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Monday 4 July 2016

'Let’s stop this ludicrous idea that Jeremy Corbyn is some amiable buffoon who’s simply out of his depth... Jeremy Corbyn is one the nastiest and most cynical politicians ever to operate on the national stage.'

'Think about what happened for a moment. At an event to launch a report into Labour's attitude to anti-Semitism, the leader of the Labour Party – in a prepared script – thought the most appropriate thing he could say was: "Our Jewish friends are no more responsible for the actions of Israel or the Netanyahu Government than our Muslim friends are for those of various self-styled Islamic states or organisations."

One might say that the irony that he was launching a report condemning inappropriate comparisons with Israel was lost on him. But, as I will explain, it wasn't lost at all; it was deliberate. Some have tried to argue that his words do not compare Israel with Isil. You have to wonder if they can read. His point is that both Israel and Isil are extremists, terrorists, call them what you will. And while Muslims are decent because they do not support Isil's actions, so too Jews are decent when they do not support Israel. And, of course, only when they do not support Israel.

You could describe this as cloth-eared, or even stupid – and since he became Labour leader, the narrative has usually been that Mr Corbyn isn't up to the job, doesn't get it, isn't really to be taken seriously. But that is to give him credit he does not deserve.

The truth is far more unsavoury. It's clear from his speech that for Jeremy Corbyn, anti-Semitism is something to be weaponised. This was not some off-the-cuff remark, some slip. These were his – or probably Seumas Milne's – considered words. At a meeting on anti-Semitism, he thought the most appropriate thing that he could say was to compare Israel with Isil. This is hard-Left dog whistle politics. With "anti-Zionism" a defining feature of the hard-Left, this is using anti-Semitism as a tool.
If you doubt me, consider what else happened this morning. A Labour MP, who has spent her entire political career fighting racism, who worked at Hope Not Hate and has fought Islamaphobia and, as Mr Corbyn would put it, "all forms of racism", was singled out for attack by a Momentum activist. Singled out and abused directly in front of Corbyn.

Singled out and abused in front of Mr Corbyn while the Labour leader stood by and watched. Singled out and abused for being part of a conspiracy - a classic anti-Semitic trope - while Mr Corbyn said nothing.

That MP, Ruth Smeeth, had to leave the meeting because the abuse was so upsetting. And that MP is Jewish. Which Mr Corbyn knows full well. This is not the "hapless" Jeremy Corbyn of caricature. This is the cynicism of the true revolutionary.

Let's stop this ludicrous idea that Jeremy Corbyn is some amiable buffoon who's simply out of his depth. As this morning showed, Jeremy Corbyn is one the nastiest and most cynical politicians ever to operate on the national stage.

He is happy to stand by and watch, saying and doing nothing, while a Jewish Labour MP is viciously abused at an event about anti-Semitism.'

Do read the whole piece here in The Telegraph but you'll not find anything similar on the institutionally anti Israel BBC where ignoring the anti Semitism of the Labour Party is de rigeur.

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