Tony Greenstein | 02 April 2018 | Post Views:

Christine Shawcroft’s
Resignation was a Totally Unnecessary Betrayal of a Comrade A Self-Inflicted
Wound

Unfortunately Jeremy Corbyn preferred to stab himself in the back instead
Islamaphobia is 4 times as bad as antisemitism and anti-Roma racism is 6.5 times as bad yet all the news is about fake ‘antisemitism’
I understand from close friends of Christine
Shawcroft, that her resignation was not an act of selflessness or given
willingly.  She was directly asked to resign by Jeremy Corbyn personally with
the implied threat that if she didn’t resign she would be suspended.
This came after a petition
was signed by 39 of the usual culprits – John Mann, Luciana Berger etc.
demanding that Christine should resign. For Jeremy to have stabbed a close
comrade in the back in order to appease these far-Right creatures is disgraceful.  Does he think that they are going to thank
him? 
Christine Shawcroft – betrayed by Corbyn and Lansman
Being my silent witness aroused the ire of the Jewish Chronicle and its Political Editor Marcus Dysch
It is clear from the newspapers
today – from the Sunday Times to the Observer – that the Fake News Anti-Semitism
Smear Campaign is in full flow again. 
Let us be in no doubt that whatever else it has to do with it is not anti-Semitism. 
If Corbyn gives way now to this
artificial and hyped nonsense what will happen when and if he does get into
power.

The Board of Deputies Open Letter to Corbyn last week made it crystal clear what their real agenda was – ‘the far left’s obsessive hatred’ of things like Israel’s gunning down of unarmed demonstrators

The Board justifying Israel’s latest massacre of Palestinians.  The Board of Deputies is an unelected Zionist group, wholly unrepresentative of secular Jews.  The reason it attacks Corbyn is because he supports the Palestinians.
Jonathan  Hoffman (left) is a member of the Board of Deputies, Paul Besser (right) is a member of Britain First and was their ‘Intelligence Officer’ the woman in the middle Gemma Sheridan is a member of the neo-Nazi Jewish Defence League – Question to Jonathan Arkus, President of the BOD – why is Hoffman a member of the Board given his repeated support for anti-semites?
Here is Harvey Garfield (left) and Jonathan Hoffman (right) in the company of Roberta Moore, a member of the Jewish Defence League (Jewish wing of the English Defence League) whose members are in the background in paramilitary fatigues – Question – Why is someone who works with fascists and neo-Nazis a member of the Board of Deputies – so far Jonathan Arkush has remained silent and the gutter press isn’t interested

It is a lie to suggest that Christine
Shawcroft defended a holocaust denier. As I have already written
Alan Bull, who was suspended and prevented from standing for Peterborough Council,
distributed a Holocaust denial article amongst a close circle of friends for
discussion.  He was not advocating Holocaust
denial and in response to a question from one of those friends made his
position very clear. However those who breached that group’s security erased
those comments when they broadcast a story of Holocaust denial distribution.
I have also sent Holocaust denial articles
to people I know. Anyone who is an anti-fascist should be acquainted with the
kind of material holocaust deniers distribute. 
I doubt if most of the Zionists who shout so loudly would, if push came
to shove, be able to respond to the arguments of the holocaust deniers because
most Zionists are ignorant propagandists. 
The most distinguished of all Holocaust historians, Professor Raul Hilberg,
argued that we should listen to holocaust deniers because they may make us
think again about some of the things we argue about.  To suggest that simple distribution of a Holocaust
denial article constitutes support for Holocaust denial is fakery.  One thing however is very
clear.  

