Corbyn, anti-semitism and the future of Labour
To The Guardian
It is not the Labour NEC’S definition of anti-semitism that should be the subject of debate in the party, but why there is a debate at all; with the Holocaust still in living memory, why should anybody be expressing anti-semitic sentiments anywhere, let alone in the Labour Party? The answer is that history has shown that anti-semitism is a sickness that rational argument will not eradicate.
This irrationality is now prevalent in the Labour Party because Jeremy Corbyn has enabled it. There was no problem before his arrival; now there is a problem. His constant claim that because he is antiracist he cannot be anti-semitic sounds convincing but is absurd, because he is obviously unable or unwilling to understand that stating that Hamas are his “friends” takes anti-semitism out of his personal definition of anti-racism. As the accidental party leader many notches above his pay grade, his previous irrelevancies have become legitimised as mainstream policy.
With the country on the brink of a Brexit disaster, when that should be our sole focus of attention, why is antiSemitism even mentioned in every news bulletin? The answer in one word: Corbyn. Until he is back in his one-man wilderness, the problem will not go away. Malcolm Cohen, Cheadle, Greater Manchester
To The Guardian
It seems that the unholiest of establishment alliances has even taken in many readers of this fair-minded newspaper. First, it appears that the ideological supporters of the Israeli state won’t relent until Corbyn is removed. Next, the largesse-addicted establishment proper will do anything to thwart a redistributive Labour government with a moral compass. Then there is the Blairite Parliamentary Labour Party rump, determined to return to the Torylite New Labour regime. And, for good measure, a rightist media with its own vested interest in destroying Labour.
Corbyn has been deeply hurt by the unremitting attacks from this farrago of an alliance. This orchestrated assault has everything to do with destroying him, and they’ve chosen their cause célèbre very carefully – which they’ll stoke and keep running until (they calculate) Jeremy eventually falls on his sword, exhausted.
Many hundreds of thousands of Labour and Corbyn supporters – the many – have decidedly other ideas. We’re not going to allow the ideological few to obliterate the only chance in our lifetime of securing a genuinely progressive Labour government. Dr Richard House, Stroud, Gloucestershire