My view on all this is straightforward.
There are antisemites in the Labour Party (as there are in all UK parties - many with a bigger problem than Labour but much less scrutiny) and I fully support the suspension and/or expulsion of anyone who has displayed antisemitic views in person or on social media. I have seen some examples of genuine antisemitic activity - mainly in the form of tweets.
There are many anti-racist campaigners for Palestinian rights in the Labour Party who have been falsely accused and sometimes expelled for their opposition to Israeli policies, state ideology, or in favour of non-violent resistance campaigns like BDS. The recent adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism by Labour formalised a position that equated anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel with antisemitism - despite its proponents claims to the contrary. A lot of those accused in Labour are Jewish themselves.
The claim made in the Maxine Peake interview with the Independent that Israeli police/military 'taught' US police and military the choke hold that killed George Floyd has been made many many times since his death. I have seen no proof that the american police were taught this technique by the Israelis - although there are numerous pictures out there of Palestinians restrained in the same way.
The Israeli and US police and military have been joint training since 2002 - involving tens of thousands of people over that time.
The original Maxine Peake claim was based on an Amnesty report that covered the joint training - but never alleged that choke holds were passed on to the Americans. Amnesty clarified what was in its report and the Independent amended the interview text. The Israeli government has denied this and I guess American law enforcement and state representatives have backed them up. Whether that is true or not is not the issue. Rebecca long-Bailey was probably (given the timing of the tweet) responding to the original interview text. Whatever, once Amnesty had clarified their findings it was right for Maxine Peake and RLB to withdraw the allegation and apologise for an unsubstantiated allegation.
Maxine Peake did. RLB issued a retraction agreed with Starmer's office - but the Board Of Deputies wasn't satisfied and wanted her sacked. RLB wanted to issue a clarification statement alongside deleting her original tweet - but Starmer refused. Starmer also refused to speak to her about the issue. Before anything else could happen she was sacked.
Starmer repeated the allegation that claiming the Israeli government had trained American police in the choke hold technique was an antisemitic conspiracy theory. It is only antisemitic if any and every objection to Israeli actions is antisemitism. That now seems to be the case. The context is simply the similarity of practice by the forces of two countries who train together. Last night on Channel 4 News Julia Neuberger was claiming that the allegation of shared restraint techniques reinforced the medieval Blood Libel against European Jews! Wow.
In my opinion Starmer has made a calculated decision to use this incident to sack RLB for several reasons: To purge Corbyn support in the Shadow Cabinet; to shut down discussion of Israel's international relationships (especially with the USA that provides funding, strategic support and diplomatic cover) in the context of an impending annexation of 30% of the West Bank; to out the Labour spokesperson on education who he thinks has sided more 'with the producers than the consumers' (Guardian) and left him floundering in PMQs last week, but mostly for 'the optics'.
He knows the public don't care about the detail or the rights and wrongs of the issue - but he can clear out some domestic opposition whilst getting the full support of the print and broadcast media, the Labour right and defectors, the 'official' Jewish community press and (self appointed) representatives, and even a good few Tory MPs. Most of all he looks strong and decisive and set against Boris Johnson supporting Cummings and Jenrick he looks convincing. He may have got his calculations right on this - even if he has done it by over-reaction and reinforcing messages that betray the Palestinians.