- Jewish newspapers harmonised their front pages this week to condemn Labour
- Jewish groups have claimed a Corbyn government would be an ‘existential threat’
- many Jewish people have spoken out against these claims
- mainstream media have largely ignored those voices in their presentation of the issue
- a Jewish professor spoke four months ago predicting this ‘MSM’ treatment and said the media would be treating all Jewish people as if they are the same – a common antisemitic trope
Earlier this week, three Jewish newspapers published the same front page claiming that Jeremy Corbyn represents ‘an existential threat’ to Jewish people, in response to Labour’s elaboration of the ‘IHRA working definition’ of antisemitism.
The move has been treated as hugely significant by the mainstream media and by groups unfriendly to the Labour Party or its leader.
But the articles also suggested that a significant part of the agenda in the presentation of this issue is indeed to divert or prevent criticism of Israel when they claimed Labour is indulging:
political antisemitism targeting Israel.
Many Jewish people have spoken out powerfully about what they perceive as the exaggeration and motivation of these attacks, including well-known author Michael Rosen and writer Shaun Lawson.
But a video from four months ago has also been widely viewed because of its pertinence to the current circumstances. In March, when the Labour right and Tories joined forces with the Board of Deputies and others to mount a protest against the Labour leader in Parliament square, Jewish Labour members also gathered to support him.
One of them, Professor Annabelle Sreberny, gave a filmed interview in which she spoke passionately about her own experience of the Labour Party and of her and her family’s personal experiences with Jeremy Corbyn.
And she essentially said that if the media continued to present Jewish people as if they all have the same view and the same voice, they would be guilty of antisemitism:
It would be hard to deny that this is exactly what the ‘MSM’ has been doing in their eagerness to attack the Labour leader – and other Jewish groups and individuals have made a similar point to Labour’s clarifications of the IHRA ‘working definition’ or have felt compelled to condemn Israel’s behaviour this week in passing race laws:
Yesterday I said that the battle over the IHRA code is a proxy battle between LIkud and liberal Jews. And along comes Barenboim showing us the battle lines: ‘Israel is now an apartheid state.’ The IHRA code is unworkable. You can’t ban statements like that.
— Michael Rosen (@MichaelRosenYes) July 23, 2018
Tragically, many of those speaking out have been attacked as themselves antisemitic or with the vile epithet, “self-hating Jews”.
Comment:
When will the mainstream media give all Jewish people their voice on this issue?
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It’ll get to a point soon when Jewish people with the same views as Prof. Sreberny or Michael Rosen’ll be labelled ‘kapos’ by the jewish hardliners, or wes screeching.
Yes excellent point re being aware not to treat groups as though they are homogenous (all the same) like Trump and his Muslim Ban and the Far Right.
Meanwhile many of us on the Left (including Jewish Socialists) have been on the streets confronting the latest attempted rise of the Far Right.
But the question has to asked to the Right Wing Tory Jewish Leaders and their supporters and Right Wing Labour MPs: Where were you?
History repeating itself like the British Board of Jewish Deputies telling Jewish citizens not to participate in the Battle of Cable Street against Mosley’s blackshirts which was ignored by Jewish working class citizens and the rank and file of Labour, the Communist Party, and trade unions.
Best moment Irish working class women pouring the content of chamber pots on the Fascists!
The Far Right is the REAL existential threat to Jewish citizens, Muslims, all BME groups, LGBT citizens, Disabled citizens, socialists, social democrats, all progressives, working class people and the progressive middle class; we will continue to confront and challenge the Real Right Wing Barbarians because WE LOVE DIVERSE HUMANITY and WE ARE THE MANY, THEY ARE THE FEW!
JC4PM! Solidarity!
Yesterday I posted a comment on the Independent arguing that their article was presenting the attacks on Corbyn as if all Jews supported them.
Since the attacks are quite self-evidently dishonest politically partisan slurs, the Independent was claiming that all Jews support dishonest politically partisan slurs against one of the country’s leading campaigners against racism.
I posed the question whether the Independent thought that their approach was less or more likely to stoke real anti-Semitism, and argued that by branding all Jews as right wing dishonest smear-merchants they were themselves at least arguably being anti-Semitic. I suggested that they delete the article and redraft the story in its true form, namely that a dishonest and partisan right wing section of the Jewish community had launched this attack on Corbyn.
No answer, of course, but to give them their due, the comment was not moderated off.
