When Jews are just fodder for the Tory propaganda machine
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
Antony Lerman is the former founding director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, Associate Editor of the international academic journal on racism Patterns of Prejudice and has written widely on antisemitism.
Here he writes penetratingly on the current situation when “the weaponisation of antisemitism has become commonplace, for reasons that have very little to do with serious concern for the welfare of all Jews.”
This article was originally published by openDemocracy on Sat 9 Nov 2019. Read the original here.
When Jews are just fodder for the Tory propaganda machine
“To get away with dog-whistle antisemitism and at the same time in the chase for votes shamelessly exploit Jewish fears is quite something.”
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Sanity and reason.
This timely article by Anthony Lerman provides a perfect opportunity for the Labour Party to demand a BBC debate about the exaggerated weaponisation of Jewish suffering by the Conservatives and other opposition parties (in collusion with the BBC channel 4 the Guardian and right wing media during the run up to the election and beyond.
What an amazing piece of writing..so much wisdom, so much truth. Incicive, clear and detailed in its analysis. A must-read.
An excellent and clear article, taking the debate out of the gutter into which it seems to have fallen. Enables objective examination of the issues and reminds us of our common ideals. More should be said about how “crying wolf” damages us all.
This is an excellent reminder from an authoritative source of the true nature of the Labour ‘antisemitism’ issue – particularly coming on a morning when yet another Labour spokesperson’s only response is to apologize for a non-threat.
The following reminder is timely for anyone like Pollard who is exploiting the issue for their Tory bent :
“The growing numbers of far-right, white supremacist and neo-Nazi extremists in the UK must be delighted at this state of affairs: Jews, the Tory leadership, much of the mainstream media are combining to do their work for them.”
An excellent article from Anthony Lerman who gives an ‘insiders’ view on the way Tories are weaponising A/S against Labour and Corbyn. It has to be said though that there are those within Labour who either by intent or naivete are assisting the Tories with their attacks by insisting that the IHRA definition was adopted.
The Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn was blackmailed and bullied by the corporate media and Co into signing up to the IHRA definition, just as it has been blackmailed and bullied into apologising for the anti-semitism which has been mostly confected or grossly exaggerated. As Justin Schlosberg points out in Chapter 4 of Bad News for Labour:
“In contrast to other contexts, the antisemitism issue by its very nature inhibits the development of a counter-narrative. This is because much of the discursive framing serves to pre-emptively delegitimise any defensive response as ‘part of the problem’”.
If you own and/or control the media, then you hold all the cards, and have complete and total control over the narrative. And the very media that is dissembling this massive falsehood is hardly going to give those that it’s directed at the opportunity to expose the falsehood they are a party to.
Letter to Guardian referring to Opinion column by Jonathan Freedland:
I read today’s column by Jonathan Freedland with dismay (Many Jews oppose Brexit, but how can we vote for Corbyn, 9th November, Opinion). The column, underneath a photo showing placards howling for Corbyn to be held to account for his anti-Semitism, begs the question who should be held to account, Corbyn – or Freedland, for falling for the hype generated by a section of the Jewish community, including Labour MPs, who transform legitimate criticism of Israel actions into evidence of anti-Semitism. But we, the descendants and victims of the holocaust, must be the most understanding of what it means to be oppressed, and confront oppression when we see it wherever it comes from. I am surprised that Freedland, normally an astute and progressive analyst, should be prepared for a perpetuation of this Tory Government inimical to what I as a Jew hold dear, not based on evidence but on what often has turned out to be hearsay or even fake news.
Sincerely
Frank Land
9 Apple Wharf
The Plains
Totnes
Devon, TQ9 5QL
01803 862257
[email protected]
Jonathan Freedland yesterday in the Guardian:
“… while I have nothing but contempt for Johnson and his hard-right party, the prospect of Prime Minister Corbyn fills me with dread… specifically the notion of Corbyn and his inner circle running the country. The thought of it prompts in me, and the overwhelming majority of the community I grew up in, a fear that we have not known before.”
Close to the election, Freedland’s shamelessly fact-free opinion piece is the latest effort from the liberal media to perpetuate a fear about Corbyn and ”his inner circle running the country”. That very phrase suggests that as well as British Jews, democracy too, is under threat from a cabal of conspiring, anti-semitic, political demons. Freedland uses his privileged position to speak on behalf of Jews to explain (and thereby fan) ‘our deepest fears.’
