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Saturday 8 September 2018

If Britain wants to show its ‘moral backbone’, it must reject Jeremy Corbyn

This piece in The Standard by US Professor Alan Dershowitz 

Here's a long extract:

'So let me present my case. I invite a response by Corbyn. In a widely accepted definition, adopted by the US State Department and its British counterpart, anti-­Semitism includes "accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust … applying double standards by requiring of it a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation … drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis. Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel … than to the interests of their own nations."

Corbyn's statement and actions meet these standards. Corbyn has taken part in events with Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Lebanese militant who rails against "Jew-worship" and calls homosexuals "Aids-spreading faggots", according to the National Review. He also argued against the expulsion from Britain of Raed Saleh, a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, who claims Jews were behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 2012 Corbyn invited him to take tea with him on the terrace at Parliament, saying Saleh "is far from a dangerous man. He's a very honoured citizen; he represents his people extremely well."

Corbyn has also been accused of donating money to Deir Yassin Remembered, founded by self-proclaimed Holocaust denier Paul Eisen. Corbyn denies having any knowledge of Eisen's views but has acknowledged that he attended one of DYR's events as recently as 2013.   

At another conference, Corbyn said "Zionists … don't understand English irony", despite "having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives".

In this context, Corbyn seemed to be using the term "Zionists" to apply broadly to British Jews . This same conference also featured a speaker who blamed Israel for the 9/11 attacks. Britain's former Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, has accused Corbyn of having given "support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate who want to kill Jews and remove Israel from the map" and said his remarks about Zionists not being sufficiently British is "the language of classic pre-­war European anti -Semitism". 

Corbyn called former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, an advocate of the two-­state solution, "a war criminal" while calling terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah "friends" — a comment which he later claimed he regretted making. While condemning Israel for human rights violations, Corbyn has praised human rights violators such as Venezuela, Cuba and Iran. 

After the death of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Corbyn described him as "someone who stood up, was counted, was inspiring …." Following the death of Fidel Castro, Corbyn praised the Cuban dictator's "heroism" and called him "a champion of social justice". He has also praised Iran for "tolerance and acceptance of other faiths, traditions and ethnic groups in Iran". 

Corbyn seems to have little interest in the human right of Kurds, Chechens, Tibetans and other groups. Is he more interested in the Palestinians largely because their alleged oppressors are Jewish? I don't recall hearing Corbyn complain when Palestinians are oppressed by Jordan or by Hamas. 

To be sure, Israel does not have a perfect human rights record. No country does. But singling out Israel for condemnation while praising some of the worst human rights violators and ignoring violations against people at least as oppressed as the Palestinians is applying precisely the sort of double standard against the nation state of the Jewish people the UK and the US have recognised as anti-­Semitic. '

I feel safe that the institutionally anti Israel, and antisemitic by at least one of the IHRA examples, BBC will not be reporting Professor Alan Dershowitz's words or giving him anything other than an extremely hostile interview. 

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