Brendan O'Neill on Corbyn supporters and their "problem with Jews."

Something very strange happened today in respect of the unacceptable tweet by President Trump that four US Congresswomen, all of whom are US citizens and three of whom were born in the USA, should, quote,

‘go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.’

These comments have rightly been criticised by people right across the political spectrum (including by both contenders for the Conservative leadership.)

It is no particular surprise that there was an immediate competition to see who could condemn the US president in the strongest terms so that those who chose the strongest ones could also condemn their political opponents for being soft on prejudice.

But it is very surprising that some on the left of the Labour party, supporters of Corbyn and the left-win magazine The Canary, used the issue as a stich with which to beat their opponents within Labour, using attack lines such as

"Right-wing Labour MPs use Trump’s racism for their own advantage."

The basic argument is that the attack by Trump on these four congresswomen is presented as a binary issue - either you agree with everything the four have said and regard them as heroines, or you're with Trump.

Since one of two of the Congresswomen concerned have form for Anti-Semitic comments - for example, Ilhan Omar has had to apologise for exactly the same kind of anti-Jewish racism on social media which opponents of Labour Anti-Semitism have been calling out - the Canary suggests that if you are an opponent of that kind of Anti-Semitism you can't call out Trump for his comments without being a hypocrite.

This is complete and utter nonsense.

As Steven Daisley wrote in the Spectator,

"Ilhan Omar’s antisemitism does not excuse Donald Trump’s racism but nor does his racism excuse her antisemitism."

It is perfectly possible and reasonable to be horrified by both.

Brendan O'Neill has a very good piece in "Spiked" about the problem which a worrying number of Corbynistas have with Jews and which helps to explain how such opinions, which would have been utterly unacceptable in British polite society a few years ago, have been making a comeback.

You can read his piece, "Why Corbynistas have such a problem with Jews" in full here.

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