The latest smear by the Times attempts to smear Jeremy Corbyn by association with a Jewish Holocaust survivor.
In 2010, according to the Murdoch rag, Jeremy Corbyn:
spoke at and opened a talk entitled Never Again — for Anyone. The event was part of a UK tour called Never Again for Anyone — Auschwitz to Gaza.
So far, so what? The talk was in the House of Commons, Corbyn was attending in his role as an MP and possibly as a representative of the London Regional Select Committee, of which he was a member.
The Times has nothing to offer to indicate Corbyn said anything controversial during his talk and cannot claim that Corbyn had anything to do with the content of Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer’s talk. It insinuates – but cannot quite bring itself to claim – that Corbyn should have done something about Meyer’s claims.
The Times then tries to smear Corbyn for praising Meyer before the meeting, at which point he knew nothing about what Meyer would say at the meeting.
Corbyn responded to the Times’ request for comment by saying he was sorry about any ‘concerns or anxiety’ people might have about his activities ‘in pursuit of justice‘ for Palestinians. The Times describes this as ‘an extraordinary apology‘ – but in reality it’s just a human being’s concern for the feelings of others.
But the article comes unstuck when trying to imply some kind of antisemitism on the part of the Labour leader, because Corbyn’s parliamentary record at the time – as it did before then and has since – shows him standing squarely side by side with Jewish people:
The absence of Early Day Motions (EDMs) supporting Jewish people after June 2015 is simply because he became the Labour leader and by convention front-benchers do not sign EDMs.
Comment:
The smears are growing more desperate, the associations and claims more tenuous and the Establishment’s motives more transparent – so transparent that people are increasingly seeing through them, as Labour’s resilient recent polling demonstrates.
The problem the Establishment faces is that the evidence consistently shows Jeremy Corbyn as a decent, compassionate and empathetic human being – a rarity among political leaders, perhaps, but one with which the public instinctively connects.
And his courtesy to an 85-year-old Auschwitz survivor – as the late Meyer was at the time – points as resolutely toward that decency as does his parliamentary voting record.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to reblog this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
Seems a few people are JOINING Labour due to this nasty campaign. Any stats on that? Just wondering…
If the relentless blustering falsehoods and spitting bile of the AS mongers aren’t apparent to a lot more than a few… I’m digging up my spaceship and going home.
Voters deserve the governments they get… and both deserve the consequences of their referenda.
Yes and No. The government voters almost always get, is as a consequence of the lies and smears and fabrications and half-truths etc, etc, directed at one party (unless it’s been taken over by Tories!), which is precisely the situation now. But for the vilification and demonisation and smearing of JC and members of the left (and the left in general), I have no doubt whatsoever that Jeremy Corbyn would now be PM (as of since the last GE).
Allan, not quite my point… which was that humankind en masse make uninformed and unintelligent choices.
Appreciate the correction though. My bad.
SB, please change “Voters” to “Electorates” for the archive – thanks! 🙂
I wasn’t criticising you David, just merely pointing out a fact of life.
The MSM should perhaps give a bit more attention to the fact that the Supreme Court has ruled that Theresa May’s Home Office has mislead the High Court. It is inconceivable that May-Bot hadn’t approved this undermining and corruption of the rule of law.
How much more serious can it get.
Was at Chris Williamson’s excellent Democracy Road Show tonight and a young Jewish member, fully supportive of Jeremy Corbyn, spoke out against the ‘weaponising of antisemitism’ by Corbyn’s enemies. He was given hearty applause by the audience.
In the last 8 years the Tories have proved themselves so spectacularly incompetent there’s no point them even trying to win an election on their own dismal record.
They can’t ditch austerity without everyone understanding that the last 8 years were unnecessary pain for not only zero gain but a net loss.
They can’t adopt Labour policies of investment in infrastructure and growth for the same reason.
They can’t agree on Brexit even among themselves and electorates don’t vote for divided parties.
All they can do is to smear Labour relentlessly until we appear even more divided than them – and that’s what they’re doing.
The balance of power continues to shift inexorably from governments worldwide to the global corporations of the 1%.
At some point not too far off the 1% become completely untouchable by legal means.
I suspect they fear our voices more than our votes at this time.
Withdrawing our spending may be necessary when the time comes to tame them.
