The UK Labour Party is in utter disarray after a series of anti-Semitic statements by MPs surfaced and received public attention. The left-wing British party has had a “Jew” problem for some time now, but only recently has it been forced to come terms with the metastatic anti-Semitism festering in its underbelly. After Labour party officials suspended Muslim MP Naz Shah for her brazen comments (several years ago, mind you) suggesting that Jews in Israel should be physically transported to the United States, another Jew-hating MP has come out of the woodworks. Ironically, this MP spewed Jew-hatred during a futile attempt to defend Shah.
In an interview with BBC Radio London on Thursday morning, former London mayor and Labour MP Ken Livingstone suggested that Nazism embraced Zionism, in some perverse attempt to bifurcate Judaism and Zionism and imply that Shah’s grotesque comments about Jews residing the Jewish State were within the bounds of legitimate political discourse.
“Let’s remember, when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel,” said Livingstone. “He was supporting Zionism – this before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.”
This isn’t the first time Livingstone has fiddled with anti-Semitic tropes. The MP’s Judeophobia has been evident for some time now.
Remember the whole Jews-vote-Tory-because-they’re-all-rich incident, for example? https://t.co/79zaw9wd9V
— Mark Wallace (@wallaceme) April 28, 2016
His most recent comments, however, forced his close ally, Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, an Israel-bashing Hamas-friendly politician in his own right, to suspend Livingstone. “Ken Livingstone has been suspended by the Labour Party, pending an investigation, for bringing the party into disrepute,” stated a party spokesman.
For the first time in years, a handful of Labour party members assumed a formidable stance against the latest expression of anti-Semitic paroxysm.
Livingstone’s statements were “appalling and inexcusable,” claimed Labour MP and 2016 London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan. “He’s got to be kicked out. These are so serious, these comments, so deeply offensive.”
However, the most forceful rebuke came from MP John Mann. Hours after Livingstone’s disconcerting interview with the BBC, Mann confronted the disgraced MP in person. He didn’t hold back any punches, blasting Livingstone point-blank for his contemptible statements. “You’re a Nazi apologist, rewriting history, rewriting history, rewriting history,” Mann shouted passionately. “Go back and check what Hitler did, go back and check. There’s a book called Mein Kampf; you’ve obviously never heard of it.”
Here is a clip of the face-to-face confrontation:
In an interview with Daily Politics (UK), Mann doubled-down on his unrelenting criticism of his fellow Labour MP:
He’s a worse historian than he is a politician. He ought to read Mein Kampf, Hitler’s book. He ought to study what the Nazis did, including when the Nazis came to power in January 1933. He ought to look at the events in that year. He ought to see what the first, second, third thing that Nazi regime did — who it targeted and why. He ought to look what he and his political leaders said about Zionism and then consider why he’s said these hugely offensive grotesque remarks. He should not be sat on Labour’s NEC, he should be suspended today.
Shockingly, for his ardent defense of Holocaust victims, Mann may be the one chastised by Labour party leadership. “The Chief Whip has summoned John Mann MP to discuss his conduct,” stated the party spokesman.
“Livingstone has now been suspended,” reports The Spectator (UK). “Meanwhile John Mann has been summoned to the Leader’s Office. Will he be given a medal — or a dressing down?”
As The Jewish Chronicle’s Stephen notes, the problem isn’t one or two unruly MPs. Labour’s “Jewish” problem extends far beyond just Livingstone and Shah.
In a way, Naz Shah is irrelevant. The real issue is the Labour leadership’s attitude to antisemitism.
— Stephen Pollard (@stephenpollard) April 27, 2016
How bad has the Labour party’s handling of anti-Semitism been? It made its MP who apologized for anti-Semitism look like the reasonable one.
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) April 27, 2016
The New Labour party of centrist-minded Tony Blair has become the Regressive Leftist party of Jeremy Corbyn. After Ed Miliband’s crushing loss to Tory Prime Minister David Cameron, the Labour Party, albeit begrudgingly, allowed fringe Leftist Jeremy Corbyn to move up the ranks and establish a position as the party’s official leader.
Corbyn has been a known terrorist-sympathizer for nearly his entire career. As The Telegraph (UK) notes, “He associates with anti-semites and other extremists. He provides a platform for anti-semites and other extremists.”
From Hamas to Hezbollah, Corbyn has a soft spot from radical Islamists. “These are facts. Not smears. Nor inventions of the Tory media. Or some malign concoction of the Blarites,” adds The Telegraph. “As the Labour Party is about to learn to its cost, Jeremy Corbyn’s opponents have no need to manufacture anything. All they have to do is faithfully reproduce what he says and what he thinks.”
To his credit, Corbyn has been a truly transformational figure in British politics. He’s sinking one of the country’s two major political parties over the edge and into a pit of hatred, irreparably damaging the party’s already-precarious brand for a generation.
Tackling anti-semitism has been Corbyn’s greatest failure – @FT leader on Naz Shah affair https://t.co/2YinNvjmxV pic.twitter.com/pdur4zJoiy
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) April 27, 2016
If Labour wants any shot at taking back 10 Downing Street, they need to get their house in order and get rid of the anti-Semitic plague infecting its party, namely Corbyn and Co.