As Over 300 people attended the Labour Leadership Hustings at JW3, with many more watching a live stream online, I ask who loves who?
Watching the Labour Leadership hopefuls throw their rhetoric at a JW3 hustings audience consisting of both Jews and non-Jews alike, a devastated party tried to pick up the pieces of a sobering affair. One gets the feeling that a number of questions still remain red-button issue: can the Jews learn to love Labour again? And are Labour learning to be true “friends” of Israel and the Jews?
Let me clarify. Firstly, a great number of Jews do support Labour and voted for them at the election. Approximately one-third said they would - according to a Jewish Chronicle survey. Equally, it is true that Labour has been known to have had a “strong relationship” with the British Jewish Community at different points of the two group’s political and social history. But it is even more true that Blair’s years were perhaps the best for Israel and consequently best for the Jews. Many friends and colleagues remind me of this, and Labour under Ed was - and still is - criticised for causing a lost link between much of Anglo-Jewry and Labour as a party. I can’t help but ask whether this lost link is a boil on the buttocks that the Labour leadership candidates seek to fix, or a pain in the heart that they really care about. I suppose you could say it’s a bit of both…
So that JW3, proud hosts of the event, is the home of the Jewish community in London and its audience was ready to respond to the quatrain of hopefuls with questions and remarks regarding the changing or unchanging Labour stance on anti-Semitism and Israel was unsurprising.
Helpfully but wrongly, Jeremy Corbyn idealised that threats to Israel or criticism of the Holy Land and its government are not inextricably linked to anti-Semitism in Israel and our United Kingdom! The truth is that while not all Jews are full supporters of the Israeli government, just as not all supporters of Israeli activity are not Jewish, increased conflict in the Middle-Eastern regions historically always results in increased anti-Semitism and animosity towards Jews in our community.
I recall a lifelong Labour voter asking Sarah Sackman how he could vote for her in the General Election if the Labour government would be catastrophic for Israel and subsequently unsafe for many Jews here in England. She confidently explained that she would stand up for all Jews - even if she did criticise the Israeli government - were she elected his MP; however even this charming answer could not change the Labour Party’s position. Indeed, change may be on the cards (just ask Harriet Harman), but for many people in last night’s audience it seemed that a Labour government with the party’s most recent views would be simply “unelectable”.
If anti-semitism is to be truly cured as the Reds “hope”, to use Burnham’s words, then the Leadership will have to make their message clear. And this is the background on top of which any response to the hustings may be considered.
It’s time to admit, therefore, that the deliberations deliberations of this blog are the product of out-of-sorts circumstances. Unable to buy a ticket in time, a friend at The Jewish Chronicle said the event, which they were partnering, was completely oversubscribed…. so I could only hope to schmooze the doorman or woman minutes before it commenced.
In fact, after having quickly gone home to eat dinner with my family and change into more comfortable attire, as I saw the JC event organiser walk escort the speakers I stalked down to the backroom where they were preparing. So walking straight past Yvette Cooper (I didn’t exchange too many pleasantries because she was soon to be on stage) and through another room into the conference hall, a fellow journalist and prominent member of the community simply told me to sit down. And so I arrived at the hustings somewhat illegitimately: I shouldn’t have been there.
More to the point, I am 64% Tory - according to a policy test I completed online. However, approximately 20% of my views align with Labour ideas:I am quite socially liberal and willing to listen to “the other side.” So much so that a Lefty journalist-friend of mine (who loves our Conservative MP Mike Freer) incessantly brands me “closet Lefty” - while I call myself a “floater voter.” Nonetheless, whether Conservative Jews like myself could Learn to love Labour remains to be seen.
From my seat at least, I was at a national party event with the female version of Ed Miliband (hell yes, that’s Ms Cooper); Jeremy: the Reddest-faced leadership candidate I’ve ever seen; Kendall, the young Blair-esque lady; and the well-presented Shadow Health Secretary Burnham. Last but not least: Chairman of the debate, Jewish Lefty columnist and fantastic Executive Editor of The Guardian’s Comment section, Jonathan Freedland. You can imagine how I, Right Man among many a Labour-loving Jew and Gentile, felt….