What chutzpah! To repeat old smears, to deny the evidence in plain sight, to help stir up fear and then explain that its real source lies with the Labour leadership. In what way is this the act of a responsible journalist?
Thanks be to Antony Lerman for his voice of reason and clarity in the face of such monumental deception.
It seems apparent to me that a dual purpose is being served here. Convincing British jews that, what could well be the next government, is rabidly anti-semitic may increase the vote for the Conservatives, but also may well convince some to migrate to Israel. So win win for supporters of Zionism.
I learnt a lot from this excellent article. Thank you.
An excellent article.
Freedland’s Guardian is a zionist rag which has always opposed Labour.
What is surprising is to see people like Romain getting all-hysterical.
His work in opposing so-called “faith” schools may have earned him sufficient opposition within the Judaic community that he now finds himself supporting ridiculous zionist claims about Corbyn and Labour as a way to get himself re-accepted among members of the British Jewish community?
This is Brilliant. Thank You. The voice of reason. I get told to go back to where I came from because I’ve lived and worked in different countries and I don’t speak as most people in my area. I get asked where I’m from and I reply where do you think I’m from and they say that they don’t know but that I’m not from around their area. Actually I’m from Broomfield, Herne Bay. So we have discrimination with being different too.
Better late than never.
A must read for all the reactionary ‘trope’ hunters and the silent self serving bureaucrats in the Labour Party who still won’t lift a finger to right the wrongs they have inflicted on their ‘comrades’? When next you lot have the barefaced gall to sing your ‘Red Flag’ anthem and get to the part – #”though cowards flinch and traitors sneer…”, you’ll always know, that bit is about you. Scabs.
Another excellent article, a calm voice of sanity that encourages us to look further than media headlines, Tory propaganda and neo-Nazi virulence…. Thank you
I left the Labour Party this year because of this Anti-Semitism , not because of it in Labour or society in general which I find abhorrent but for Labours lack of fight against what are plainly smears from people working to an agenda many of them within the party Margaret Hodge in particular. I may not be able to stop them weaponising Anti-Semitism but I don’t bloody well have to support they pedlars of this filth by my subscriptions !
I am not Jewish , and I can not even pretend to understand the hurt that Jewish People may feel , I will call out any form of Racism with my dying breath . Do I honestly think that Jeremy Corbyn is an Anti-Semite ? do I hell never in a month of Sundays , Corbyn is the most principled man in Parliament .
What is happening at the moment (and I hate to say this, but it is facilitated by Jewish people working to an agenda) is a bastardisation of Anti-Semitism and a disgraceful kick in the teeth to Jews who have suffered throughout history , it is a dreadful sell out of their hurt .
Many thanks for this article , I just wish it could be published in the tabloids because many believe everything they read in the Mail/Express/Telegraph/Sun. There lies much of the trouble people lap up what they want to hear , it suits their agenda of hatred , it empowers them , they don’t care two hoots about Anti-Semitism but they will use it as a tool to get Corbyn , who they are terrified of for the simple reason that he will call out all racism , injustice and speak up for those without a voice . That fills the right wing with absolute fear .
Anthony Lerman has an important and partially true point of view. However he ignores those within labour such as many Jewish Labour MPs who feel forced out by labour.
Two points. (1) The effect of this propaganda has been compared to that of the famous Zinoviev letter, which stymied the first Labour government in 1924 three days before an election. Published in the Daily Mail with full-on anti-semitic overtones (Zinoviev was a Jew), it turned out to have been a complete fake. The comparison is obvious, except that this time it is more sophisticated: anti-semitism potentially stoked by anti- anti-semitism.
(2) There is a class dimension to all this. Writing in the Daily Mail on 6 June, Margaret Hodge referred to the ‘grossly bigoted mural’ in Whitechapel on the grounds that it portrayed ‘hook-nosed Jews’. I saw her in the audience at the Proms a few years ago for a performance of the Wagner Ring Cycle, of which she is clearly a fan (ok, I was there myself). Wagner depicted ‘Jewish degeneracy’ in his operas, wrote openly anti-semitic tracts, and was Hitler’s favourite composer. One rule for murals, another for high culture.
Excellent comment, especially the sidelining of other forms of racism has always worried me. I have for several years commented to others that this in the end will backfire and make Jews less safe. I think that most antisemitism on the left is due to confusing Israeli government policy with being Jewish, and education will mostly fix that. On the right antisemitism is racial hatred and may be impossible to cure.