They are getting ever more desperate in their efforts to get rid of JC, and it shows.
Read the letters of complaint to the Labour Party & Racial Equalities Commission attached at the bottom of the main text.
https://antisemitism.uk/caa-refers-labour-party-to-equality-commission-and-issues-new-complaint-against-jeremy-corbyn-over-holocaust-religion-event-and-hand-of-israel-comments/
“Campaign against antisemitism” another name to be added to the list of Zionist “front” organisations.
Steve, I wish I’d been un-lazy enough to read Falter & Glasman’s letter to EHRC before now.
The main thrust of their argument is “everybody (after years of effort by us) thinks JC and Labour are antisemitic so it must be true.”
Or, “There’s no smoke without fire” said the man with the burned fingers.
This paragraph is childishly naive as it reveals the lie:
“Despite claims that the Party does not have a particular problem with antisemitism, Campaign Against Antisemitism has conducted research showing that antisemitism amongst office holders in the Party is several times worse than amongst office holders in all other political parties combined. Though we have not yet released the research publicly (we intend to do so in due course) we would be willing to share it privately with the Commission.”
“We intend to do so in due course” is the big lie.
They intend no such thing – because then their “evidence” would be seen to be just more accusations unsupported by facts.
“Share it privately with the Commission” doesn’t allow fact checking, doesn’t allow Labour to challenge accusations and, most importantly, doesn’t allow Labour to sue them for defamation.
Publish what you have or shut the fuck up, “gentlemen.”
You may find this article about the CCA interesting.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/campaign-against-antisemitism-campaign-against-palestinians/19916
John McDonnell spoke of a rise in the desecration of Jewish cemeteries in a BBC interview today when he was asked about AS in Labour!!!
Had to Google it – found a Jewish Chronicle piece citing 3 occurrences in Urmston in the last 3 months.
Like every thinking person I hope the despicable morons responsible are found and jailed – but to mention that in reply to a BBC question about Labour – is he kidding?
Why would he be so monumentally stupid as to speak of that in the same breath?
Does he now have his eyes on the prize?
“…not too far off, the 1 per cent will be completely untouchable by legal means”….Laws are made by elected reps. Their money sits already in empty houses in London and £trillions in tax havens Boycotting the untouchables? With you in principle, but not sure that that is a workable strategy across them all. To be prescient with most likely scenario, it will be Civil War . Let’s hope the hard pressed Police cross over to our side.
Police almost universally support the established order – like at Orgreave – the military are a better bet. (Yes, I know they were there too 🙂 )
If any lefties have family members in the services it’s not too soon to educate them in the nature of the threat we’ll face and what the 1% will ask of them and why.
#Wearecorbyn. The more they push the closer we stand. Simples. Con’s are so self serving they can’t work together without stabbing or shoots themselves in a foot. You do have to lol.😅
Haven’t read the letters but:
“Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “The evidence shows BEYOND ALL DOUBT (my caps) that Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite and the Labour Party has become institutionally antisemitic”
was more than enough to convince me that anything Mr. Falter writes will be so maliciously defamatory as to be not worth my time.
Enough people will have it on record for however Labour decides to obtain satisfaction from the perpetrators.
I believe the only response from the EHRC will be a faux-sympathetically weasel-worded reply to the letter – the last thing its writers want is for their “evidence” to be held up to scrutiny and themselves to the ridicule and financial implications of negative findings on all counts.
They implicate and find Corbyn guilty on the ‘evidence’ that, among other opinions, Jewish charities agree he is guilty and as they are obliged to remain ‘apolitical’, their word is unbreakable.
Bit of the Tweezer in action like with Russia & US. Absolutely no proof.
Why has Corbyn apologised? On behalf of a Holocaust survivor? Is everyone saying a Holocaust survivor is an antisemite? Apologising makes everyone think you’ve done something wrong and their smears are correct, and it won’t make them back off they just keep coming for more.
Ms Ellman has stated that we(Labour) want to be the next government to address the injustices in our country but how can we do so when engulfed in a crisis over our failure to deal with anti Semitism. So given that the crisis is being regularly fuelled by a coterie of Labour MPs does she mean that resolving the anti Semitism issue is more important than concentrating on what is best for the entire population? If this is what she is doing should she continue to be an MP? I am willing to bet her constituents are more concerned with the state of our schools,NHS etc and even the “hostile environment “.than they are about the thoughts of a 90 year old Holocaust survivor ten years ago.Perhaps if people like Ms Ellman refrained from taking every opportunity to run to the media to exacerbate the situation and concentrated on fighting Tories we could be that next government.
