Quote Originally Posted by jon1959 View Post
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'.
Thanks Jon. The bit I am missing is how it is damning on Starmer and his office. She put him in a position that he would be badged as "same old same old" if he had taken any other action than sacking her or he had the option of showing that he is his own man with a new broom. Tricky political choice.

The party recognised that the Prince across the water and the rest of the clan are not coming back soon after the election debacle and RBL reinforcing some of the points in the lessons learned report just makes her look too immature for the offices she aspires to. Why there are elements of the party that keep picking an open wound I don't know.

Is the Israel/Palestine conflict so important to parts of the Labour Party that they are willing to accept domestic political decline as a necessary price to pay to show their internationalist credentials?

What else could he have done that would not have been exploited by the ccfc_is_my_life or tell it like it is types if he still posted on here?