Quote Originally Posted by cyril evans awaydays View Post
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...shadow-cabinet

You can have an argument whether retweeting that the Floyd choke hold being brought to the US by Israeli Secret Service was anti-semetic or anti-Israeli state or not.

What seem undeniable is the political blundering of Long-Bailey being a member of the shadow cabinet and retweeting something dubious that revives the image of Labour as an anti-semetic party. Her campaign for the leadership was abysmal and naive. Now she has allowed Starmer a free hit.

He sacks her to demonstrate to voters that this stuff won't be tolerated, he contrasts his actions with Johnson pathetically hanging onto Cummings and Jenrick even though their transgressions were greater and he chucks someone out of the Shadow Cabinet who he probably didn't want there in the first place.

Hopefully Long-Bailey will take some time out and come back a wiser politician. Thankfully not currently the Leader of the Labour Party.

No room for any argument about whether the choke-hold claim made by Maxine Peake (and thousands of others) is anti-semitic or anti-Israeli. The important question was whether her apology would be sufficient for Marie van der Zyl and the Board of Deputies of British Jews. It wasn't - so she had to be sacked!

Ironic in a way as Rebecca Long-Bailey had dutifully signed up to the '10 Pledges' demanded by the Board Of Deputies during the leadership election campaign, along with Lisa Nandy, Kier Starmer and 3 of the 5 deputy leadership candidates.

Long-Bailey's own twitter account of how this unfolded today doesn't reflect that well on her own judgement, but it is damning on Starmer and his office.

It is a matter of public record that tens of thousands of American and Israeli military and law enforcement officers have trained together since 2002 - some in Israel and many in the USA. I have seen the claims that the choke restraint method was adopted from the Israelis - and the denials of that. I have seen many of the archive photos of Palestinians restrained with a knee to their throats - but whether that is an 'approved' method of immobilising and occasionally killing someone, I don't know.

I doubt American police need to be taught how to kneel on a suspects throat by the Israelis - but if they were (directly or through cascade training) it will have come from representatives of the Israeli state - not from 'the Jews' or whatever the current designation is that justifies the allegations of 'anti-semitism'.