Priorities

Last night's News at Ten on ITV devoted two minutes and 19 seconds to the Luciana Berger/Labour antisemitism story. The BBC's News at Ten gave it all of 25 seconds. And to add insult to injury, Clive Myrie stumbled over her surname. 

"Final denouement" - Go Jezza!

English Irony.

I know Jeremy Corbyn appreciates English irony, so he should love this. The man who’s been fighting racism all his life has a fanboy.

Go Jezza! I wonder how many Labour activists the hysterical #Zionist media campaign against #Corbyn is re-pilling?https://t.co/GYti6HtxXN

— Nick Griffin (@NickGriffinBU) August 23, 2018

As the skeletons are being dragged out of the cupboard one by one, a more worrying irony is that Jeremy could shoot somebody in the middle of the street and he still wouldn’t lose any votes.

None of this will come as a surprise to anyone one who has been aware of these skeletons for decades.

The BBC has an unusual take on the story. It’s that Luciana Berger ‘feels unwelcome’,  the moaning minnie. 

Note how Jeremy Corbyn ends his ‘speech’.

“As we move rapidly towards the final denouement, which will be the liberation and unity of all the Palestinian people”

Oh yes, and from "the incredibly powerful, passionate and effective speech" by the previous speaker (the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK) Manuel Hassassian says:

“We, the Palestinians, the most highly educated and intellectual in the Middle East, are still struggling for the basic right of self-determination. What an irony. How long are we going to suffer and be patient with Israel? [...] 

“And today we have 1.5 billion Muslims. In 20 years we will have 2 billion. And those 2 billion, forget about politics, from a religious perspective will not allow Israel to continue desecrating their religious rights (in Jerusalem). And then what?”

P.S.

A couple of interesting trends in the reaction to various outings of Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitism (gleaned from articles and btl comments in the press and online, Twitter etc.)

1) Denying that he’s an antisemite (by insisting that anti-Zionism has nothing to do with antisemitism) while simultaneously making unambiguously antisemitic comments.

2) Being ‘bored’ with the topic. “nobody cares”. I think there’s something in this comment from a regular HP poster (with whom I don’t always agree.) 

I think that making antisemitism the main focus of criticism of Corbyn has been a mistake of epic proportions that will come back and bite British Jews, although I hope I am wrong. Aside from the fact that most Brits don't care all that much about it -- it isn't the burning issue de jour for most -- it could very likely rebound on the community if he wins, and even more so if he loses. It would have been better for the community -- and MUCH better strategically vis a vis the election -- to focus on his support for local ie IRA terrorists and places like Venezuela. He should have been hammered relentlessly on issues like that.

(linkdump)

Stephen Pollard

Dan Hodges

Jeremy Duns

Times (£)

ToI

Socialist Worker

and while we're talking about Corbyn, this.

Applause in the HoC

I watched Jeremy Corbyn in the House of Commons this afternoon.

No, not the emergency debate  secured by Corbyn .....

 “calling for a new War Powers Act that would require Parliament to be consulted on military intervention”.

As it happens, I did watch that one (which seemed to be eating into the time allocated for the following one) while waiting for the advertised business, the debate about antisemitism. (Click to view the whole thing)

Many of the most significant speeches are on Youtube already, and Guido has some of them on his site, where I notice the comments are disabled. That’s unusual for Guido. I wonder why. No I don’t.

Apparently Jeremy Corbyn was “Chuntering" during the speeches (before he left the chamber)

....but  warned he won’t take part…

Luciana Berger got a round of applause, and

So did Ruth Smeeth. The antisemitic comments she read out were not quite as amusing as Richard Dawkins's....

John Mann was terrific, and

Ian Austin was impressive.

The BBC has reported it here:

“The Labour leader, who was present in the chamber for much of the debate, is due to hold talks next week with leading Jewish groups amid criticism of his handling of anti-Semitism cases.”

They describe it in a 'glass half full' way, whereas sone of us might have put it another way “The Labour leader, who was absent from the chamber for much of the debate.."

The News Channel was much more interested in the previous business as was Corbyn.

The leader of the opposition looked even more reptilian than normal during Andrew Gwynn’s statement, but he slunk off in the middle of the debate, missing the most impassioned contributions.