UK Jewish Newspapers Unite Against Labour ‘Existential Threat’

The UK’s three main Jewish newspapers have joined as one to publish the same front page, damning Jeremy Corbyn and the left-wing Labour Party as posing an  “existential threat to Jewish life.”

“The stain and shame of anti-Semitism has coursed through Her Majesty’s Opposition since Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015,” the three papers say.

The Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News and Jewish Telegraph move comes amid anger over Labour’s watered-down anti-Semitism code and its repeated inability to confront the anti-Semites and racists who find safe haven in its ranks.

They say the party must sign up to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) robust definition of anti-Semitism. The joint editorial states:

From Chakrabarti to Livingstone, there have been many alarming lows. Last week’s stubborn refusal to adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, provoking Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge to call her leader an antisemite to his face, was the most sinister yet.

Labour has diluted the IHRA definition, accepted in full by the government and more than 130 local councils, deleting and amending four key examples of antisemitism relating to Israel.

Some of Labour’s own party membership share the concerns posed by the three news outlets:

Ever since Jeremy Corbyn became the party’s leader, Labour has been confronted with accusations that it has been tolerant of anti-Semitism among some of its members, and in April leaders of Britain’s 270,000 Jews organized a mass protest accusing Mr. Corbyn of ignoring  their concerns.

“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 anti-Semitism, could be our next prime minister,” the newspapers wrote.

Just days before the three competing news outlets published their joint front page splashes, Labour MPs voted unanimously in favour of forcing their parliamentarians to honour the internationally recognised IHRA definition of anti-Semitism before the summer break or face the consequences of an angry membership.

Mr. Corbyn – who in the past has lauded anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends” – decided not to attend the meeting.

Jewish Labour lawmaker Margaret Hodge said she was disappointed by Mr. Corbyn’s absence.

“Clearly this is an issue that is totally central to my family and my politics. I think it would have been much, much better if he had been there,” she told the Guardian.

The suspension of former London Mayor Ken Livingstone for claiming there was “real collaboration” between Zionists and Nazis before the Second World War and MP Naz Shah who was suspended for calling for the “transportation” of Israelis out of the Middle East on social media are just two of the episodes which have captured the public’s attention.

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