Craig Murray has a most excellent analysis after reading the leaked 851 page report. Craig is so good I'm going to have to check him regularly, I might add to my sidebar.
I also strong recommend reading and re-reading the comments section, as I have done, to hear the perspectives of many British socialists, and a handful of zionists. Even the socialists I partly disagree with, I love to read over and over because they express themselves so well.
Many note that Craig doesn't actually describe much anti-Semitism in his article. In the comments section, he indicates that pages 270-272 are the prime pages describing real anti-Semitism in the report.
I downloaded the report from Off-Guardian (other sources seem to have disappeared, many have been threatened with Data violations which Murray says are not applicable in this case--such violations should not protect crimes) and took a look for myself.
I've really come to like Tony Greenstein as well as Murray if not better. And recetnly he's been writing a lot, with more relevant articles out just today. Maybe I'll add him to my sidebar.
His second article today carries on from the first talking about the IHRI conflation of anti-zionism with antisemitism.
Tony Greenstein has convinced me that Gilad Atzmon is truly an anti-semite and we do not make such accusations lightly. Read Tony's incredible deconstruction of Atzmon's writings and sayings. For me, the key bit is that Atzmon denies the possibility of honest Jewish anti-Zionism, ignoring the 2000 year history of something just like that, and the possibility of Jews (like anyone else) being ethically concerned about racism and the apartheid state of Israel, as they can (and quite often are) if their minds are free from the endless lies of Zionism--which is not solely a Jewish phenomenon either. Jewish anti-Zionists include a vast number of writers I respect. To Atzmon, anti-Zionist jews are all liars, ready to turn into Zionists at the next anti-Semitic comment (similar to what Athiests are incorrectly maligned of doing in foxholes). On the contrary, Jewish Anti-Zionists include many of the most intelligent, honest, ethical and courageous people I know, who would rather (and frequently have) faced severe ostracization and even death before becoming a tool of racist oppression. We anti-Zionist jews and others are part of many groups, and loyal to them, but not so loyal as break fundamental ethical principles to elevate them, as the Zionists have. One of those ethical principles, now enshrined if not universally obeyed in all modern societies, is anti-discrimination. Atzmon has been kicked out of Palestinian Rights organizations for his antisemitism, they won't tolerate it either. From what I gather in this review of a 2018 boot, Atzmon is basically selling a collection of nonsense ideas, centered around a Nazi-like antisemitism (he's a "former-Jew" after all, after having given up "the Jewish Identity"). It's also strongly anti-socialist and anti-communist, while seeming comfortable to right wing and other extremisms. But such is the flexibility of his nonsense writing, that it's been published at Counterpunch as well. But I still feel he would be as entitled to his conspiracy theories as anyone else, as long as they weren't generalized (such as to Jews as a category), or maliciously libelous. I think Greenstein, like many others, often makes too much of such theorizing. I'd only accept certain dangerous cases as being unacceptable, notably Holocaust Denial, and even then, only as an offense and not a crime.
An Update on the British Labour situation today from Tony Greenstein's friend Asa Winstanley.
From Jamie Stern-Weiner: A detailed critique of the claim that the British left is full of antisemitism (by fair measures, the British left has less real antisemitism than the conservatives, but more criticism of Israel).
I also strong recommend reading and re-reading the comments section, as I have done, to hear the perspectives of many British socialists, and a handful of zionists. Even the socialists I partly disagree with, I love to read over and over because they express themselves so well.
Many note that Craig doesn't actually describe much anti-Semitism in his article. In the comments section, he indicates that pages 270-272 are the prime pages describing real anti-Semitism in the report.
I downloaded the report from Off-Guardian (other sources seem to have disappeared, many have been threatened with Data violations which Murray says are not applicable in this case--such violations should not protect crimes) and took a look for myself.
Page 270 is blank (???) and instead I started at page 268 which is where the relevant section begins, up to 272.
About 60% of the examples on those pages refer specificially to Zionism by name, and not Judaism or Jewishness.
Of the remaining 40% we allegations of:
1) Holocaust Denial (one particular member ALT)
2) Claim that Rothschilds invented Naziism
3) Soros and Clinton portrayed as Rothschild puppets
4) talk about "Jewish Power"
5) article "Meet the Jews in Trump's Inner Circle"
6) "Rothschild and the Illuminati"
7) exclamation: "I am sick to death of hearing and reading about moaning Jews..."
Few of those people received suspensions. Except possibly for #1, I wouldn't consider them very serious either.
The high profile members who WERE suspended, like Ken Livingstone and Tony Greenstein (himself of Jewish background in a famous leftish district--and who came to the defense of his friend Livingstone) were simply repeating historical facts (Agreements between Zionists and Nazis and their effect) in relevant contexts.
