Jeremy Corbyn's "well-known objections to violence in any forms"

Following on from Sue's post, there's another article by Nick Cohen in this week's Spectator that's well worth reading: Jeremy Corbyn isn't anti-war. He's just anti-West, 

Nick Cohen argues a point that will be familiar to at least some of us: namely that Stop the War Coalition types (like Mr Corbyn) aren't really anti-war. They're merely anti-this war (whichever war that may be) - if 'this war' involves 'the West' attacking 'the anti-West'. 

Why? Because such people believe that 'the West' (the US, UK, Israel, etc) is the cause of the world's evils and they take sides against it. 

Their heartfelt condemnation of violence, therefore, only flows one way - against the West. Towards the enemies of the West, in contrast, their condemnation verges on the non-existent, however shocking the violence. 

The same goes for showing 'understanding', though the directions are reversed here: Dialogue with Hamas? Yes. Opposition to boycotts of Israel? Far from it. 

Or as Nick Cohen puts it:

Whatever its protestations, Corbyn’s far left is not anti-war. Pacifism may not be a moral position in all circumstances but, in my view at least, it remains an honourable belief, rooted in Christian teaching. Corbyn does not share it. He does not oppose violence wherever it comes from, as the BBC’s political editor claimed this week. When anti-western regimes and movements go to war, his language turns slippery. Corbyn never quite has the guts to support the violence of others, but he excuses it like a gangster’s lawyer trying to get a crime boss off on a technicality.

The mention of the BBC's political editor there refers to an article at the BBC News website by Laura Kuenssberg in which she writes of Mr Corbyn's "well-known objections to violence in any forms".