Trump administration’s threat to sabotage Corbyn
JVL Introduction
The Washington Post has carried a leaked report of a private meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Jewish leaders in New York.
When asked about his reaction to a possible Corbyn victory, Pompeo made it clear that he would push back. Not after it has happened but before...
We carry two reports on this leak: Phil Miller in the Morning Star and Caitlin Johnstone’s blog post (h/t Pete Robbins)
Trump administration’s threat to sabotage Corbyn reveals its ‘contempt for democracy’
The British left hits back at US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s sinister remarks
Phil Miller, Morning Star
THE Trump administration’s threat to sabotage Jeremy Corbyn has been slammed by activists who said it was “frightening” and displayed a “pernicious contempt for democracy.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made sinister remarks in a private conversation that was leaked to the Washington Post.
He was asked by a Jewish group in New York how he would respond to a Corbyn election victory and if he would be “willing to work with us to take on actions if life becomes very difficult for Jews in the UK?”
Mr Pompeo said in response: “It could be that Mr Corbyn manages to run the gauntlet and get elected. It’s possible.
“You should know, we won’t wait for him to do those things to begin to push back. We will do our level best.
“It’s too risky and too important and too hard once it’s already happened.”
However Labour national executive committee member Lara McNeill issued a withering response, telling the Morning Star: “Mike Pompeo is an arrogant clown who needs to wind his neck in.
“His comments are an unwanted intervention against British democracy, and stand in a long tradition of American imperial arrogance towards mass movements of working people.
“This provocation will only renew our determination to build an international movement that will elect a socialist government in Britain and bring down Trump’s squalid gang of oligarchs.”
Her concerns were shared by Stop The War which said it was a “frightening development.”
Vice-chairman Chris Nineham told the Morning Star: “The US Secretary of State is using his power to prevent Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister.
“It is shocking that it’s not headline news in Britain at a time when the elites claim to be concerned about foreign interference in politics.
“I think it’s a warning of international action against the possibility of a Corbyn government that needs to be taken very seriously, and it’s a sign of the toxic reality of what is lovingly called the special relationship between the US and Britain.”
CWU leader Dave Ward said the news “shouldn’t surprise us.
“The powerful fear real change and they know what that’s Corbyn stands for in Britain, Europe and the world,” he told the Morning Star. “We can defeat inequality and the far right and shift the balance of forces back in favour of working-class people. We stand with Jeremy Corbyn in this fight.”
John Rees from the People’s Assembly also spoke out, saying “It all adds up to a pernicious contempt for democracy.”
He commented: “Coming hard on the heels of Esther McVey’s threat to prorogue Parliament, we now have the Tory allies in the Trump administration threatening to prevent Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister.
“But the real threat to democracy is that the Tory Party is threatening to foist an unelected prime minister on the country, hell-bent on more tax cuts and austerity.”
The Labour Party said Mr Pompeo’s attempts to decide who will be Britain’s next PM “are an entirely unacceptable interference in the UK’s democracy.”
A spokesperson said: “The next Labour government poses no threat of any kind whatsoever to Jewish people.
“The security and wellbeing of Jewish people is a priority for our party and in government we will always ensure schools, synagogues and institutions are properly protected.”
Mr Pompeo’s claim to be a custodian of American Jews is also at odds with the Trump administration’s links to white supremacist groups, a relationship which has seen a disturbing rise in attacks on synagogues.
The Anti-Defamation League has said that anti-semitic attacks in the US remained at near-record levels in 2018.
There were almost 2,000 incidents last year, the third highest level since the 1970s.
In one horrific attack, a white supremacist killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh last October.
Glyn Secker, from Jewish Voice for Labour, told the Morning Star: “We have long argued that the conflation of swathes of anti-semitic posts originating from the far right, both here and in the US, with the proportionately small number of anti-semitic posts from within the Labour Party is a politically motivated action by the right and the mainstream media to destroy Corbyn’s credibility.
“Recently it has become evident that this is part of an international campaign.
“Liberal Jewish commentators in the States have criticised Republicans launching false allegations of anti-semitism against Democrats in key states, and recently Le Monde carried an article describing how the same tactics are being used against the French left.
“Now we have evidence on Pompeo’s words that the Trump administration intends to be proactive against Corbyn to prevent his democratic election to office by the British people.
“From the land of the free clearly some abrogate to themselves the authority to dictate to others who shall and who shall not have freedom.”
The US State Department told the Morning Star: “The United States is a strong partner of the United Kingdom, and we look forward to continuing that partnership with Prime Minister May through the duration of her term, as well as with her successor, whoever it may be.
“The UK is a robust democracy, and we look forward to co-operating with the new government when it is established.”
Caitlin Johnstone, 
10 June 2019
An audio recording from a private meeting that was leaked to The Washington Post reportedly features US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowing to “push back” against surging British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and many are concerned that what he said sounds an awful lot like a top US official promising to interfere in the UK’s democratic process.
At a closed-door meeting with Jewish leaders earlier this month, one of the attendees asked Pompeo if Corbyn becomes Prime Minister, “would you be willing to work with us to take on actions if life becomes very difficult for Jews in the UK?”
