Originally Posted by
jon1959
I agree with most of that.
Livingston should be suspended and investigated, and probably thrown out (again) His comments (more than Naz Shah's) on Hitler's alleged support for Zionism are a total distortion of historical events (the Haavara agreement between the Nazis and German Zionists in the early 1930s) and were an infantile attempt to provide cover for Naz Shah. As I understand it, apart from the silly re-tweet of the Israel to the USA as 51st state (a comment on political and cultural alignment) combined with offensive language, she was 'guilty' of accusing the Israeli government of acting to the Palestinians like the Nazis to the Jews. That is just wrong. The Israeli government is (in my view) racist and has introduced apartheid policies - but that no way equates to Nazism. She was right to apologise.
Livingston is right that allegations of anti-semitism have been used for 40 years to silence critics of Israel, and more recently there has been a co-ordinated attack on those who challenge the ideology of Zionism by saying that every reference to Zionism is actually a reference to Jewish people. This is particularly insidious in the attacks on Jewish anti-Zionists and supporters of Palestinian self-determination (orthodox Jews as well as those on the anti-imperialist left) who are labelled 'self-haters'. The stupidity of Livingston and some of his supporters just gives credence to those attacks.
That said there is a problem with some members and supporters of the Labour Party who blur the lines between opposition to Israel and the ideology of Zionism and opposition to Jewish people they see as part of some international conspiracy. Some are outright anti-semitic. There is a network of pro-Israel lobbies based mainly in the USA but also in Europe and elsewhere. They are not secret lobbies. However, when people start to talk about a Jewish Lobby they cross a line, like opponents of ISIS or Assad or the Saudi regime who describe their opposition or hatred in relation to Muslims or Arabs. That whole toxic mix of racism, fear, confusion and gagging needs to be discussed and resolved in a serious way - with expulsions if necessary - but I don't have much hope for an adult and informed debate.
Too much of what has happened in recent days and months has been about public relations, the Labour Party civil war with a large minority of MPs out to get back at Corbyn, the London mayoral campaign with race and racism allegations at its heart, and the Tories jubilant that their own EU civil war (along with claims of anti-semitism across all parties) has been pushed off the front pages. John Mann and his cronies (Chris Bryant, Michael Dugher, Chris Evans....) are disgraceful in a different way from Livingston - but seem to have got away with staged attacks in front of TV cameras and twitter abuse.
Deeply depressing.