No to Labour
There is a standing, unwritten rule about politics and diplomacy that is accepted by pretty much everyone in the free world: you don’t butt in on an internal election being held in another country.
It’s not done, and for good reason: Democracy demands that by virtue of a ballot placed in a box, a country’s citizens get to constitutionally decide who will represent them and their interests.
But every once in a while, there is an exception – a historic exception – that demands interference, as hindsight has proven to be true.
The world faces such an opportunity now to stand up and declare which side it stands on, because the issue facing Great Britain’s voters on Election Day in 24 hours is now upon us.
The issue, of course, is Jeremy Corbyn: the 70-yearold politician who heads the Labour Party and who has been head of the opposition since 2015. He is the leading candidate running tomorrow challenging the leadership of Boris Johnson, which means he could become the prime minister by Friday morning.
This is not easy – for anyone. Citizens across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have a major issue before them at the ballot box, the reason why this snap election was called in the first place: the future of Brexit. And that is important, and a question for the people of the United Kingdom to decide.
But there is another issue – just as large, just as important, that also stands before the voters: Jew-hatred. Plain and direct, there is no other way to say it. This is an issue that cannot be ignored, and that demands a loud and open response.
To be clear: this is not a matter of political leanings. The Labour Party has always stood to the left of center, backing issues and taking sides on subjects that held to its worldview. No problem there.
But it is clear, with overwhelming evidence, that Jeremy Corbyn does not just represent those ideals of Labour and the Left. This is not a matter of being critical of Israeli policies, or vowing to immediately recognize a Palestinian state upon election, or to halt arms deals with Israel.
This is also a matter of calling Hezbollah and Hamas operatives “friends,” or attending a memorial ceremony for the Palestinian terrorists who murdered 11 Israelis at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
No, Corbyn’s politics is personal, and he – and his party – has a problem with Jews, as illustrated in recent weeks by his failure, despite repeated requests, to simply apologize to the Jewish people.
This is so obvious that Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis took the extraordinary step last month of telling his followers how to vote: with their conscience.
“A new poison – sanctioned from the very top – has taken root,” he said of the Labour Party, adding that the “very soul of our nation is at stake.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz weighed in last week, telling Army Radio that “I won’t meddle in internal elections, but I personally hope that he won’t be elected, with this whole wave of antisemitism… I hope the other side wins.”
This week, Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid spoke out as well, telling 25 pro-Israel parliamentarians from around the world: “Usually, you’re not supposed to interfere with the election in other countries – but in this case, I’m going to make an exception. Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite.
“If you want to know something [about antisemitism] there are experts, and the experts are called Jews,” he said. “So I’m an expert on this one. And we can tell an antisemite when we see one. This isn’t even a new form of antisemitism. This is old-school, plain antisemitism, just using new excuses. And anyone in his right mind should take this into consideration while walking into the polling booth, because racists are racists are racists, and Jeremy Corbyn is a racist.”
There are some who will say that such comments will only help Labour, that an Israeli politician attacking Corbyn will galvanize the party’s grassroots.
Not in this case. The moral imperative demands speaking up, at all costs. We, too, urge British voters to vote with their conscience. History demands nothing less.