Of ‘Jewish vote’ and ‘anonymous cosying up’

Marcus Dysch has written an important lead story revealing that senior members of the Jewish community are now mulling over their response to Jeremy Corbyn’s qualified success at last month’s general election. Yet even Dysch has been unable to get his sources to go on the record. Unsurprising really as they know exactly what kind of response they will receive.

So, just who are these “communal leaders” who believe it is time to start cosying up to Corbyn and his cronies? And who do they think they represent?

Let’s be clear, had Corbyn lost 30 existing seats as was widely predicted, there would have been no talk of this kind going on. So why change tune now? Why moderate the Jewish community’s position when it has just delivered its overwhelming verdict?

Some voices, notably those among the vanquished candidates from the Jewish Labour Movement, will argue that reaching out to Ken Livingstone when he was Mayor of London helped to repair relations between the Jewish Community and City Hall.

This is undoubtedly true. But the crucial differences were that Livingstone’s antipathy to Jews, as displayed towards the Evening Standard’s Oliver Goldsmith, was personal and not evidence at that time of a spreading cancer within the Labour party. Additionally, Livingstone was in a position to make policy decisions that affected the lives of Jewish Londoners, so community leaders collectively held their noses and did what had to be done.

Corbyn is not in the same position as Livingstone then was and, provided the Jewish community remain vigilant, he never will be. David Levenson,

Stanmore, Middlesex