‘I am willing to bet her constituents are more concerned with the state of our schools,NHS etc and even the “hostile environment “.than they are about the thoughts of a 90 year old Holocaust survivor ten years ago.’
As if elllman gives a flying f**k about what her constituents think…
https://skwawkbox.org/2018/07/27/ihra-motion-mps-clp-votes-overwhelmingly-to-support-labour-code/
Still won’t shut up and deal with more pressing matters to the constituency
As I’ve said time & again, given ellman’s laissez-faire attitude towards her lad dealing drugs, and considering it represents one of the most deprived areas in the land, with a high rate of drug taking and drug-related crime is ample evidence of what it thinks of it’s constituents.
Made more noise about Corbyn since 2015 than it has for it’s own constituents since 1997.
That’s ellman.
Presumably by ‘the injustices in our country’ she means the suffering of the poor oppressed Jews of North London – they who must travel the ghetto in groups by night, hiding in shadows until Labour’s brownshirts have moved on to commit their atrocities elsewhere?
THOSE injustices?
She must mean those injustices because she never rails about the injustices of poverty and health deprivation so many non-MPs struggle under since Tory austerity began after the Tory banking crash.
Shameful.
The ‘letters’ in the link at the bottom of the page are ridiculous, a load of hot air about ‘tropes’ and not much else….apart from the letter addressed to Tom Watson which is mischievous in the extreme….more than two pages of A4 devoted to a ‘trope’ employed by Corbyn’s brother and agreed with by Corbyn where his brother is alleged to have created an anti-semitic trope by saying that MP Louise Ellman’s attack on Jeemy Corbyn was politically motivated and absurd.
The whole thing stinks of paranoia and Machiavellian political shenanigans.
JC must stop apologising for nothing & get up off his knees, it’s embarrassing.
I had never heard of Hajo Meyer, but have just read his Wikipedia entry. I’m sure his claims horrified the Zionists but seem otherwise unexceptionable.
Am I missing something?
I hadn’t heard of him either but I liked these that Wikiquote attributed to him:
“Formerly an anti-Semite was somebody who hated Jews because they were Jews and had a Jewish soul. But nowadays an anti-Semite is somebody who is hated by Jews.”
“Auschwitz existed within history, not outside of it. The main lesson I learned there is simple: We Jews should never, ever become like our tormentors”
I see the bbc are really digging out the dirt on J.C.on tv this morning it’s so sickening.. plenty of airtime for that.. I wish I xould just stop buying a tv lic but then I’d go to prison or whatever…
You can it’s easy , just call the TV lic authority ( Google it ) and tell them you don’t need one any more.
Disconnect TV from aerial and if TV is a smart one connected to internet then just watch Netflix for movies and UTube for other info. Read bloggs like this and papers online .Just don’t watch any BBC/ITV Iplayer stuff .
#Ive dont it for 4 yrs now and no probs and the amount of time it frees up for other things rather than watching crap from the BBC is amazing
At risk of going O/T, I wouldn’t even bother informing Tv licensing…
http://tv-licensing.blogspot.com/2018/07/tv-licensing-hounds-recently-bereaved.html
Can I say that I within the last few minutes I have discovered something appalling., I am enraged to have found that Damien Enticott, a Bognor Regis Labour Councillor elected in February, is the second example that shows to me there is genuine anti-Semitism in Labour’s ranks – such fools and knaves who have made vile comments have done enormous damage to the left in Labour and to Corbyn. I know of two genuine cases – one a Council candidate who was told to go by Labour HQ a few months ago and now this Enticott,. Both have given fuel to the foaming media, so that it is now impossible to say “where is the evidence”? for he is the evidence. While Willsman was asking where is the evidence for widespread anti- Semitism, he now has to contend with Enticott’s comments. There is no context for saying what he did about Rabbis or about Hitler having a solution to Israel post the recent shootings in Gaza. Enticott must not only be thick but mad to have posted what he did. Unfortunately it only takes a few. Labour has to be purer than pure to survive the onslaught of the Conservatives and their allies on the extreme right, who will fan the flames and make a few nasty apples seem like a shed full. So much at stake. If people like Enticott exist then there are undoubtedly more like him in Labour. They must be called out. Of course I was incensed by the Gaza shootings and all the vile nonsense accusing Jeremy of anti Semitism. Just not true. But would never dream fo desending to the tropes and evil comment that Enticott indulged in. He has set back the political programme to make people’s lives better that only socialist Labour can bring. What he has done is therefore unforgiveable. Rosie Brocklehurst, Hastings CLP.
