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Comment and Opinion

Haaretz: The British Labour Party Is in a Fight for Its Very Soul Against anti-Semitic anti-Zionism, by Alan Johnson

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The British Labour Party melted down today. ”You’re a f***ing disgrace!” screamed MP John Mann, the doughty chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Semitism, in the face of Ken Livingstone, the oily former Labour Mayor of London. The cameras caught it all. Happily, the Labour Party soon agreed with Mann’s assessment and suspended Livingstone from the party.

The cause of Mann’s fury? Well, where to start?

First, Livingstone told the media that he’d never seen a single incident of anti-Semitism in the Labour party in 40 years.

Second, and worse, he claimed that MP Naz Shah should not have been suspended from the party (she was Wednesday’s suspension; it’s hard to keep up) just because she used social media to suggest that Israeli Jews should be “relocated” en masse to America, compared Israelis to Hitler, spread public warnings that “the Jews are rallying,” compared Zionism to Al-Qaida, and expressed concern that the Zionists are “grooming” Jews to “exert political influence at the highest levels of public office.”

This was all perfectly legitimate “criticism of Israel,” said Livingstone. He then lashed out at the “Israel lobby,” which was smearing good people as anti-Semites to protect Israel.

So far, so standard, sadly.

Read the full article at Haaretz