Growing fears of antisemitism in England

[osewalrus]

 I wish I could edit this article to make it about a mythical land because my primary reason for posting it is about the amazing commonality of experience of Jews in Europe and African Americans in the U.S. in terms of the politics of racism. We can see identical patterns emerge. The simultaneous effort to minimize the suffering of the target group while also deliberately adopting the same language to describe one self, or to so broaden the experience as to eliminate the connection between the event and the community. Another prong in the analysis de-emphasizes the tragedy by finding ways to hold the community itself responsible for the tragedy. In America, you will see a lots of references by some people to the fact that African chiefs participated in the slave trade, that white immigrant communities like the Irish suffered from segregation and racism, and that demands by African Americans to call attention to racism are "politically motivated," "playing the race card," and engaged in "identity politics." "All lives matter," becomes the response to Black Lives Matter. And somehow every protest or complaint is wrong or extreme or otherwise dismissible. When blatant racism is revealed within the ranks of the party or movement, if all else fails, it is dismissed as the work of rogue individuals who have been appropriately dealt with and why are you pretending that this is an example of the whole party/movement? How racist to assume all white men are like this bad example!

And meanwhile, slowly, the boundary of what is and isn't permissible to say changes. To the point where we have a woman honestly defending her racist comments about "Mexicans" by declaring that all people talk that way now that Trump has been elected.

This article provides, in lengthy detail, a similar experience for Jews in England.
https://harpers.org/archi…/…/10/among-britains-anti-semites/

Much of the focus in the debate is on Corbyn personally. Frankly, from what I can tell at a distance, Corbyn reminds me a heck of a lot of Jimmy Carter. Carter was simply utterly unsympathetic to Israeli (and Jewish) concerns. His papers show a shocking indifference to Israeli civilians killed by terrorists, or how it might contribute to Israel's negotiating position. Nor did he consider how these positions influenced others in dealings not merely with Israel, but Jews generally.
 

Because just as the myth of the "super predator" crack addict both drew on past racist tropes and framed for many white Americans how they viewed *all* African American males (even while always carefully caveating that we weren't talking about *all* black men and weren't these super predators destroying their own communities?) the incredibly virulence directed at "Zionists" blurs easily to all Jews. Just as African Americans are often required by conservatives to prove their bona fides by denouncing "black on black violence" or to disassociate themselves from "radicals" such as BLM or Black Panthers or Reverend Sharpton, Jews are now expected to denounce the evils of "Zionism" and decry all other manner of racism to "prove themselves" to an increasing portion of the English left.

What emerges in England is similar to what emerges in the U.S. on the right. A gradual shift in what people consider OK to say or what simply casually slips out. As the article concludes:

"A tape was leaked from a Labour Party meeting, in which Peter Willsman, an ally of Corbyn, said in angry tones, “They can falsify social media very easily, and some of these people in the Jewish community support Trump. They’re Trump fanatics. . . . So I am not going to be lectured to by Trump fanatics making up daft information without any evidence or support. So I think we should ask the seventy rabbis [he meant sixty-eight, but it is true that seventy rabbis condemned Jesus], Where is your evidence of severe and widespread anti-Semitism in this party? Let me ask you a question: How many people in this room have seen anti-Semitism in the Labour Party? Put your hands up.” Willsman is a member of the disputes panel, and he will have seen evidence of anti-Semitism. He apologized and referred himself for equalities training. Meanwhile a Labour councillor in Scotland was suspended for suggesting that the whole crisis was orchestrated by Mossad, and it was reported that, at a Momentum meeting in Liverpool, the accusation that Zionist agents are subverting British democracy received a vast ovation."

The standard response is that this is not something Corbyn has said or even encouraged. All true. To which I would add, this is no longer about Corbyn. At this point, if Corbyn were to be removed from leadership, it would simply fuel that contingent of the UK left that believes in the vast and shadowy "Zionist" conspiracy. This is about a much broader question on the English left as to whether it believes there is actually a reason why so many Jews have suddenly gotten "all weird" and "so sensitive."