(To wit, not only did the Zionists reach the Haavara Agreement with Nazis in 1933 to permit rich enough Jews to buy their way out of Germany and take their wealth in the form of German manufactured goods, but also the Zionists blocked the boycott of Nazis by nearly all other Jews from 1933-37 which might have toppled the Nazi state when it was weak. These Zionists persuaded major international merchants--many of whom were Jewish--NOT to honor the boycott. Zionist agreements with Hitler ended in 1937.)
(I know nothing about Rothschild and Naziism. HOWEVER there is another claim which I believe is true, and that is that Hertzl supported the anti-semitic ruler of Vienna, who may have been a model for Hitler who also lived in Vienna at the time, and that many later mistakenly thought that Hitler would similarly be anti-semitic in rhetoric only. During this same time period, Hertzl held the first world conference of Zionism in London, where some time later the Balfour Agreement was a letter written to Lord Rothschild--a back room deal that gave much of Palestine to the Zionists. There could be more connections here, and in fact a number of dodgy websites claim there are. Meanwhile most people I respect believe that Naziism and Zionism are both ethnic supremacisms cut from different corners of the same 19th century cloth, even while or if not actually fabricated and promoted by the exact same people.)
In my opinion, the damage done to the socialist project within the Labour Party by hyping the lightweight "Labour Antisemitism Crisis" was far worse than the damage, if any, caused to anyone Jewish by these trivial bits of "antisemitism," if they can even be called that.
It's my reading of Craig Murray that he says much the same thing, though Craig doesn't specifically downplay "the actual" antisemitism revealed in the report--only nobodies in the outback like me can do that. Craig says there is some serious stuff there, but that the mishandling had nothing to do with Corbyn and the Labour socialists and was simply blamed on them--i.e. Corbyn and his closest associates were framed by those who dislike Corbyn's socialism, and anti-semitism was a conveniently available tool thanks to the new IHRI definition of antisemitism which includes anti-zionism, along sid the longstanding committments to greater rights for Palestinians among Corbyn and his friends.)
I've really come to like Tony Greenstein as well as Murray if not better. And recetnly he's been writing a lot, with more relevant articles out just today. Maybe I'll add him to my sidebar.
His second article today carries on from the first talking about the IHRI conflation of anti-zionism with antisemitism.
Tony Greenstein has convinced me that Gilad Atzmon is truly an anti-semite and we do not make such accusations lightly. Read Tony's incredible deconstruction of Atzmon's writings and sayings. For me, the key bit is that Atzmon denies the possibility of honest Jewish anti-Zionism, ignoring the 2000 year history of something just like that, and the possibility of Jews (like anyone else) being ethically concerned about racism and the apartheid state of Israel, as they can (and quite often are) if their minds are free from the endless lies of Zionism--which is not solely a Jewish phenomenon either. Jewish anti-Zionists include a vast number of writers I respect. To Atzmon, anti-Zionist jews are all liars, ready to turn into Zionists at the next anti-Semitic comment (similar to what Athiests are incorrectly maligned of doing in foxholes). On the contrary, Jewish Anti-Zionists include many of the most intelligent, honest, ethical and courageous people I know, who would rather (and frequently have) faced severe ostracization and even death before becoming a tool of racist oppression. We anti-Zionist jews and others are part of many groups, and loyal to them, but not so loyal as break fundamental ethical principles to elevate them, as the Zionists have. One of those ethical principles, now enshrined if not universally obeyed in all modern societies, is anti-discrimination. Atzmon has been kicked out of Palestinian Rights organizations for his antisemitism, they won't tolerate it either. From what I gather in this review of a 2018 boot, Atzmon is basically selling a collection of nonsense ideas, centered around a Nazi-like antisemitism (he's a "former-Jew" after all, after having given up "the Jewish Identity"). It's also strongly anti-socialist and anti-communist, while seeming comfortable to right wing and other extremisms. But such is the flexibility of his nonsense writing, that it's been published at Counterpunch as well. But I still feel he would be as entitled to his conspiracy theories as anyone else, as long as they weren't generalized (such as to Jews as a category), or maliciously libelous. I think Greenstein, like many others, often makes too much of such theorizing. I'd only accept certain dangerous cases as being unacceptable, notably Holocaust Denial, and even then, only as an offense and not a crime.
An Update on the British Labour situation today from Tony Greenstein's friend Asa Winstanley.
From Jamie Stern-Weiner: A detailed critique of the claim that the British left is full of antisemitism (by fair measures, the British left has less real antisemitism than the conservatives, but more criticism of Israel).
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