There is a real problem here for the party I am increasingly glad that I left. At any rate in terms of perception.
There is much criticism to be made of Israel, but to claim that they try to shut this down by screaming "anti-Semitism" via a shadowy network of paid shills (well, if there is one, they owe me money) is well, dodgy. It's using a lot of the same tropes in classical anti-Semitism, which is rather hard to do these days since the Holocaust. Some of the characterisations used are questionable at best: "Nazi" is ludicrous and "apartheid" may apply in the West Bank, but it certainly doesn't in 'Green Line Israel'.
Anti-Zionism is not in itself racist, but people misunderstand what Zionism actually is and arguing that Jews are not entitled to some form of safe haven is historically questionable. Many Jews do know their history - and they're pretty good at irony too.
The abuse directed against Corbyn's opponents is pretty vile and again using anti-Semitic tropes in the form of anti-Zionism. They may not know they're doing it, but they are and they should really stop.
Play the ball, not the person.
There is much criticism to be made of Israel, but to claim that they try to shut this down by screaming "anti-Semitism" via a shadowy network of paid shills (well, if there is one, they owe me money) is well, dodgy. It's using a lot of the same tropes in classical anti-Semitism, which is rather hard to do these days since the Holocaust. Some of the characterisations used are questionable at best: "Nazi" is ludicrous and "apartheid" may apply in the West Bank, but it certainly doesn't in 'Green Line Israel'.
Anti-Zionism is not in itself racist, but people misunderstand what Zionism actually is and arguing that Jews are not entitled to some form of safe haven is historically questionable. Many Jews do know their history - and they're pretty good at irony too.
The abuse directed against Corbyn's opponents is pretty vile and again using anti-Semitic tropes in the form of anti-Zionism. They may not know they're doing it, but they are and they should really stop.
Play the ball, not the person.