The fake news campaign over ‘anti-Semitism’ that the Sunday papers were
full of has only one target and that is Jeremy Corbyn.
The Sunday papers are unanimous – we have the Observer engaging in anti-semitic tropes focusing on a rich Jewish donor leaving Labour with the implication that Jews use money to influence political parties
The Sunday Times article was total
nonsense.  It concerned Facebook groups
that support Corbyn.  All of them are
unofficial, most of them are unmoderated and occasionally anti-Semitic materal
might appear.  On the few occasions I
have seen it I have drawn it to the attention of the moderators.  But to say that these are hate filled anti-Semitic
groups is absolute rubbish and it ill becomes racist sewers like the Sunday
Times, which employ racist columnists like Rod Liddle, to throw the accusation
of ‘anti-Semitism’ at anyone.
I should perhaps also say that anti-Semitism
today in Britain, despite the volume of spurious allegations by the newspapers,
is marginal.  7% of British people have
prejudiced views about Jews compared to 28% in respect of Muslims and 45% in
respect of the Roma.  Anti-Semitism exists
mainly on social media.  No one has ever
died because of a tweet or a Facebook post. 
It is in many ways utter trivia. 
It is bricks and bottles on the streets that most concern me not social
media.  The newspapers concentrate on
social media anti-Semitism because there is virtually none in society, unlike
Islamaphobia.
The Daily Mail is one of the biggest supporters of the idea that Labour is ‘anti-semitic’ however during the 1930’s it support Moseley’s British Union of Fascists and Hitler whilst urging the government not to admit Jewish refugees – nothing has changed as it is still hostile to refugees but that doesn’t stop it being a strong supporter of Israel and being antisemitic
The Mail’s Support for Israel and Zionism and support for the fake ‘antisemitism’ campaign against Labour goes hand in hand with genuine anti-semitism
However many of his friends that Jeremy
throws to the wolves, however often Jeremy denies he is an anti-Semite he will
still be attacked. The reason why is simple. 
The target of the defamers and smearers is not me, not Jackie Walker, not
Marc Wadsworth still less Alan Bull.  It
is Jeremy Corbyn himself.  The purpose of
the campaign is not to eradicate anti-Semitism
but to eliminate Corbyn.
Because Corbyn gives every sign,
not only of having no backbone left but also of what appears to be terminal timidity
at best or stupidity at worst, he doesn’t seem to appreciate this simple
fact.  Whatever he does, however he does
it, however much he concedes on the principles he once believed in, he will be
the target as and until he goes.  And if
he goes the ‘anti-Semitism’ problem will likewise disappear.
Britain’s Tory tabloids combine vicious racism against Black and Asian people, traditional antisemitism with slavish support for Israel
Corbyn really does believes that
the Board of Deputies is sincere in its attacks on anti-Semitism.  That anti-Jewish hatred concerns them.  This is total nonsense. Anti-Semitism is not
and never has been their major concern.
When I first joined the Anti-Nazi
League in the late 1970’s, we came under sustained attack from the Board of
Deputies.  Why?  Because they SWP who formed the ANL were anti-Zionist.  For the Board of Deputies anti-Zionism was
always more important than anti-fascism. 
Even Searchlight Magazine,
which since the editorship of Gerry Gable has become pro-Zionist, called them ‘kamikaze
pilots’ (Searchlight was then under the editorship of Maurice Ludmer, who unlike
Gable was a socialist).
When Sir Oswald’s Moseley’s British Union of Fascists attempted to march through Jewish East End of London on 9 October 1936 100,000 Jews and non-Jewish workers stopped the fascists – the Board of Deputies told Jews to stay in doors
The Board of Deputies is a
bourgeois body, unelected, unrepresentative and unconcerned about fascism.  When over 100,000 Jews and working class East
Enders turned out in October 1936 to stop Oswald Moseley’s fascists marching
through the East End of London the Board told Jews to stay indoors, keep your
heads down.  It didn’t believe in physically
opposing fascism.
The only demonstrations the Board
holds are in support of Israel or in opposition to the Palestinians.  In the 1970’s when the National Front, an
openly anti-Semitic party was beating the Liberals into 3rd place
and gaining 30% of the vote in cities like Leicester and Bradford, the Board of
Deputies refused to mobilise the Jewish community.  It has always preferred to keep a low
profile.  It is only over Israel that it
becomes motivated.  That was why it held
its so-called rally against anti-Semitism last Monday outside the House of
Commons included Norman Tebbit, Sajid David and even the bigots of the DUP.
Corbyn is demeaning himself by
begging to meet the Board of Deputies. 
It is a totally futile exercise since they are not interested in
anything but his removal.  There are no
amount of concessions, no amount of expulsions that he could make which would
satisfy them.
When the history of this period
comes to be written no doubt some enterprising researcher will put in a freedom
of information request to the American Embassy files and dig up information
that will show that the fake anti-Semitism campaign began with the CIA and the
Deep State.  No doubt Joan Ryan MP, with
her £1m slush fund and Ruth Smeeth MP, who Wikileaks has already described as a
US asset, will be shown to have played their part in this fake campaign.
What is particularly disgraceful is
that Momentum, of whose companies Christine is a Director, has said nothing
throughout this affair.  Not one word. Christine
was left to twist in the wind.  
The great dictator – Jon Lansman
Although
3 left-wingers were elected earlier this year to the National Executive Committee,
we now have someone we didn’t vote for on the Right, Eddie Izzard.  Momentum has been shown to be a sleeping
giant.  It has 36,000 members and yet it
had nothing to say.  It was frozen,
immobile because Jon Lansman, Momentum’s Great Dictator, has bought into the
false anti-Semitism charges from the start. Because Momentum lacks all
democracy there is no way of challenging this situation.
Christine was extremely close to
Lansman, so much so that when Lansman moved to get rid of Jackie Walker as
Vice-Chair of Momentum, thus encouraging Crooked Iain McNicol to suspend her,
Christine voted in support of Lansman. 
Likewise when she was on the NEC Christine voted to refer Jackie’s case
to the NCC.  Although she has now indicated
that she is opposed to Jackie’s expulsion this is another case of the witchhunt
coming to bite people who previously had given it succour.
Nonetheless this is a sad end to
Christine’s 19 years on the NEC during which she has been a rock of the Left.  The way she has been treated, both by Corbyn and
Lansman is disgraceful.  What makes it
worse is that in betraying Christine Corbyn has simply emboldened his own
enemies.

Posted in

Tony Greenstein

Leave a Comment





This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.