So the folks at The Militant have been taken in by the Israeli propaganda
that equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. There has been a great deal
written on what has been happening in Great Britain regarding this subject.
I'm disappointed to see that this writer has such a superficial
understanding of the situation. What Livingston said, was clumsy and poorly
worded and poorly timed, but it referred to actual history. The Zionists in
Palestine did actually make an agreement to pay Hitler to send German Jews
to Palestine in the early 1930's. I've seen reference to this in several
books. At any rate, there are real anti-Semites and they can remain hidden
while people who are Jewish and who are not Jewish, who oppose Israel, are
being defamed by powerful pro Israel sources who wish to silence any
criticism of Israel.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2016 8:50 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] The stakes in UK debate on Jew-hatred in, Labour
Party
http://themilitant.com/2016/8020/802050.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 20 May 23, 2016
(special feature article, commentary)
The stakes in UK debate on Jew-hatred in
Labour Party
BY JONATHAN SILBERMAN
LONDON - A rise of Jew-hatred as the capitalist crisis deepens, combined
with years of the left's repetition of anti-Semitic slander - often under
the guise of supporting the Palestinian struggle - is fueling turmoil in the
British Labour Party.
Ken Livingstone - a member of the party's executive and former London mayor
- was suspended from Labour April 28 for "bringing the party into disrepute"
through anti-Semitic remarks. Also suspended is Labour MP Naz Shah. Some 50
Labour members have been disciplined, according to press reports.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn declared that his party opposes "tolerating
anti-Semitism in any form." He has set up an investigation, but claims there
is no crisis. Len McCluskey, leader of the Unite trade union, agreed,
attacking what he called a "cynical attempt to manipulate anti-Semitism for
political aims." Left-wing papers, including Morning Star, Socialist Worker
and Socialist, have joined the denial chorus.
"Ever since Jeremy Corbyn got elected," Livingstone said April 28, "the
media whip up all these issues, which are side-issues."
Corbyn's political opponents, both inside the Labour Party and in other
bourgeois parties, are taking this opportunity to go after him. And
Jew-hatred within the ruling class in Britain is not confined to the Labour
Party.
But anti-Semitism is no "side issue." And Labour's turmoil is not the
product of a smear campaign, but of its toleration over years of
anti-Semitic slanders and the promotion of open Jew-haters, along with
demonization of Israel and campaigns for Israel's destruction.
Shah shared a Facebook posting in 2014 that read, "Solution for
Israel-Palestine Conflict - Relocate Israel into United States." The posting
stated the "transportation cost" would be less than three years'
worth of Washington's support for Israeli defense spending.
Shah was a victim of a "well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel lobby,"
Livingstone claimed. While saying the Facebook post was "over the top,"
he added that "a real anti-Semite doesn't just hate the Jews in Israel, they
hate their Jewish neighbors" in London.
'Jewish money' slander
Last October, Labour MP Gerald Kaufman said that "Jewish money, Jewish
donations" were responsible for the UK government's Israel policy. And
prominent left Labour MP Tam Dalyell claimed in 2003 that the UK's leading
role in the Iraq war was due to the influence of a "Jewish cabal" over the
government.
The association of Jews and money and alleged Jewish conspiracies are the
stock-in-trade slander of anti-Semites.
The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign reinforces that
lie today - regardless of the intentions of those who participate in it -
through its protests targeting stores whose owners are Jewish, allegedly for
their support of Israel. To cover their anti-Semitism they often say
"Zionist" and "Zio" when what they really mean is "Jew."
Labour Party leaders like Corbyn have often embraced leaders of Hamas, who
claim to speak in the name of the Palestinian people. The Hamas government
of Gaza calls for the destruction of Israel, a stance echoed by much of the
left.
"Anyone who has a knife, a club, a weapon, or a car, yet does not use it to
run over a Jew or a settler, and does not use it to kill dozens of Zionists,
does not belong to Palestine," declared Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum in
August 2014.
Anti-Semitism under the pretext of support to the Palestinian struggle
undermines the Palestinian fight for national rights, including the fight
for a viable and contiguous Palestine.
'Anti-Zionist': code for anti-Jew
Livingstone says he is not anti-Semitic but "anti-Zionist." He told the BBC
anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitic because Hitler "was supporting Zionism .
before he went mad and ended up killing 6 million Jews."
The Holocaust was not the result of Hitler going mad, but of calculated
moves to scapegoat the Jews for the crisis of capitalism and to destroy the
workers movement in Germany.
Equating "Zionists" with Nazis has been a feature of Livingstone's politics.
When mayor of London he told a Jewish reporter that he was acting like a
"concentration camp guard." When he was leader of the Greater London Council
in 1981 and editor of Labour Herald, the publication carried a cartoon
depicting Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin as a Nazi.
Jew hatred is a product of capitalism in decay. Its ultimate purpose is to
divert workers from a united militant struggle by promoting the poisonous
lie that the problem is not capitalism, but evil Jewish capitalists. And it
goes hand in hand with fascism, which proclaims that the solution is not
internationalism and workers taking power and replacing the dictatorship of
capital through revolutionary struggle, but "national socialism," the polar
opposite of the course fought for by communists since the time of Marx and
Engels.
As the worldwide capitalist crisis deepens, Jew-hatred will continue to
erupt. Class-conscious workers must oppose it everywhere it rears its head.
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