Britain Israel USA 

Leaving Egypt to cross the (metaphorical) seas

At the festival of Passover, which Jews are about to celebrate, the story is recounted of how the children of Israel managed to redeem themselves from slavery through their miraculous crossing of the Red Sea in which their Egyptian pursuers proceeded to drown. Plunging into the sea was a supreme act of collective faith by the escaping Israelites, involving extraordinary courage and requiring an equally crucial act of leadership. These three factors are in conspicuously short supply in the west today. In Britain, the stalled and sabotaged Brexit process irresistibly…

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Labour party antisemitism Britain 

Labour antisemitism: the skies are darkening even more

British Jews can be forgiven for feeling punch-drunk. Almost every day, it seems, brings yet another hallucinatory example of darkening antisemitism in the Labour party. Item. Damien Enticott, a Labour local councillor, was suspended by the party after grossly antisemitic posts were found on his Facebook account. These included an image claiming that as part of a “Jewish ritual they drink blood” with the comment: “This is done only by Talmud Jews. Talmud Jews are parasites! They also believe any child over 3 years old that isn’t a Jew should…

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Labour party antisemitism Britain Israel 

Institutionalising antisemitism in the British Labour party

Britain’s Labour Party has a major problem with rampant antisemitism. It knows it has to deal with it. So what has it done? Dug itself so much further into this particular hole that some in the party fear it has now dug its political grave. On Tuesday, the party’s governing National Executive Committee (NEC) redefined antisemitism in such a way that it has legitimized it within its own ranks. In its new code of conduct on antisemitism, it adopted a definition which significantly differed from the one created by the…

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