Home MOREOPINION Antisemitism: a Left-Wing Affliction?

Antisemitism: a Left-Wing Affliction?

"The problem is that the Left's commitment to values of secularism, collectivism, internationalism and universalism sets it against what it perceives to be Jewish values of religion, individualism, nationalism and particularism, and this brings about the Left's opposition to Jewish national rights; that is, to Israel and Zionism," - Lesley Klaff

by gary cartwright

The sharp increase in antisemitism and antisemitic violence and intimidation in Britain, particularly in London, and since the Hamas atrocities in Israel on October 7th of last year, have prompted the authorities to introduce a bus route intended to provide a safe transport option for Jews.

The new bus route in north London, identified as route 310, operates every 20 minutes and connects the Jewish communities in Stamford Hill, located in Hackney, with Golders Green in Barnet.

Both areas have significant Jewish populations, and the introduction of this route aims to cater to their specific transportation needs.

This bus route was initiated in response to longstanding requests from the Jewish community, who had expressed the need for better connectivity between these two neighborhoods.

According to the office of London’s Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan, the Jewish community had been advocating for a direct bus service between Stamford Hill and Golders Green for some time, and the new route is seen as a response to these requests.

Khan, in taking credit for the service, has positioned this somewhat segregationist move as a key part of his broader commitment to improving the increasingly dangerous public transport network in the city, as law and order appears to be breaking down in the capital.

Khan has claimed that ensuring safer and more accessible transport for all Londoners, including the Jewish community, is a priority for his administration.

Mayor Khan, who is ultimately responsible for overseeing policing in London, is effectively removing the potential victims from the mainstream rather than targeting and removing from society the perpetrators.

Antisemitic hate crime increases massively.

London’s Metropolitan Police recorded a 1,350% increase in hate crimes against Jewish people in the two weeks after October 7th, with, at the time of reporting, no arrests being made in nine out of 10 alleged offences.

Between October 7th and July of this year, the Metropolitan Police have recorded a staggering 2,065 antisemitic hate crime incidents.

Dave Rich, policy director for the Community Security Trust (CST), said: “This huge spike in anti-Jewish hate crime happens every time Israel is at war, yet other foreign conflicts such as the war in Ukraine do not trigger similar outbursts of hate crimes here in the UK.

“It is shameful and appalling that this still occurs in modern Britain, and yet it happens time after time.”

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Source: https://cst.org.uk

CST’s Antisemitic Incidents Report January-June 2024, covering the whole of the UK and not just London, and published in August, shows 1,978 instances of anti-Jewish hate recorded across the UK in the first six months of this year alone.

Incidents were reported in every single one of London’s 33 boroughs.

Instances of damage & desecration to Jewish property increased by 246%, from 24 in the first half of 2023 to 83 between January and June 2024.

Antisemitism comes mainly from the left.

“35 antisemitic incidents recorded by CST in the first half of 2024 were connected to specific political parties or their supporters, or to issues in mainstream politics,” the CST reports.

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“Twenty were linked to the Labour Party, five to the Workers Party of Britain, two to the Conservative Party, one to the Green Party, one to the Liberal Democrats, one to the Socialist Workers Party, one to the National Housing Party UK, and four to independent parliamentary candidates and councillors.”

Only two offenders out of 35 could be identified as from the right of the political spectrum.

“The problem is that the Left’s commitment to values of secularism, collectivism, internationalism and universalism sets it against what it perceives to be Jewish values of religion, individualism, nationalism and particularism, and this brings about the Left’s opposition to Jewish national rights; that is, to Israel and Zionism,” writes Lesley Klaff (The Left and Jews in Britain Today, (2015) (Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive).

Main Image: Jeremy Corbyn performing the Rabaa gesture, by Blurrech, via Wikipedia.

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