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Just a reminder. I posted a link to Richard Seymour's analysis of this issue the other day. I don't have much use for his Lacanian mumbo-jumbo but he is probably one of England's most insightful supporters of Jeremy Corbyn. He wrote:
Mear One's mural was antisemitic. If Trump posted an image of that mural on his Twitter feed, it would immediately be recognised for what it is. It is the idea that it is in some way associated with the Left, promoted by the artist himself and by some of those who offer him platforms, that has caused confusion.
This means that what the Left says about antisemitism matters, because it can either marginalise it or normalise it among people who listen to what the Left is saying. Lutfur Rahman was right to have it painted over. Corbyn was wrong to have defended it in a Facebook comment at the time, and he's rightly embarrassed about it and trying to fix it. It's the least that any leader of the Left should do. I am not suggesting his politics should be judged on the basis of an offhand Facebook comment, but he's right, and not pusillanimous as some think, to address it at the scale that he is.
Nothing would be worse, at this moment, than for the Left to adopt the crankish, defensive and pointlessly antagonistic rhetoric of some of those organising 'against the witch hunt'. I have no doubt that many of Corbyn's critics are recklessly opportunistic, and instrumentalising the issue for ends that aren't to do with reducing antisemitism. I also think it ludicrous that media reports have consistently inflated unrepresentative examples of antisemitic behaviour into evidence of systemic, pervasive antisemitism in Labour -- on which issue, the Jewish Labour Movement has made some constructive statements. (Also listen to Jamie Stern-Weiner.)
But that isn't a reason to dodge this, or the wider issue. At a time when various forms of fascism and populist reaction are on the rise, antisemitism risks acquiring a degree of political clout it hasn't had for decades. The Left has a unique responsibility to address and combat this, both in itself and as part of a general increase in racism. It would be unable to do so if it was tying itself up in knots defending the indefensible.
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