False anti-Semitism claims are being used to silence debate, says Peston at last
Robert Peston: at long last he has realised that some people making claims of anti-Semitism may not be entirely sincere.
Robert Peston has seen the light, it seems:
As a Jew, I have become increasingly worried that the charge of antisemitism is being levelled to silence legitimate and important debate. Antisemitism is on the rise, but there is also a rise in the unscrupulous use of the term to silence reasonable questions about the Israeli…
— Robert Peston (@Peston) December 31, 2023
The TV politics reporter’s epiphany has prompted a few sharp comments from other commentators, who believe it took him too long to realise something that has been happening for years:
This is worth reading too …
👇https://t.co/2drbKVTSgc— Lady Blah Blah 🍉 (@glynbmil) December 31, 2023
Exactly. When it is abused it loses its credibility and merit.
— Edip Yüksel (@edipyuksel) December 31, 2023
Peston knew this all along. However, the threat to the establishment from JC was greater. Hence, his participation in the witch-hunt. Now, JC is gone and a Starmer govt is upon us, he "sees" the consequences of his actions. Too late for regret, I'm afraid. The damage is done.
— Tony Cole (@m7_cole) December 31, 2023
Tell us something we haven’t known for the last six years! Watch the #LabourFiles #CorbynWasRight #CorbynIsRight #ItWasAScam #AntiZionismIsNotAntisemitsm because #ZionismIsNotJudaism https://t.co/ln8DbL2omT
— J Bee 🐝 🔥🖐🔥🌍 🕊 (@MsParaDoxy) December 31, 2023
Satire died again.
Peston was a leading antisemitism scammer to prevent a Labour government coming to power to invest in public services, infrastructure and education.#ItWasAScam
— Essex Boy (@GregClinker) December 31, 2023
Satire died again.
Peston was a leading antisemitism scammer to prevent a Labour government coming to power to invest in public services, infrastructure and education.#ItWasAScam
— Essex Boy (@GregClinker) December 31, 2023
If you accept it's true that AS accusations are being weaponised, you have to accept that it's at least feasible that the Labour Party leadership was claimed by Keir Starmer under false pretences.
AS A JOURNALIST, IT IS YOUR DUTY TO LOOK INTO THAT.
— Martin Philip Odoni (@HavetStorm) December 31, 2023
In fairness, This Writer is not entirely convinced that Peston ever bought into the anti-Semitism scam entirely, for this reason:
Looking at some of the responses to this, I have to be fair and point out that after I was accused of anti-Semitism – with lies – by Labour and Peston reported it on his show, I complained, and he presented a clarification on the very next episode.
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) December 31, 2023
But there it is. When the claims were about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, they had to be completely beyond the pale to trigger suspicion in Peston’s mind.
Now, with the claims being based on the Israel/Gaza conflict, he seems more willing to accept that they don’t carry any weight.
Will he consider it worth revisiting those Labour-based claims? Comment below if you think he should.
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The new antisemitism, which might also be called antisemitic anti-Zionism, has three components: a political programme to abolish the Jewish homeland, a discourse to demonise it, and a movement to make it a global pariah state. The old antisemitism – which has not gone away, but co-mingles with the new form – believed ‘the Jew is our Misfortune’. The new antisemitism proclaims ‘the Zionist is our misfortune’. The old antisemitism wanted to make the world ‘Judenrein’, free of Jews. The new antisemitism wants to make the world ‘Judenstaatrein’, free of the Jewish state which all but a sliver of world Jewry either lives in or treats as a vitally important part of their identity.
From: Fathom – Denial: Norman Finkelstein and the New Antisemitism https://fathomjournal.org/denial-norman-finkelstein-and-the-new-antisemitism/?utm_source=pocket_saves
See also: How to Be Anti-Semitic and Get Away With It – The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/anti-semitism-israel-gaza-celebrity-statements/676232/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-photo-newsletter&utm_content=20231205&silverid=%25%25RECIPIENT_ID%25%25&utm_term=New+Photo+Galleries
Interesting.
I’m certainly willing to believe anti-Semitic anti-Zionism may exist.
I’m not convinced that such a movement is behind the anti-Israel sentiment sweeping the world at the moment. People are angry that a strongly Zionist Israeli government is committing genocide – genocide, remember – against a neighbour that has no military at all. No serious commentator believes it is possible to dissolve Israel, let alone something that should be done. But many desire the removal of the fascistic government that has lowered the Jewish homeland, as you describe it, to the same level as the Nazis who wanted to eradicate them. The Jewish people of Israel deserve better – as much as the people of Palestine do.
Would you be willing to agree with that?
I agree that the Jewish people of Israel deserve better—as much as the people of Palestine do. And I wish you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Let’s continue to work together to defeat DWP and Tory oppression.
By the way, in the early 1980’s I attended an Islamic conference at the Loyola campus of Concordia University and spotted Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) in the audience. An Islamic man named Jabbar, who used a wheelchair, had travelled from Calcutta, India to Montreal, Quebec and asked me to meet him there. He didn’t realize that I was Jewish. But I do vividly recall a conference participant getting up on stage and calling for a jihad against Israel.
In the early 1970’s I attended Vanier College and was physically assaulted by an Egyptian because I was wearing a kippah. I no longer wear one in public.
Thank you for your kind words. I hope you and yours have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year too, and I’ll certainly do my best to defeat political oppression, particularly of the long-term sick and disabled.
There will always be individuals, in any social, political, ethnic or whatever other kind of group you can imagine, who have abhorrent views. Years ago, I met a man on holiday in my town who was a Labour Party member and deeply racist against black people. I avoided him after I discovered this. When the anti-Semitism accusations were flying against Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, I took pains while defending him to point out that there are anti-Semites in that party – as there are in any other large organisations. Some of these individuals are able to sway the opinions of varying numbers of others – or at least try to do so, as the person demanding a jihad was doing at your 1980s conference. The thing to remember is that they don’t necessarily represent the views of the majority.