AS the plane landed at Heathrow and the pilot announced the weather conditions, I wished I were back in Karachi. It’s been cold and wet in the UK this last week, with the threat of more rain and low temperatures to come. Although the daffodils have brightened the scene a bit, spring still seems far away.
Going through the papers and watching the news on TV, I note that the acrimonious debate over Brexit rumbles on. Now that there is just less than a year to go for Britain to formally exit the European Union, the consequences of the referendum are focusing minds and unleashing accusations from both sides. There are loud calls for a second referendum once the British and EU negotiation teams have arrived at a final draft agreement. Other Remainers are suggesting a campaign to persuade Tory MPs who oppose Brexit to vote according to their conscience.
The problem, of course, is that these MPs fear de-selection by the Conservative committees in their constituencies. In Britain, candidates are selected by elected local party members who have the power to decide who will be their candidate. Equally, they can decide to reject even a popular member if he or she goes against the party position on an important issue.
The same fear of de-selection now haunts Labour members considered to be on the right of Jeremy Corbyn by Momentum, the powerful left-wing organisation that helped make him the party leader in a divisive struggle three years ago. Moderate Labour members fear this left-wing orthodoxy, and its enforcement by radical new entrants.
The British right-wing press, and the Tories generally, have been gunning for Corbyn for his socialist views ever since he became Labour leader in 2015. One reason Theresa May called for snap elections last summer was that she genuinely felt her maverick Labour rival would provide her with a bigger parliamentary majority. In the event, the Tories suffered a major setback with the party being reduced to a minority and forced to govern in a coalition with a small Scottish party.
The current stick being used to beat the Labour leader with is the charge of anti-Semitism that is allegedly rife in the party. While Corbyn has repeatedly admitted to ‘pockets of anti-Semitism’ in the Labour party, and has said the leadership was addressing the problem, critics have continued to pile on the pressure.
The latest episode in this toxic debate is a Facebook posting from 2012 in which Corbyn appears to support an artist who had complained that his mural in East London was about to be destroyed by the authorities. The painting depicted a group of bankers with exaggerated Semitic features sitting on the backs of poor people. Without commenting on the subject matter, Corbyn had posted that a similar fate had befallen another artist. By not condemning the mural, Corbyn had laid himself open to the charge of anti-Semitism.
The current Labour party leadership has been very sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, and Corbyn has been forced to defend himself against charges that he has been close to Palestinian freedom fighters. Israel and Zionists in the West have consistently used the charge of anti-Semitism to shut down the debate over the occupation of Palestinian lands and the oppression of the people who live there. Over time, the charge of anti-Semitism has become an easy way to silence critics of Israel.
And yet it’s a narrow line between criticising Israel and disliking Jews, and this is the line some Labour members have crossed. A few have been suspended, the most noteworthy being Ken Livingstone, the left-wing ex-mayor of London. He was accused of mentioning in an interview that in 1934, Hitler had supported Zionism.
More recently, Alan Bull, a Labour councillor, has been accused of posting on Facebook that an International Red Cross report “confirms that the Holocaust of six million Jews was a hoax”. Although Bull has defended himself by saying the posting had been doctored, there are loud calls for his head. Meanwhile, Jewish organisations have demonstrated against alleged anti-Semitism in the Labour party.
One reason so many Jews have flocked to Labour in the past is that the Tories have traditionally been seen as anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic. In rural Britain — the Conservative heartland — Jews are disparaged at private dinner parties. The Left, on the other hand, has been generally welcoming of outsiders, including Jews and Muslims.
But with local council elections due in May, Labour can ill-afford this bad-tempered debate. Jewish supporters usually live in urban areas where they support the local Labour candidates. Now, however, many are questioning their traditional support for Labour.
Clearly, Corbyn needs to put this acrimonious accusation behind him and unify a divided party. However, he cannot afford to alienate the radical wing of the party by being too tough on Momentum supporters who are most vocal in their anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian views.
Recent opinion polls show Labour and the Conservatives virtually neck-and-neck at around 41 per cent each. While the general elections are not due until 2022, the council elections in May will give us some idea about how voters regard the performance of Theresa May’s government. The PM is trying populist means to garner support. Extra funds for the National Health Service is one of them. But it is her handling of the mysterious episode of the nerve gas poisoning of a retired Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury that has boosted her ratings.
So will a cold, hard winter be followed by a long, hot summer? We can only hope.
Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2018
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