Like many Labour supporters, there are times when I also want to "pick up the party", and "shake it to its senses", but the huge coverage of the anti-Semitism row should remind us all of how strong the pro-Israeli lobby can be (Antisemitism: Corbyn and the crisis that won`t go away, 05.08.18).
In 2006 the Guardian printed an article comparing what was then happening in Gaza with apartheid in South Africa; a Dispatches television programme broadcast five years later showed the then Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger admitting he was subsequently visited by a Jewish deputation, and warned that his paper was encouraging antisemitism! Rusbridger asked, quite naturally, for evidence to support such a ridiculous claim, and rightly stated that it was a disreputable argument to say criticising Israel was anti-Semitic.
The BBC`s reporting of Israeli actions in Gaza led to the corporation backing down to pro-Israeli lobbying, and refusing to broadcast an appeal for humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, an appeal which went out on both ITV and Channel 4.
One could argue that Corbyn`s team should have predicted the opposition which their refusal to adopt all 11 examples of antisemitism outlined in the IHRA code would provoke, especially in the right-wing media. On the other hand, who would have forecast the influence the alliance of the pro-Israeli lobby, with its determination to limit criticism of Israel`s expansionism at the expense of the Palestinians, and the right-wing parliamentary Labour group, with its resolve to replace Corbyn, seems to have on the left-leaning Sunday newspaper of our choice?
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