Jeremy the Jellyfish
The problem with Jeremy Corbyn is that while the Labour leader is careful not to make antisemitic remarks in public he nevertheless does have "a long track record of embracing antisemites as comrades".
In a thoughtful for The Times Hugo Rifkind suggests that the Labour leader has always been able to distance himself from such company by saying something along the following lines:
“You know what?” he could have said. “I have embraced antisemites as comrades! I see that now! I mean, it’s undeniable, isn’t it? Sheesh! Dodgy clerics, Chris Williamson, Raed Salah, the bloke who painted that mural, my friends from Hamas and Hezbollah, that dead wreath guy, and so on! Wow, put like that? So here’s why it happened, and here’s why I regret it, and here’s why I wouldn’t do it again.”
But Jeremy has ducked the issue time and again which is why it's coming back to haunt him as a general election looms.
Read Hugo Rifkind's article via the link below to The Times.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/corbyn-an-antisemite-no-says-angry-hulk-md8r3wcvw
Corbyn an antisemite? No, says angry Hulk
By hugo rifkind - The Times
It’s late in the day to claim the Labour leader is a blemish-free ‘anti-racist’ but there are still celebrities ready to do it
I’m a big fan of the actor Mark Ruffalo. Or actually, now I give it a little more thought, I’m a big fan of the way the actor Mark Ruffalo looks in a leather jacket in The Kids Are All Right, and I have a modest preference for him as the Incredible Hulk over Edward Norton. This morning, though, the main thing I am thinking about Mark Ruffalo is, “what does this Hollywood superstar imagine he knows about the experiences of my great aunt twice removed up in Hendon?” And I am wondering if the answer to that question is, actually, that he hasn’t even thought about her, or anybody like her, for a single second.
Ruffalo is a signatory to an open letter sent this weekend in support of Jeremy Corbyn. Well, sent-ish. Actually, the only place it seems to have arrived was NME, which had it as an exclusive. “NME?” you may now be thinking, “The music newspaper? Mark Ruffalo? What?” To which I’m afraid I can only reply that I don’t get to shape reality, but just to write about it, and we’re all in this together.
Most of the celebrity signatories don’t appear to have said much about this letter after signing it, even on their own social media feeds. Bringing to mind the troubling philosophical question, “is an open letter still open if you aren’t terribly open about it?” The list includes some people I generally admire (Steve Coogan, Rob Delaney, Mark Rylance), and some I admire only for very specific things (Mike Leigh for films, Michael Rosen for children’s books, Mark Ruffalo for wearing leather jackets) and some on whom I’ve frankly never been that keen. All agree, anyway, that they are “outraged that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong committed anti-racist, is being smeared as an antisemite by people who should know better”.
It seems likely that the “people” they are referring to include the signatories of another open letter last week. This one was signed by people such as David Cornwell, Fay Weldon, Joanna Lumley, William Boyd and our own Sathnam Sanghera. “We refuse to vote Labour on December 12,” it concludes. Having said, along the way, “Mr Corbyn has a long record of embracing antisemites as comrades”.
That one strikes me as a much better written letter, if you’ll forgive the likes of me patting John le Carré and William Boyd on the back for their prose skills. In particular, you may notice that saying “Mr Corbyn has a long record of embracing antisemites as comrades” is a quite different thing from calling him an antisemite. What I like particularly about this phrase is how neatly it encapsulates precisely what Labour’s antisemitism problem has been these past four years, and how easily Corbyn could have dealt with it. But only, perhaps, if he had been somebody else.
“You know what?” he could have said. “I have embraced antisemites as comrades! I see that now! I mean, it’s undeniable, isn’t it? Sheesh! Dodgy clerics, Chris Williamson, Raed Salah, the bloke who painted that mural, my friends from Hamas and Hezbollah, that dead wreath guy, and so on! Wow, put like that? So here’s why it happened, and here’s why I regret it, and here’s why I wouldn’t do it again.”
Instead he has reluctantly conceded to the half-arsed cleansing of his membership by various officials, like a pop diva who studies her nails while her record company throws her hometown friends out of the afterparty. Never once has he seemed to consider himself culpable for there being a problem in the first place. Indeed, if there is a link between the Jeremy Corbyn who stood alongside all those antisemites and the Jeremy Corbyn who now presides over a party that the Equality and Human Rights Commission is investigating for institutional racism against Jews, then Jeremy Corbyn still doesn’t seem capable of recognising what it is. And, as a result, it’s not so strange if, despite his oft-trumpeted anti-racist credentials, many of Britain’s Jews aren’t 100 per cent confident he’s totally their guy.
Labour and Antisemitism (07/11/19)
Here's our front page this week - addressed not to our usual readers but to our fellow British citizens
4,370 people are talking about this
The front page of The Jewish Chronicle explains why Jeremy 'The Jellyfish' Corbyn has failed to combat the ugly spread of antisemitism in the modern Labour Party.
Team Corbyn - Cranks and Ideologues (13/07/19)
Missed our programme, 'Is Labour Anti-Semitic?' tonight?
If so, watch our social video below and don't forget to share#BBCPanorama
2,215 people are talking about this
But since Labour is now a party led by cranks and ideologues the workers are being smeared and their motives attacked.
Team Corbyn - Cranks and Ideologues (11/07/19)
Whistleblowers at almost every level of the party have been incredibly brave to go on record and call out examples of how anti-Jewish racism has become institutionalised within Labour under Corbyn.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
30 people are talking about this
Jeremy the Jellyfish (20/07/18)
Some people say that Jeremy Corbyn doesn't have an anti-semitic bone in his body, but the widely respected Labour MP Margaret Hodge seems to disagree since she denounced her party leader a "racist" and "anti-Semite" in a big bust up at the House of Commons.
Spineless Performance (08/05/18)
Private Eye, the UK's best and only fortnightly satirical magazine, had some fun with its front cover recently at Jeremy Corbyn's expense.
After the local elections results in England, I think it's fair to say that Jeremy has paid a heavy price for his 'spineless' performance in failing to stand up to anti-Semitism in Labour's ranks.
Cult of Corbyn (27/03/18)
Here's another great Twitter joke which pokes fun, for good reason, at the cult of Corbyn and his local difficulties involving a London mural.
"I sincerely regret that I did not look more closely at the image, the contents of which are deeply disturbing and anti-Semitic"
Eagle Images and Weasel Words (26/03/18)
Much fun was had on Twitter at the weekend with lots of posts mocking Jeremy Corbyn's 'weasel words' over not looking more clearly at an anti-semitic mural before declaring his support on Facebook.
My favourite, so far at least, was this comment from the journalist Euan McColm:
“i only glanced at it but i thought it was a parrot carrying an electric fan.”
Now that is funny - eat your heart out Private Eye and the Have I Got News for You (HIGNFY) Team!
