those of us that are not personally affected cannot even begin to imagine. Any person with a shred of humanity condemns these actions in the strongest of terms.
However, as angry as you are, collective revenge is not the answer. This is not the justice your fallen deserve. How many more innocent people must die to avenge this terrorist atrocity? The women and children of Gaza did not carry out these attacks. A victory built on the blood of innocents is no victory at all. And mark my words, every child that dies from bombs, starvation or lack of medical care will be a recruiting sergeant for 100 more children that survive. So, by turning Gaza into an abattoir, you will ensure the creation of a new generation of hostile battalions. HAMAS have ruled Gaza for long enough but now is the time to show the humanity that was not shown to you. This is not a weakness. It is a strength.
HAMAS created a battle plan. They wanted any further collaboration between Israel and Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia to stop. And in this they have succeeded. They want Hezbollah, Iran and anyone else who feels strongly enough to join into the fray. Whether they do is up to you. You are walking into a trap that surely you must see. Your actions will determine how this pans out. You are the masters of your destiny and at the very least you owe it to future generations of Israelis that they may live in peace with their neighbours. Think carefully. That peace for generations may die with your decisions of the next 48 hours. From the jaws of tragedy, you have been given an opportunity. It is clear to all that you feel you must punish HAMAS and you must be seen to punish HAMAS. Nobody would blame you. Perhaps you will think twice before enabling another HAMAS. However, if you must punish the terrorists, you must punish only the terrorists. That is the justice for your slaughtered. This is well within your powers and capabilities and you know exactly who these people are.
Please, revise your response before it is too late. Show the people of Gaza that HAMAS are the problem and not the solution by showing that you can act as a responsible and benevolent neighbour rather than an oppressor. Show the rest of the Arab world that you can be a dove as well as a hawk and that to work with you would be a benefit to them and not a mistake.
Golda Meir once said “When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.” HAMAS clearly do not love their children more than they hate Israel or they would not have placed them in this position. HAMAS is a tumor that has to be cut out, but you don't treat a cancer by killing the patient. The peace that Golda craved for does not come at the end of a bayonet pointed at a child.
If you believe in the biblical promise of Israel then you must also believe the Rabbinical laws as passed down in the Talmud, and in particular mipnei darkhei shalom (In the interest of peace). In Avot 1:18 Rabbi Simeon ben Gamliel states that three things preserve the world: truth, justice, and peace. Of these peace is the greatest. Is it justice for the slaughtered to make war against those who did not start this? Those who's complicity is only by geography? Is it the truth that Israel has become Azrael? This is not the way. Isaiah 2:4 commands you to turn your swords into ploughshares but that can only be achieved when your swords are redundant. If you rule by the sword your swords will always be needed. Equally Reb Pinkhas taught us, "If you wish to guide others, you must not become angry at them, because not only will the anger pollute your own soul, it will infect those you are guiding as well". If you wish peace with the Palestinians, you should therefore separate them as a people from those who use them as a political force.
There is little time. People are dying as we speak and it is escalating beyond any point of control. Israel and only Israel has the power to control and stop this. I am just asking you to stop and think before you carry out actions that cannot be undone.
Of course they didn’t listen. They never do. The western press gave huge platforms to Israel to lie about what happened, as if what happened wasn’t bad enough. We listened to people on the news saying unchallenged bullshit about beheaded babies and unborn children being cut out of their still living mothers.
That should have been enough for the West to put the brakes on but instead we doubled down in our support for Israel. We even participated in the genocide with the RAF carrying reconnaissance sorties over Gaza from Cyprus for the IDF. And now Donald Trump and Netanyahu are proposing ethnic cleansing and a real estate deal to turn Gaza into a sort of Israeli fucking Butlins.
Of course, this was the plan all along, last year there were real estate auctions in the US and Canada for land in Gaza that Israel doesn’t own.
We now hear that real anti-Semitism. Not the faux bullshit about Corbyn but the real stuff, the scary anti-Semitism we thought had been put in a box, is on the rise - largely as a response to Israel's actions in Gaza. The anti-Semitism of the Pogroms, of the Pale, and yes, of the Shoah. The real anti-Semitism where Jews are persecuted and killed - and this is now an existential threat and a real and present danger to all Jews. It is reported that instances of this are through the roof both in the UK and around the world. Even in the USA the FBI has raised concern about this.
In 2023 there was a pogrom in Dagestan. A mob in of Jew haters on the rampage. It was barely reported, a hate crime in a distant land few people could point to on map. But I predict this was a harbinger of things to come. With every atrocity that Israel carries out more people will begin to hate Jews, because just like the far right in Israel, none Jews will not draw a distinction between Jews that support these war crimes and the actions of an increasingly rogue state, and those that don’t, and the collective punishment metered out on the Palestinians for the actions of HAMAS will become the collective punishment of Jews in retaliation. Tie this in with the rise and hypernormalisation of the far right in Europe and America and these are becoming dangerous times to be Jewish.
With the flattening of Gaza and every incursion into the West Bank by murderous settlers and the IDF, Israel creates more enemies for people who don’t even share Israel’s world view. With every child that dies in an airstrike new battalions are formed against us. This is what HAMAS wanted from the outset and Israel was warned that this would be the result, yet it did it anyway.
The new anti-Semites mobilised by Israeli genocide won't care if the Jews they target support Israel or not. Israel may spin that this started on October 7th but we all know it didn't don't we. You can't poke a cobra with a stick for nearly a century and not expect it to strike back. The arrogance and lack of self-awareness shown by Likud is breath-taking. What is chilling but not surprising is our own Government's acquiescence. What is absolutely unforgivable is the position of the Labour Party and that gaslighting bastard Starmer who, if you remember, looked straight faced as following his claims that It was Israel’s right to commit war crimes, he said this was not what he said. It's on record, we fucking saw you do it. You are supposed to be a human rights lawyer.
So, the world is a less safe place for Jews now, whether they support Israel or not, whether they live in Israel or in the diaspora, whether they are observant or not. Israel has engineered this with its response to the atrocities of HAMAS. Labour and the BoDs have weakened public outrage to anti-Semitism by their sustained blanket use of it against the Labour Left. Well fucking done. Slow hand clap.
In the meantime, all we are left to do is pray for the souls of those murdered on October 7th, hope that the hostages that are still incarcerated are safe, lament the slaughtered innocents in Gaza and lastly pray for both Jewish and Palestinians grieving families and for our families ourselves.
The ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the murderous incursions into the West Bank are not in my name. I hope Bibi cries himself to sleep at night as he thinks about the war crimes committed that he claims are to protect all Jews, and that his dreams are haunted by the souls of the innocent lives of the children he has snuffed out.
I doubt the fucker can sleep at night anymore anyway.
