The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #161452   Message #3855667
Posted By: Keith A of Hertford
18-May-17 - 05:09 AM
Thread Name: BS: Uk Labour Party discussion II
Subject: RE: BS: Uk Labour Party discussion II
Labour MP Louise Ellman last week.
"Ellman also believes that, despite foot-dragging by the leadership, there is now "more of an understanding that there is an issue of anti-Semitism in the Labour party."
She points, too, to the fact that senior figures in the party, such as deputy leader Tom Watson, "continue to speak out very strongly against what's happening."

There has been, Ellman argues, a "real change in how people understand modern anti-Semitism."
She recognizes that while members of the Labour party have always recoiled from the problem in its "traditional form" — she cites opposition to Britain's pre-war fascist leader, Oswald Mosley, and his modern-day adherents in the far-right British National party — some have greater difficulty recognizing left-wing anti-Semitism.
The phenomenon is not a new one, she argues, but has become "more prominent and often shows in discussions about Israel and the way it is treated in a way no other country is."
It is not, though, simply how Israel is discussed which is problematic, but the manner in which parts of the left focus on it to the exclusion of many other issues and conflicts which Ellman finds disturbing.
"It is deeply problematic because Israel is singled out of all the disputes around the world," she says, "and it is then discussed in ways that don't recognize the existential problem that Israel faces, and it then emerges that Israel is uniquely evil — and that is a completely distorted reality."

http://www.timesofisrael.com/this-tough-as-nails-uk-politician-wont-be-cowed-by-the-anti-semitism-of-her-own-party/