We can never ensure that not one single Labour supporter, official or elected representative is antisemitic – but no unbiased observer assumes one or two instances to be the tip of an iceberg.
We can only rid ourselves of the racists as we find them – when their statements give them away.
The biased observers we currently face also give themselves away by their own false statements.
I still believe we should stand up and fight the lies without compromise or concession while dealing harshly with racists.
I certainly don’t think it is the tip of an iceberg. But warped thinking idiots like him must be educated as to the damage they have done to the rest of us on the left. It is also important to be better than those like Louise Ellman, Luciana Berger , Ian Austin and Margaret Hodge and recognise and admit that people like Enticott did what they did and condemn it and him here on Skwawkbox unequivocally.
Whilst I empathise with your distress and your sense of betrayal at the actions of these two individuals it should be born in mind that both of these incidents seem to have been dealt with quickly and effectively by the party. I agree that 2 incidents like this in the LP is 2 too many but a sense of perspective must be maintained. the Tories had to discipline 18 of their prospective councillors for racism in just the 1 month prior to the local elections.
Yes Steve. It looks like they were dealt with swiftly. I do have a sense of perspective whereas the MSM don’t have perspective, only an agenda to topple Corbyn along with. Louise Ellman, who must have been the one who talked to the Times about the event in 2010 that she attended.
Yes, but what an amazing coincidence that this story should just come to light the very day after the Pete Willsman story broke AND, more to the point, what Pete said – ie “where’s the evidence….?”.
Given the febrile climate (courtesy of all the fake and bogus claims of A/S during the past nearly three years) it does seem extraordinary that a recently elected Labour councillor would make such comments (on facebook). But given that a bunch of Tories infiltrated the Labour Party and took it over for more then a decade, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Enticott was a an Establishment plant – ie a ‘sleeper’ – waiting to do his bit when called upon. Believe me, THEY exist!
Or are we supposed to believe that Enticott is so dumb that he didn’t see the repercussions for the LP – for JCs LP – prior to making such comments?!. Yes, in his explanation for saying the things he said, he gives the impression that it was something he did impulsively, because of what was happening at the time, but then the plants always have a convincing and credible-sounding story lined up to explain away why they said what they said (or did what they did). I mean to say that some Jews “need executing”………. Hmm, I just don’t buy it. It’s way, way over the top (for someone in his position and in such a febrile climate), and tantamount to handing your political opponents/enemies a massive great big gift.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-45029812
I imagine we’ve all known people who, sober, could give a good impression of a reasonable human being but whose true nature would surface after a few drinks.
Recklessness in drink regularly gets people killed – I’ve no evidence it’s ever been a factor in such circumstances as these but it has to be a possibility.
Doesn’t excuse anything obviously.
David, I’m fairly certain that HAD alcohol been a factor, Enticott would have said as much in his ‘defence’ (of how and why he said such things). THAT would have been the most obvious thing in the world to do, HAD it been the case. But he DIDN’T. And anyway, he ‘apologised for any offence caused, but said he stood by his comments’ (as stated in the article I linked to above). So I think we can rule out alcohol. Agreed?.
Allan, you’re making suppositions and asking me to accept them as fact.
I don’t work that way. “Has to be a possibility” is as far as I go without evidence.
David. You’re being disingenuous……. AGAIN!
Suppositions my backside!
Or are you suggesting that Enticott was not only inebriated when he made/posted the comments, but was ALSO inebriated when he said he stands by them.
Really David, you’re just making yourself look a complete idiot (and I think we all know that you’re NOT)!
Allan, you’re entitled to your opinion and that’s where I’m leaving it.
I’ve no wish to read another 4000 words on this and I imagine others feel the same.