We have all read of the Labour Party’s Jewish problem, or rather Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party Leader’s problem. The anti-semitic sneers from Party members, the (alleged) jokes against anyone who shows or exhibits the slightest sign of sympathy for both Israel and Jews in general. The vicious comments on Twitter which show up and just as quickly are deleted. The silence from that same Leader when any sign of anti-Semitism is noted, the deep hesitation when demands are made to have one or more Party members investigated, suspended or dismissed from the Party. The reluctance to even accept that Labour itself has a ‘Jewish problem’, even though many prominent Party members are Jewish themselves.
Corbyn’s problem stems, as far as I can understand, from many strands of his early life and passage through Parliament. He has always had great sympathy for the ‘underdog’. In his own eyes and mind; never mind his political version of reality, anyone, individual or group, standing against Israel is likened to a twisted version of ‘David versus Goliath’: with Israel as the ‘Goliath’, the bully, the friend of America: and any who stand against Israel as that ‘David’.
He spoke of Hamas as “an organization that is dedicated towards the good of the Palestinian people and bringing about long-term peace and social justice and political justice in the whole region.” Hamas: the one organisation whose very Charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel; the terror organisation which insists that the thousands of rockets stored and fired from schools, homes and hospitals are but a symbol of a People yearning to be free. How free is but a statement, as the only opposition to Hamas in Gaza was ruthlessly hunted down and slaughtered.
Corbyn extended a hand to Raed Salah, a preacher of hate associated with the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. “He is far from a dangerous man,” Corbyn posited rather oddly. “He is a very honoured citizen. He represents his people extremely well and his is a voice that must be heard.”
The unfortunate truth about the stench of anti-semitism which hangs around Labour, and around the very body and mind of Jeremy Corbyn is one of Numbers. He knows that there are approximately 300,000 Jewish people living in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He also knows that he cannot really count upon the votes of the Jewish community as a voting bloc, mainly because the Jews are as sensitive as American sonar to jibes, jokes and sneers as the grass in the fields is to the wind.
But it is because he is, first and foremost a Labour politician to his very fingertips that he really doesn’t worry about that same stench, because his base, in a hundred towns and cities, is anchored and sustained within the Islamic community. It is the one thing which wipes out all the centuries-old arguments between Sunni and Shia, along with all the sub-sects and marginalised children of Muhammed: it is the true detestation of Israel, of the Jews, of anything connected with International Judaism. He will not condemn anti-semitism within his own Party, because that, folks; is the one thing which would hack away at the very foundations of the Muslim support and Muslim voting strength: for the Labour Party.
Labour’s very ethos has been overtaken by the Hard-Left, with Momentum breathing down the very constituencies of moderate Labour MPs. This has taken place because the people who remembered what the Labour Voters actually thought of Hard-line Left ideals, Communist practices and Socialist principles have nearly all either disappeared from Party structures, or they have been sidelined by the new Old Labour; red in tooth and claw. They forgot that it took Neil Kinnock nearly five years to rid his Labour Party of Militant; and it took Tony Blair to make a moderate Labour Party electable.
Corbyn can count, and 300,000 votes are cancelled out by 2,750,000 Muslim votes for Labour: and that is why we only get words, and not very strong words at that, from the anti-semitic side of Jeremy Corbyn.