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Hi Amith I'm on my bus on my phone, so citing sources isn't easy. Yes, Facebook comments are hardly a clear guide. But I guarantee you that anything but a cursory glance at the left in Britain will show you that anti-Semitism is real and is a problem. It's far from dominant, but there is a minority that either consciously or unconsciously subscribe to anti-Semitic ideas. Unfortunately that minority have latched onto the pro-Palestine movement. The problem you highlight is valid. Yes, Zionists conflate support for the Palestinian people with anti-Semitism. The difficulty is that many anti-Semites use the word "Zionist" or "Israeli " when they mean Jew. Look at Galloway for example. He refused to debate an Israeli, and another time he called for Bradford to be an "Israeli free zone". These things weren't anything to do with BDS or support for the Palestinian people. They were dog wistle anti-Semitism under the guise of anti-Zionism. Some of the accusations of anti-Semitism inside the party are frivolous. Some aren't. We need to distinguish between them rather than dismiss them all. I would add that the root of this problem comes down to the influence of Stalinism over the Labour left, particularly on anti-imperialist. The rot really is apparent now. Tim N On Tue, 21 Aug 2018, 18:43 A.R. G, <amithrgu...@gmail.com> wrote: > Tim Nelson says, "The Labour right and conservatives are weaponising the > issue of anti-Semitism, of course. But that doesn't mean it's not an issue > in the movement. Look at what Beeley said. Or look at George Galloways > statements for that matter. Or check out any number of left wing Facebook > pages on Palestine. Read the comments." > > I want to make clear that in the comments that follow, I am responding > *only* to the anti-Semitism issue, as opposed to all the other things > that Tim describes, which I think are basically reasonable criticisms of > some corners of the Stalinist left. > > Tim didn't cite any specifics about Galloway or Facebook pages. I think > comments on a Facebook page are an incredibly poor measure of anything. > Putting aside obvious trolls and bot accounts, it's never clear if those > people are actually Labour Party members or what. Moreover, the risk of > banning people on a Palestine page for "anti-Semitism" usually turns the > medicine into something worse than the poison. We've seen here on this > forum how leftists and liberals have followed the Labour Right in basically > repeating the smears of Palestine advocacy by labeling broad swaths of it > as anti-Semitic when it is genuinely aimed at Zionism (i.e. smearing the > use of the abbreviation "Zio" as anti-Semitic by linking it to David Duke, > when it is, in fact, just an abbreviation for "Zionist"). In fact, I would > argue that that is the *dominant* trend among the Left -- not > anti-Semitism, but a feverish reaction to anything even vaguely perceived > to be anti-Semitic. Plus, we should factor in both the sheer exaggeration > of the actual problem and the extent to which it receives disproportionate > focus given the other kinds of discrimination that exist, including in the > British Left. Finkelstein did a good, though somewhat verbose, job of > discussing it recently: > https://mondoweiss.net/2018/08/chimera-british-semitism/ > > The Oz Katerji article, not to mention some of Oz' statements about > Corbyn, are emblematic. For example, OK recently argued on Twitter, > re-blogging a right-wing smear campaign, that Corbyn's 2012 comments about > an alleged Israeli role in a terrorist attack in Egypt during the Arab > Spring was a sign of anti-Semitism. For OK, the mere suggestion that Israel > might have had a role in events that were happening in a neighboring > nation-state, let alone one in which Israel's long-standing "security > partner" was threatened with instability, was unacceptable conspiracism and > amounted to some kind of attack on the Israeli settler-colony's Jewish > identity. It is also shamefully ignorant given that the alleged conspiracy > theory has actually taken place > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavon_Affair>, though not in 2012. > > As for Galloway, I don't agree. Galloway often takes purposely extremist > stances. But they are always aimed at Israel and Zionism -- not the Jewish > community. Some of the accusations are wild. But a wild accusation against > a government doesn't somehow translate into an attack on its ethnic or > racial identity. The argument that his critics make are that it is somehow > reminiscent of anti-Semitism because anti-Semites exaggerate and fantasize > about Jews being disproportionately powerful, but of course, *any* criticism > of *any* ethnic nation-state or movement could be reminiscent of > discrimination against the community as a whole. For example, pointing out > that ISIS hates gays and democracy and America and murders civilians > certainly sounds reminiscent of the kinds of demeaning stereotypes made of > Muslims generally. But that doesn't mean these concerns are Islamophobic, > let alone untrue. It is, in my view, plainly obvious why Israel is singled > out and sometimes subject to exaggerated criticism by leftists. > > My .02. > > Amith R. Gupta > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
