The left can’t deny Corbyn’s antisemitism any longer

Jeremy Corbyn is not an anti-Semite. He is just a bit dim and a blinkered dogmatist so committed to his ideology that he indulges in moral relativism and turns a blind eye to bigots when it suits. I’d question his morality, his intellect, his beliefs and his ability to lead, but would not call him an anti-Semite.

That has been the reasoning I stood by for a long time. But in recent months, it has steadily become unjustifiable as ever more emerges revealing his true views. It is increasingly impossible to avoid the conclusion that Labour MP Margaret Hodge was right. Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite. Jeremy Corbyn is a racist.

The evidence is now overwhelming. The evidence has not been misrepresented. No conspiracy and no warping of the facts. It can only be denied by those who do not want to see it.

Yesterday, the Daily Mail revealed a video in of Corbyn at a 2013 meeting where he appeared alongside Daud Abdullah, who supported a boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day, and Alison Weir, an American anti-Israel campaigner. The pair join a very long line of unsavoury characters that Corbyn has been happy to ally himself with.

In the shocking video Corbyn describes Mr Hassassian’s speech as “incredibly powerful, passionate and effective about the history of Palestine and the rights of the Palestinian people” before continuing “This was dutifully recorded by the thankfully silent Zionists who were in the audience on that occasion, and then came up and berated him afterwards for what he had said […] They clearly have two problems. One is that they don’t want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, don’t understand English irony.”

Read that back. Having lived in this country for a very long time, they don’t understand English irony.

What Jeremy Corbyn said was racist. Jeremy Corbyn is a racist. Anyone who denies it is an enabler of anti-Semitism, and a moral relativist with a brain addled by a devotion to a personality cult. Labour moderates who are not making plans to leave their party are, I’m afraid, indirectly endorsing their racist leader. Labour supporters who stand by him are defending a man who holds views about Jews that are ordinarily better suited to the BNP.

The implications are terrifying.

The Labour Party has a racist leader. The Labour Party machine defends this, meaning that the Labour Party is a racist party. As ever, Corbynites are leaping to his defence.  A spokesman for Corbyn said:

“Jeremy is totally opposed to all forms of antisemitism and is determined to drive it out from society. At this event, he was referring to a group of pro-Israel activists misunderstanding and then criticising the Palestinian Ambassador for a speech at a separate event about the occupation of the West Bank.”

One can almost admire their sheer shamelessness and cheek. We can read or hear his words for ourselves. The, ahem, “Zionists” are not and cannot be properly English, they do not know our ways, they are aliens among us. They don’t know their history and they don’t understand irony.

What will make his supporters see it? It is plain old racism, very much the kind of old school anti-Semitism of the snobby white upper class. Its foul. Wake up. Open your eyes and ears.

Personally, I feel a sense of relief myself at finally realising it and admitting it. I have been deeply critical of Corbyn, as an economic zealot, as a moron and a dullard, and as a bedraggled and confused old man being controlled by the real power in Labour, communications chief and strategist Seumas Milne and Marxist Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and the rest of the mob around them. Yet I still went along with the narrative he wasn’t actually an anti-Semite. That position is no longer credible.

There is an astonishing amount of evidence. The case is now closed.

Even so, Corbyn supporters will no doubt take as many moral leaps as they need to in order to defend their idol. Zionist doesn’t mean Jew, they’ll say, even though Zionist is a euphemism for Jews used by the far Right and the Far Left, two extremist political movements which are simply two cheeks on the same stinking arse.

If a Tory said that Pakistanis “don’t understand English irony” despite probably having “lived here all their lives” and said they needed “a lesson” the same Corbynites would be justifiably disgusted. The media eruption would make the reaction to Corbyn’s comments seem very modest. Corbyn is othering “Zionists” and categorising Palestinians as good immigrants and “Zionists” as bad immigrants. The “Zionists” don’t belong here, he seems to suggest.

Corbyn’s anti-Semitism is typical of the Far Left. He is a conspiracy theorist embittered with a myriad of grievances built up over a lifetime of championing his failed belief system. The theory runs that the reason “the people” reject his ideas is not because they are bad and unpopular ideas, but because of the global capitalist cabal that controls everything, from the media, to corporations to government. Wherever there are conspiracy theories about capitalist globalists controlling the world, anti-Semitic tropes are not far behind. Increasingly dissenting Jews expressing their concerns will be portrayed as the enemy within.

Jeremy Corbyn is a trainee populist demagogue (though an unusually uncharismatic one), a divisive grievance-monger, and a danger to this country. Not only has he spent his whole life supporting any nasty ideology that opposes Western liberal democracy – from Hamas, to the IRA, Russia, Hezbollah, Venezuela and the list could go on – he has now emboldened anti-Semitism in Britain. It’s ugly.

No one sensible should attempt to minimise the extent of this problem now. British Jews are justifiably concerned by a potential party of government being led by an anti-Semite who is passionately supported by anti-Semites.  A popular saying amongst Corbynites is to tell critics they’re “scared”. Yes, yes we are, but not for the reasons you think.