Before I get to Pompeo’s response, I should interrupt myself to note that nobody actually believes that Corbyn would make life difficult for Jews in the UK. Anyone who claims to believe this is lying. Usually when you hear people regurgitating bullshit establishment lines they’re people who are acting basically in good faith, who are only spouting bullshit because they have been propagandized. Not so in this case. The idea that a man with a lifelong history of opposing bigotry is a secret antisemite who will facilitate the persecution of Jews if given the opportunity is a completely baseless smear campaign, and everyone knows it, including those who advance it.
The notion that Jeremy Corbyn advances antisemitism is literally just some gibberish the smear merchants made up to prevent the rise of a politician who threatens to upset existing power structures. It’s exactly as believable and exactly as legitimate as if British newspapers were constantly running headlines claiming that Corbyn is actually three children standing on each other’s shoulders inside grown-up’s clothes; the one and only difference is that they were able to make the antisemitism smear stick. Anyone who pretends to believe that Corbyn is a closet antisemite is exactly as honest and credible as someone who solemnly tells you, “I am very concerned about the fact that the Labour Party is led by a man who is secretly a cartoon mascot for a children’s breakfast cereal.”
So anyway, Pompeo is asked by some ridiculous twat what he’s going to do in the event of a Corbyn-led Kristallnacht, and WaPo reports on his response as follows:
This revelation, understandably, has kicked up a fair bit of chatter in merry old England.
“President Trump and his officials’ attempts to decide who will be Britain’s next prime minister are an entirely unacceptable interference in the UK’s democracy,” The Guardian quotes a Labour spokesperson as saying in response to the revelation.
“STOP: The Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just promised ‘Jewish leaders’ in the United States that he would stop Jeremy Corbyn coming to power here,” tweeted former British MP George Galloway. “Is this normal now? Is this what we’ve been led to? Is this good for Jews? For Britain? Really?”
“They did it in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Now the US government wants to overthrow democracy in Britain,” tweeted The Guardian‘s George Monbiot. “Still waiting for a UK government spokesperson to express their outrage. Hello???”
“Hmm. Hard to spin this any other way: the US secretary of state secretly promises US Jewish leaders to prevent Corbyn from becoming UK prime minister,” tweeted British journalist Jonathan Cook. “Hard too not to suspect that the US is *already* helping to ensure Corbyn doesn’t become PM. Because the obvious implication of Pompeo’s comment is that the US knows it can damage Corbyn without leaving fingerprints at the crime scene – presumably through black ops, image management etc. The elephant in the room: Why assume the US isn’t already using those techniques?”
It is no secret that the DC establishment considers other nations to be its personal property and has no qualms about openly working to topple the governments of nations like Venezuela and Iran, but people aren’t accustomed to hearing this sort of language directed at white, English-speaking liberal democracies. Add in the fact that this is coming from a particularly reviled administration in terms of international optics and the likely public revulsion increases. The thought that this administration may decide the direction of UK politics would be all kinds of infuriating to the average pom.
So many questions need to be answered. Was Pompeo in fact saying that the US is intending to prevent Corbyn from becoming Prime Minister? And if so, how? What exactly does “push back” entail? Are we talking psyops and smear campaigns? Or something more? And whatever they intend to do, have they started doing it already?
These are all questions that we should be intensely curious about. If Corbyn is able to continue to rise, we may begin seeing some increasingly overt manipulations from many places we’re not meant to be seeing them as an ailing empire fights to hold itself together in the face of increasing public discontent. The more overt the guardians of the empire are forced to be, the more they expose themselves, and the greater that public discontent may become. Our rulers are in a very complex balancing act right now, and we’d all do well to pay attention.
“nobody actually believes that Corbyn would make life difficult for Jews in the UK. Anyone who claims to believe this is lying.” I believe Corbyn would make life difficult for Zionist Jews or those regarded as Zionists ie probably a majority of Jews. Not lying!
This is the confusion that is repeated time and time again. People who identify strongly with Israel will be unhappy when a Corbyn led Labour Government ends the British tradition of excusing Israeli crimes and instead seeks justice and peace for all who live in the region. That is not at all the same as ‘make life difficult for Zionist Jews or those regarded as Zionists’. Living in a country which has elected a Government with different political priorities to yours is a fact of life for all of us at times, it is not the same as being persecuted.
No one’s life, property or religious freedom is being threatened in any way. It is reckless fearmongering to suggest otherwise.
Disgraceful. Trump and his band of horrible racist manipulative idiotic clowns need to keep their noses out of our beloved Labours Party and country. They don’t have a moral leg to stand on between them.
In what way does Philiph35 believe Corbyn will make life difficult for Zionist Jews in Britain? Will he proscribe Zionist opinions? Force them out of their jobs? Expel them from the Labour Party? And what makes him think that most British Jews are Zionist? He can’t possibly know. Many of us aren’t Zionist. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of British Zionist Jews are disassociating themselves from the policies and actions of the Israeli state, as are American Jews. This is what Pompeo and his president can’t stand.
I don’t know. To me, expulsion from the Party and some restriction on the expression of Zionist ideas – if only by self-censorship – seems likely. Firing from jobs or worse is, I hope, less so.
I did not say that most British Jews are Zionists. I said a majority probably are. This does not seem an unreasonable view though “Zionism” is not well defined. The top item in a google search agreed, for what that is worth: https://fullfact.org/news/are-majority-british-jews-zionists/.