How Starmer’s Labour reversed 40 years of progress on Israel and Palestine
JVL Introduction
Jonathan Cook describes the huge advances made in the last four decades as activists successfully challenged the media’s widespread presentation of Israel’s military occupation as benevolent and enlightened.
But there were always countervailing pressures, coming to a head under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership when Labour was e.g. forced to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism (with a Code that it believed would mitigate the worst effects).
But in the short period of Starmer’s tenure as leader of the Labour Party, the rot has really set in.
Israel’s openly racist Ambassador, Tzipi Hotoveley has recently been embraced by both the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Labour Friends of Israel and, it would appear, Starmer himself.
This article was originally published by Jonathan Cook on Thu 25 Nov 2021. Read the original here.
How Starmer’s Labour reversed 40 years of progress on Israel and Palestine
Rights groups have declared Israel an apartheid state, but the Labour and Tory parties are now competing to be its best friend
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I know you won’t post this, but starmer is an out and out tory.
Starmer appears to have more allegiance to the state of Israel than to the UK people, so what can become of Palestine and its people?
For Starmer to turn a blind eye to the distressing of a nation there is no fitting excuse.
Is there much else to be said about Starmer? Even Blair comes out of this with more credit. A very weird scenario and surely must be comong to an end?
Why would John Mclaughlin think his comment would not be posted? I suspect it was posted with some relish – and quite rightly too.
Surveys show that even Labour voters are more sympathetic to the oppressed Palestinians than Israel the oppressor.
Labour members are more in tune with their electorate than Starmer, who is successfully alienating group after group of core Labour voters.
Ethnic minorities ignored yet gave Labour 20% of its vote, while Starmer prioritises Zionists who gave Labour about 0.2%. Complaints from Labour Muslims are seemingly rejected yet Muslim communities give Labour 8% of its vote.
Now it seems anti-Woke advice from Blair will risk another chunk of Labour voters.
Then there is the anti-Union stance and undemocratic purge of left- wingers which will damage Labour further.
If only Starmer would protect Labour as he protects apartheid Israel.
As Groucho Marx said “well these are my principles….if you don’t like them I have others”!
But Starmer can’t even say that can he?
If I could I would send Starmer and co their respective letters of auto-exclusion. They are clearly bringing the labour party into disrepute nationally and internationally.
As said, shameful speech. I cancelled direct debit when he dropped Rebecca L-B (who I’d voted for). It is now obvious that anyone who voted in Starmer was conned.
Has Starmer ever been to visit Palestinian areas in Israel?, let alone occupied areas, or Gaza? If he had he would see the obvious aparthied situation that Palestinians have lived under for decades. He is a turncoat and setting back honesty and truthfulness by the way he is behaving, by decades.I dispair ,again.
Don’t worry. The Chinese have no truck with Israel and will never cosy up to them – and this is their century!
I rarely disagree with the excellent Jonathan Cook, and I appreciate everything he says here, but I would disagree that Starmer and others have reversed 40 years of advance.
I would argue, on the contrary, that the events of the past three or four years have opened the eyes of many of us who were only vaguely aware before of what was going on.
It is, of course, the great irony that Israel’s attempts to stifle criticism have had the, presumably, unintended consequence of throwing a spotlight on itself.
On the subject of Starmer, is there no TV interviewer smart or brave enough to ask him if he agrees with the ambassador that Jews should be banned from marrying non-Jews? And are there any other countries, now or in the past, where he believes racial purity is or was an acceptable doctrine?
Labelling Keir Starmer a Tory is barely controversial, being so obvious with evidence accruing every time he says or does anything. Isn’t it time he did a Winston Churchill and crossed the aisle?
I, absolutely, fail to comprehend the support for Israel. I have spent my life fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people but, the support that Israel receives from the West has prevented even a small improvement. Israel is supported in breaking international rules, human rights laws and commuting downright cruelty.
Last night (27th), interviewed on Radio 4, Starmer commented on people who google his wife to find out if she is Jewish. While we at JVL know full well that being Jewish does not mean support for Israel, it is surely understandable that people who are outraged at Starmer’s views about Israel, might be curious to find out if his wife is Jewish, and might then wrongly or rightly draw conclusions about why Starmer holds his views. But no, in Starmer’s mind, this is evidence of hatred of Jews. Starmer is ignorant, biased and unsubtle in his thinking. No better than Johnson. Thank you Jonathon, once again, for this thoughtful (and we are in such need of thought) article
I’m ashamed & disgusted with the Labour Party under racist Starmer, so I have left.
To me it seems utterly bizarre that the leader of the Labour Party (and a Human Rights lawyer to boot), will share a platform and treat, as an honoured guest, a woman whose previous ministerial post actively promoted breaking International law.
It is also astonishing that he is happy to be seen as an ally to someone who is openly, proudly and aggressively Islamophobic and would actually block Mr and Mrs Starmer and their children from living in Israel if they so wished.
I simply cannot understand the thought process behind that. It looks a bit like sucking up to a bully in the hope they’ll leave you alone.
Not very “Labour”, is it?
There may be gains in a drop of support for Israel particularly among young Jews and liberal Zionists in the US who have had second thoughts but it’s had no impact on the occupation or apartheid – indeed they have got worse if anything.
“For a brief moment, it looked like the debate about Israel had finally attained a degree of lucidity.” As Cook says, this is about as good as it got so not sure there have been major victories.
As an English Jew by birth and a left-winger by choice, I find Starmer’s position to be wholly wrong. In my view Israel is not a ‘Jewish’ state. To be such, it has to fulfill many criteria, one of which is a general acceptance by Jews that Israel is their homeland. There is no such acceptance, and the reason for that is simple: too many Jews, born and raised outside of Israel, find Israel to be governed along lines with which they cannot agree and do not wish to be associated. This is a simple observation which Starmer, a British politician answerable to, amongst others, the British Jews in his party, refuses to understand or acknowledge. His partiality towards Israel can only raise suspicions about his whole political philosophy and the influence it will have on the Party he claims to represent. He is not fit to be the leader of a Party such as the Labour Party was intended to be when it was founded.
I believe that since Starmer has been the leader of he has lied to the members about his position on the 10 point program he adopted when he came in. He has repeatedly expelled left wing members, for what sometimes are weak reasons. It’s just unbelievable that he and his gang expel Jewish members for opposing the actions of the Israeli Government, and its troops.
Ive said it before, and Ill say it again – the labour party is a dead end. It doesnt care for the interests of the working class under Starmer, and although Corbyn managed to gain working class support, he ended up losing it over big issues like brexit. The main people who mourn him now seem to be middle class leftists.