Telling that the MSM chooses to ignore those Jewish voices with no political axe to grind – and instead to concentrate the fire of those whose aim is to defeat Corbyn whatever the cost to the (?) million victims of Tory austerity.
The Guardian featured an anti-Corbyn smear piece by Margaret Hodge. It then used the article to make a front-page news item about it.
No right of reply given to a Corbyn supporter, Jewish or otherwise. Absolutely disgraceful!
I’m so pleased you are highlighting these Jewish peoples views Skwawkbox… MSM have largely silenced such Jewish opinion and reading of this situation.
That’s one sign of a major MSM propaganda operation, omission of counter narratives and voices is one of their most powerful and frequently used tools in conjunction with flooding the output with the narrative or impression they wish to embed in the public consciousness. This is where independent outlets and social media come into play to ensure those silenced are given a voice for those willing to search widely, listen and think critically..
Professor Annabelle Sreberny nails it powerfully in a short, succinct video.
I just came across this tweet from Sonia Mota (via Tim Hayward) including three relevant clips from Prof. Avi Shlaim who is an Israeli historian, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and fellow of the British Academy.
Scroll down for the other two clips of him.
https://twitter.com/SoniaKatiMota/status/1023452436541964288
Note also the twitter comments from Sonia and Tim Hayward below..
As I’ve said before, it’s up to each and every one of us to expose the anti-semitism black propaganda campaign against the left which has been going on for the past three years or so since shortly after JC was elected leader of the LP, and which is being increasingly ramped up as time goes on. They all know – the Blairites, the MSM, these three Jewish newspapers etc – that when Ken Livingstone said, in passing, and in response to something Vanessa Feltz said to him, that Hitler supported the Zionists, that Ken was of course referring to the Havaara Agreement, which ended the Zionist boycott of Nazi Germany in the early 1930s. And they all know that the vast majority of allegations of anti-semitism are false and phony and contrived and, as such, THEY have been complicit in this smear campaign.
Using the example of Ken Livingstone – and one or two other high profile examples – we should be putting leaflets together exposing this black propaganda op, and distributing it in our local areas (and at the end of the leaflet of course to say to please copy and/or scan the leaflet and share and distribute to family/relatives, friends, neighbours and work colleagues etc). And be sure to mention of course that the Blairites et al are not only subverting and undermining democracy, but are in actual fact anti-democracy.
It’s not enough to only get the truth out there on social media and websites and blogs like Skwawkbox….. we need to reach the people who are being duped and mislead by the Few AND their propaganda machine!
These false allegations of anti-Semitism actually started when Ed Milband was leader because of his sympathies towards the Palestinians.
Against who? And do you have any links?
I just did a web search re (false) allegations of anti-semitism when Ed Miliband was leader, and I haven’t found anything YET in that regard, but I DID come across the following article, which is very interesting and enlightening:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/is-the-criticism-of-ed-miliband-a-coded-form-of-anti-semitism-9885745.html
And I just came across this, which starts by referring to the Jewish community as ‘swing-voting’, and uses the disingenuous example of how they backed Thatcher and then later backed Blair, who was of course more right-wing than THATCHER, as The Spectator knows full well:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/04/how-ed-miliband-lost-the-jewish-vote/
And I just came across this abhorrent piece of propaganda by Stephen Pollard in the New Statesman (well he did used to work at the Daily Express!):
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/01/stephen-pollard-s-diary-tony-blair-was-good-it-could-get-labour
I just did a double-take there! “stephen pollard’s diary”. Just how low can the New Statesman sink!
It’s difficult to know what’s worst: 1. falsely accusing and branding people as anti-semitic; 2. deceiving and duping millions of people; 3. using the very thing that led to the Holocaust as a weapon against your political opponents; 4. subverting democracy by doing all of the above.
IF I had to choose one of them, it would be the third, but they are all as bad as each-other of course, and the product of totally evil and devious minds. In a word, Psychopaths, who are of course inherently fascist.
The three jewish newspapers can spout all they want along with our MSM right leaning rags who are owned and run by those who believe the ordinary people of this country are brainless idiots, who, don’t know their arse from their elbow!
I have news for you all, “We will never side with your ponsificated lies about Jeremy, we who follow his doctrine, along with his philosophy of truth and will never stoop as low as you all have, in telling those who will listen to your fake news”!
The Labour Left are not fascist or anti-semitic!
No matter what the Right think, say or write.
As it is written, in History.