LONDON—The three leading Jewish newspapers in Britain— Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News and Jewish Telegraph — took the unprecedented step of speaking as one by publishing the same front page titled ‘’United we stand’’ because the ‘’existential threat’’ to Jewish life that would caused a government led by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
‘’We do so because the party that was, until recently, the natural home for our community has seen its values and integrity eroded by Corbynite contempt for Jews and Israel,’’ the papers said in their editorial.
‘’The stain and shame of antisemitism has coursed through Her Majesty’s Opposition since Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015,’’ they stressed.
They mentioned in particular last week’s party leadersip’s refusal to adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, provoking Labour MP Margaret Hodge to call her leader ‘’an antisemite.’’
The IHRA definition, accepted in full by the British government and more than 130 local councils, was amended by Labour in four key examples of antisemitism relating to Israel despite the fact that Labour MPs voted on an emergency motion, calling for the party to adopt the full IHRA definition into its rulebook.
The Jewish papers noted that under its adapted guidelines, a Labour Party member is now free to claim Israel’s existence is a racist endeavour and compare Israeli policies to those of Nazi Germany, unless “intent” — whatever that means — can be proved.
“Dirty Jew” is wrong, “Zionist bitch” fair game?,’’they asked.
In so doing, Labour makes a distinction between racial antisemitism targeting Jews (unacceptable) and political antisemitism targeting Israel (acceptable).
According to the editorial, had the full IHRA definition with examples relating to Israel been approved, ‘’hundreds, if not thousands, of Labour and Momentum members would need to be expelled.’’
‘’With the government in Brexit disarray, there is a clear and present danger that a man with a default blindness to the Jewish community’s fears, a man who has a problem seeing that hateful rhetoric aimed at Israel can easily step into antisemitism, could be our next Prime Minister.’’