Life under PM Corbyn is a terrifying prospect

WOULD LIFE for Jews really be so different if Jeremy Corbyn is elected prime minister later this month? Those who want to see Corbyn in power claim the answer is no. Life, they would have us believe, would continue quite normally, even if the political scene becomes more uncomfortable for Israel supporters. After all, Corbyn is hardly going to round up Jews in the street. He would still be prime minister of a Western democracy with checks-and-balances and antiracist Cabinet members would limit his ability to do damage.

The implication is that the threat of a Corbynite government to Anglo-Jewry is vastly exaggerated. Some mean to reassure us; others to gaslight us. But the majority genuinely do not understand how Corbyn could seriously damage our community, and feel safe voting Labour, not out of malice but out of naïvety.

This is why the question of how a Corbyn government will hurt us deserves a serious answer.

Let’s start with the least discussed impact of a Corbyn victory. Within days, those with serious wealth will take their money out of the country, anticipating capital controls, punitive new taxes and financial collapse.

Jews will hardly be alone in this, but capital flight will damage our little community’s viability. Our charities and communal institutions depend on the generosity of a relatively small group of mega-donors who keep them afloat.

When the big supporters are gone, how will we sustain the communal infrastructure on which Jewish life in this country depends? It will be very difficult.

Now, you might argue this is unfortunate, but does not make Corbyn a villain. He is entitled to set the financial policies he likes — any damage to the Jewish community is incidental.

But for many Jews — including those who are not millionaires, but simply people with reasonable means — there will be additional urgency to leave because they are afraid of living under an antisemite. This is his fault and his eternal shame, and will leave the remaining community struggling.

Meanwhile, we have already seen how Jews in the Labour party are systematically harassed and hounded if they are not willing to denounce Israel. With an emboldened Labour in power, Zionists — the vast majority of British Jews — are likely to become persona non grata in government and in cultural circles dominated by the left, unless they pass an ideological purity test — one which confounds the very heart of our Jewish identity. Jews would effectively be marginalised in public life.

The situation on campus is already difficult for many Jewish students (and academics), who report being regularly and aggressively held accountable for the actions of Israel — a foreign state — and encountering Holocaust denial and other expressions of antisemitism. It can and will get worse: Witness McGill University in Montreal, where a Jewish member of the student society’s legislative council was recently told she would have to resign unless she canpercent), celled a trip to Israel. That’s the ideological purity test in action, coming here soon.

The public atmosphere is likely to become febrile. Jews would have to tolerate terror groups and regimes who wish to kill us — Corbyn’s friends — being welcomed on state visits. Antisemitic incidents, already at an all-time high thanks to Labour anti-Jewish racism, will shoot up. Events with Israeli speakers would be all but impossible to host — one can imagine staples of the Jewish community calendar, like Jewish Book Week, being picketed. And the video of Labour activists loudly jeering Matt Hancock this week when he mentioned Labour antisemitism shows how difficult it will be to protest once they are in power.

There will be no one to speak for us, anyway. “Moderate” Labour MPs have already made their peace with Corbyn, campaigning for him. And as Opposition leader Corbyn already shuns the legitimate leadership of the Jewish community, preferring a tiny number of Jews who travel in his ideological circles, and who are despised by the rest of the community for whitewashing his anti-Jewish racism; as well as utterly marginal Charedi activists, like the craven Shraga Stern, who apparently believe Corbyn will allow Charedi schools to avoid teaching about homosexuality. The mainstream community will be voiceless.

None of these are risky predictions, because almost all of it is happening already to some degree. Prime Minister Corbyn would simply bring the anxiety and distress of the past few years all to their logical — and terrifying — conclusion.