I had, however, been privileged enough to have taken a seat in the “main service”. Beating other event ticket holders who watched a livestream of the conversation whilst accommodated in the “overflow” services, Chairman Freedland warned us that he didn’t want shouting or heckling - his and George Galloway's comments on Question Time a couple of months ago instigated a storm. He hoped it would present the open and civilised “discussions” that Party Labour so dearly love; though in the splash zone, any animosity between audience and candidates was felt fully. The direction of the leader’s voices, both physically and politically, was loud. But not necessarily clear.
Liz Kendall wanted to appear to have a very new and improved sense of direction. For as soon as the media labelled her as heralding the rebirth of New Labour, her rhetoric has followed one line: stop being “the same party with a new face.” Throughout her speeches, the words “electable” and “relevant” are deemed favourable; while “protest party” is condemned as Satanic. Without a doubt “relationships” and “discussion” are to be praised: Candidate number one wants to lead Labour as Prime Minister in 2020, and holds a banner of “economic responsibility” proudly around her head. Ring any “Don’t just hope for change, vote for it” bells?
Andy Burnham could, then, sadly be the brother who lost. Unfortunately for him, his views could be overshadowed by the Tory-feared Chukah-Umanah or Liz, and it’s difficult to see how he would transfer skills from his current role in order to cure social and economic inequality as opposed to just in Hospitals. But Burnham can be credited for two impressive traits: he wants to be a Diplomat (having promised his first foreign visit as Leader to be to Israel in commemoration of the Balfour Agreement) and he deeply values community. One gets the sense that Burnham’s Cabinet would be Callaghan-united and strong; and one closely in touch with the people. Furthermore, he pleasingly argues that Jewish values concur with those at the “heart of our Labour Party”. Most importantly, his Leadership of the Party would be one of “hope”.
Then there’s Corbyn - but we’ll get him over and done with quickly. The radically Left-Hand-Man can be praised for holding strong and consistent values, and for understanding the difference between the Israeli state, Jews and the existence of Israel. Although shouldn’t that be expected of anyone? To disregard him as a candidate or a person with valid views would be wrong - after all he is an “inclusive guy” who preaches “diversity.” But he wants to be “friends” with anyone if that will allow “debate”, and he doesn’t mind inviting Terrorists to Parliament. His politics consists of appreciation and multi-culturalism, but it is difficult to appreciate his belligerence and see how he could lead a modern party.
To finish, let’s just say that an Yvette win would doom the Labour Party if history repeats itself. I admire her aspiration for equality and the conviction with which she wants to fight for a state that cares for the people it serves; what’s more, she is an experienced and principled lady who wants to work out “how do you actively support Israel?” But it’s her sob-story that really pushes my bad buttons, because Cooper yet suffers from a lack of economic aspiration (cue Yeats: Romantic Britain’s dead and gone, It’s with Miliband in the Grave). I know this because Lefties believe in a collectively conscious state anyway and need no persuading on the issue, so Cameron’s version of welfare and help “at the point of need” has the added bonus of economic security. To that end, Cooper would find it difficult to rally up the support - 92 seats, according to Liz - that Labour so desperately needs. And it’s this sense of direction (or lack thereof) that Labourites would be prudent to consider before branding Cooper a Coup.
Moreover, by the time the audience’s pre-submitted questions had swayed in the direction of domestic public services, each of the four candidates had promised to strike down the government’s latest Welfare Bill. While Corbyn was one of 48 Labour MPs to completely oppose the Bill, the other three candidates controversially abstained and so are left to “offer an alternative”.
As the Labour Leadership hopefuls vie for support by outlining their alternatives to the Conservative Government at this landmark JW3 event, some of us were still asking “why was this night different from any other night?” At least we can all agree that the issue of Israeli and British Anti-Semitism was not quite settled!
