© Ben Cawthra/Sipa USA/NewscomBritain’s Labour Party lost support among Jewish voters before Jeremy Corbyn became its leader.
. I doubt that there is a single Palestine solidarity activist who hasn't been accused of anti-Semitism.
The rationale for these accusations include the suggestion that we are operating "double standards" in singling out Israel for criticism. We are alleged to criticize Israel because it is a "Jewish" state. Israel is the "targeted collective Jew among the nations," Irwin Cotler, a former government minister in Canada, has
written.
Today, a different, more subtle argument is developing: Israel and Zionism are an integral part of Jewish identity. That is why opposition to Zionism and Israel is
automatically anti-Semitic.
This argument was tested earlier this decade in an employment tribunal which assessed
allegations that Britain's
University and College Union was anti-Semitic because it supports BDS - the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
Ronnie Fraser, the pro-Israel campaigner who had taken legal action against the union, argued that Zionism was an integral part of Jewish identity.
That argument was
rejected by the tribunal's judges in 2013. The tribunal
concluded that "a belief in the Zionist project or an attachment to Israel" was "not intrinsically a part of Jewishness."
Another variant of this argument is to suggest that as Israel is the only Jewish state in the world, opposition to it must be anti-Semitic. Since there are Islamic and Christian states, opposition to Israel cannot be other than anti-Semitic. However this is to obscure the fact that Israel is unique because it is the only ethno-religious state in the world.
Comment: New Delhi is apparently unimpressed with Pompeo's offer of American goodies: