Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Who are the anti-semitic threats?

Three leading Jewish newspapers in the UK jointly declared that there was a “crisis of anti-Semitism” in the British Labour Party and that Corbyn was “an existential threat to Jewish life in the UK.”

Israeli human rights activist and lawyer, Eitay Mack, explains:
“Israel is claiming that Corbyn and the Labour Party are putting British Jews at risk. But the bottom line is that the Netanyahu government itself is actually enlarging the risk for the Jewish people around the world, because they are not dealing with real problems, just the artificial problems. They are not concerned with real anti-Semitism, they only want to fulfill their political agenda of taking the issue of the Palestinian people off the world stage.” He continues, “Israel is strengthening its relationships in Eastern Europe, with countries like Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, where they have problems with anti-Semitism. On the other hand, you see the Israeli government making their political struggle with Jeremy Corbyn a main issue.”

There are growing numbers of “real anti-Semites” in Europe who may not be a threat to Netanyahu, but most certainly are to Jews living outside of Israel.

A study by historian David Feldman, director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism at Birkbeck College, found that the overwhelming majority of charges against Labour Party members concerned statements about Israel, not Jews.

Stephen Oryszcuk, foreign affairs editor of the leading Jewish newspaper, Jewish News, said that criticizing Israel “was not anti-Semitism.” 

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a cable from Israel’s London embassy complaining that the Ministry of Strategic Affairs was breaking British law by encouraging political activities by Jewish charity groups.  In 2017, Al Jazeera uncovered a direct liaison between diplomat Shai Masot of London’s Israeli embassy and organizations like Labour Friends of Israel.  According to Al Jazeera, up to 1 million pounds were made available to fuel the campaign. 

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/18/britain-the-anti-semitism-debate/

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