Rumours of infiltration and interference in the workings of the Labour party by the Israelis have long been rumoured – rumours that were rarely spoken aloud because of the likely pavlovian response.
Now, thanks to undercover work by Aljazeera, the Israelis themselves have admitted:
- to working to ‘take down’ MPs they considered troublesome or unfriendly to their interests
- that they don’t want Corbyn to be Labour leader
- to setting up groups within the Labour party to further their interests
- to ‘helping’ those groups achieve their ends
Now consider the facts that:
- the group ‘Labour Friends of Israel’ (LFI), specifically mentioned in the undercover recordings, supported antisemitism smears against the Labour party. Many smears specifically blamed Jeremy Corbyn for the supposed increase in antisemitism
- LFI and other Jewish groups shamefully attacked Shami Chakrabarti after her investigation did not support the smears
- the Jewish Labour MP who ‘fled in tears’ from the Chakrabarti report press conference did so over comments that were not antisemitic or aimed at Jewish people
- the same Labour MP has been funded by LFI and used to work for a pro-Israel campaign group, BICOM (and was also considered a ‘strictly protected’ source by US Intelligence)
- many of the most vehemently anti-Corbyn faction are closely associated with LFI. Michael Dugher, who writes for right-wing rags against Corbyn, Gloria de Piero, who infamously appealed to Sun readers to join the party to defeat Corbyn (both pictured below with Ruth Smeeth and Tom Watson on an LFI junket), are listed on the LFI website as officers.
Gloominaries such as Ian Austin, Jess Phillips, Chris Leslie, Chuka Umunna, Conor McGinn, Wes Streeting, Margaret Hodge, John Spellar, John Woodcock and others are ‘supporters’
Deputy leader Tom Watson is not only a supporter but keynote speaker at LFI’s 2016 ‘annual lunch’ and praised LFi for being ‘fearless in its support for the state of Israel’ - LFI supporter Tom Watson appointed LFI supporter and former vice-Chair Michael Dugher to head a ‘fake news inquiry’ that is plainly an attack on pro-Corbyn independent media
- At least one of the two Labour MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Committee (CHAC) – Umunna – is an LFI supporter, while the other is Jewish but not listed as a supporter. David Burrowes on the CHAC is an officer of Conservative Friends of Israel, a group to which at least 80% of Tory MPs below, so it’s highly likely that all of the other 5 Tories on the CHAC are supporters
- The CHAC issued statements smearing Labour as having an antisemitism problem on the basis of a CHAC report, even though the end of their own report unequivocally concludes that it does not
The Israeli ambassador to the UK has issued an apology and the government says that makes it ‘case closed’. This is self-evidently not so.
The Labour leadership and some senior Tories are calling for a full government inquiry. Given the government’s readiness to accept ‘oops, sorry’ from the Israeli embassy as enough for ‘case closed’, they shouldn’t hold their breath.
However, that does not prevent Labour having its own inquiry into these goings-on and the following actions should ensue:
- The Labour members of the CHAC should be instructed to hand in their resignations from that committee immediately
- Labour Friends of Israel should be disbanded/proscribed immediately
- Tom Watson and Michael Dugher at the very least should be immediately suspended pending investigation
- any MPs found to have colluded with/worked for the Israelis to discredit the Labour party or its leadership should be required to resign not just the whip but their seats immediately.
What’s more, as a glance at the LFI officers/supporters list shows, membership of LFI and membership of anti-Corbyn right-wing ‘party within a party’ Progress are almost contiguous. The SKWAWKBOX has been calling for the proscription of Progress for a long time and this should be done at the same time.
Enough is enough – and we’ve put up with more than enough.
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Documents:
lfi-parliamentary-supporters-labour-friends-of-israel
about-conservative-friends-of-israel-cfoi-_-conservative-frien
deputy-leader-tom-watson-mps-speech-to-lfi-annual-lunch-2016-l