Andrew Neil tells shul that hard-left is ‘biggest threat’

JOURNALIST ANDREW Neil has said “hard-left Corbynista” politics poses the “biggest threat” to British Jews in an address to Bushey United Synagogue on Monday.

Speaking to a sold-out crowd, the former BBC presenter and Sunday Times editor said that when he was younger antisemitism largely came from “the knuckle-dragging hard right… the scum of our society”. Now the hardleft, fuelled by identity politics and a “visceral hatred” of Israel, are a greater danger, he argued.

He said that while the departure of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had dissipated this threat, it was still there. In part this was due to the rise of identity politics, which “poisons our discourse,” he said.

“It emphasises what makes us different and de-emphasises what brings us together.” Also to blame, he said, was a rejection of Israel “that is easily tipped over into antisemitism”.

“It will be fought,” the veteran political journalist concluded. “You will fight it, but you won’t be alone. We’ll all be fighting it, and we’re going to win.”

Mr Neil said social media was “a cesspit” that gave antisemites a greater platform than ever before. He called upon politicians to change the law and treat social media platforms as publishers, holding them accountable for hate speech propagated on their websites.

The shul’s senior rabbi, Elchonon Feldman, told the JC that Mr Neil’s “honest and direct talk” included “a frank acknowledgement that antisemitism is not going away and that it must be fought. He heartwarmingly concluded though that the Jewish community would not have to fight alone as we can always depend on the like-minded British people to stand side by side with us.”

Threat is there in part due to the rise of identity politics