Why Jewish MPs had to think twice
WHEN it became clear that Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader was inevitable, Jewish Labour MPs reached an informal agreement that they wouldn’t join his shadow cabinet.
True, he had done his best to rebut questions about various anti-semitic oddballs with whom he had associated, and emphatically denied that his victory would turn Labour into a refuge for Jew-baiters. Nevertheless, Jewish MPs argued that just as black MPs wouldn’t work for a leader who had associated with supporters of the BNP or Ku Klux Klan, so they should refuse job offers from Corbyn. Otherwise, it was said, they would be used as “Uncle Toms”.
Corbyn’s aides toyed with the idea of allaying criticism by creating a shadow “minister for Jews”, but dropped it when mocking Tories at Westminster said Labour would be creating a minister for “dogs, Blacks and Irish” next. They tried instead to find a Jewish MP willing to serve in the new regime. And, informal agreements be damned, Luciana Berger jumped at the chance of promotion, taking the new job of shadow mental health spokeswoman.
Destruction of Israel
Bets are now being placed how long she’ll last, however, following the announcement by Baroness Tonge that she wants to join Labour. Tonge resigned the Lib Dem whip three years ago after the party condemned her for “ill-advised and ill-judged” remarks looking forward to the destruction of Israel. Two years earlier Nick Clegg had sacked her as health spokeswoman when she called for an inquiry into whether Jewish doctors treating victims of the Haitian earthquake were secretly harvesting the organs of the dead and dying.
Four years before that, in 2006, the then party leader Sir Menzies Campbell censured her for saying that “the pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the western world, its financial grips. I think they’ve probably got a grip on our party”. Two years previously, while she was still an MP, Charles Kennedy made her quit as children’s spokeswoman when she said of suicide bombers that if she were a Palestinian “I might just consider becoming one myself”. Tom Watson, Corbyn’s deputy, told the BBC last week that the noble baroness would be “most welcome” in the new model Labour Party. Can Berger’s resignation be far behind?
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