Ex-chief rabbi: We fear for our children if Corbyn wins
‘Flames of hatred’
JEWISH people fear their children would not be safe under a Labour government, former Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks warned yesterday.
In a devastating intervention, he said some Jews were considering leaving Britain in the event of a Labour victory because of Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to tackle the anti-Semitism crisis.
He warned that a government led by Mr Corbyn could leave the UK ‘engulfed... in flames of hatred’.
‘Jews have been in Britain since 1656,’ he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show. ‘I know of no other occasion in these 362 years when Jews – the majority of our community – are asking, “Is this country safe to bring up our children?” ‘Now, this is very, very worrying.’ Asked whether Jews were considering leaving the country, he replied: ‘Of course. When people hear the kind of language that’s been coming out of Labour, that’s been brought to the surface among Jeremy Corbyn’s earlier speeches, they cannot but feel an existential threat.’
Last week, Lord Sacks reacted angrily to news that Mr Corbyn had said in 2013 that British Zionists ‘don’t understand English irony’, calling the comment ‘the most offenforms sive statement made by a senior British politician since Enoch Powell’s 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech’.
The comparison angered supporters of the Labour leader, but Lord Sacks insisted yesterday it was accurate – and that Mr Corbyn was ‘as great a danger as Enoch Powell was’.
Lord Sacks said Mr Corbyn’s approach ‘ is in danger of engulfing Britain in the kind of flames of hatred that have reappeared throughout Europe, and is massively irresponsible’.
He added: ‘There is a danger that Jeremy Corbyn may one day be Prime Minister. He is the leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition, and I’m afraid that until he expresses clear remorse for what he said and what his party has done to its Jewish sympathisers, as well as its Jewish MPs, then he is as great a danger as Enoch Powell was then.’
However, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said comparisons between Mr Corbyn and Enoch Powell were ‘ just wrong’, adding: ‘ Jeremy has made it clear we will protect Jewish members of our party from any form of abuse and anti-Semitism. I just say to Lord Sacks, “You’ve got it wrong, come and talk to us.”’
But Jon Lansman, head of Momentum, the far- Left’s grassroots movement, suggested Mr Corbyn may consider training on the issue, telling a Jewish Labour conference: ‘There is always a place for training in everyone’s lives and Jeremy has a commitment to lifelong learning.’ Ahead of a meeting tomorrow of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee ( NEC) on whether to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antiSemitism in full, Mr McDonnell said: ‘I think all sides will be satisfied with the proposals that will be discussed – I think acceptance overall... also the commitment to freedom of speech and... a recognition of the rights of Palestinians.
‘From what I’ve heard, it will be resolved, and there will be a balance about acceptance, as people want, but also, exactly about what others have said as well – Lord Sacks himself – that freedom of speech is important as well.’ However, Claudia Webbe, a leading member of the NEC and ally of Mr Corbyn, refused to say whether she would back calls to adopt the definition, saying it did not protect Jewish communities or allow people to express opposition to the Israeli government.
Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn was backed by Arab MPs in the Israeli parliament last night. An alliance of four Arab-dominated parties praised ‘ his long-standing solidarity with all oppressed peoples... including his unflinching support for the Palestinian people.’
Mr Corbyn was criticised last month by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for laying a wreath at the grave of figures linked to the terror attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
The leader of Israel’s Labour Party, a sister organisation to its UK counterpart, severed links this year over the antiSemitism crisis.