Buchdahl criticized "His false claims of genocide, his reluctance to label Hamas a terrorist organization, his unwillingness to condemn phrases like globalize the Intifada, and absolute opposition to Israel as a Jewish state."

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Former leader of Britain's Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn is considering founding a new political party, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported Sunday.

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According to the report, Corbyn – who was ousted as Labour leader – is concerned he might never be elected an MP for Labour again, and is therefore looking at the option of changing his charity, called Peace and Justice Project, into a political party that could compete in parliamentary elections.

The Telegraph said that a number of Corbyn's close associates, including his wife, are encouraging him to form a new party.

Corbyn became head of Labour in 2015 and his five years as party leader were dogged with accusations of rising antisemitism among party members and a wave of resignations by Jewish Labour MPs and activists. When a formal inquiry into specific allegations of antisemitic behavior by Labor was launched, Corbyn angered many when he dismissed the accusations as "political" and "overstated."

His response to the antisemitism query led to Corbyn's removal as party leader. Since then, his party membership has been restored, but Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said that Corbyn will only be allowed back into Labour's parliamentary faction if he makes a formal apology for his comments.

If Corbyn proceeds with his plans to set up an independent political party, it could wind up siphoning Labour supporters from certain sectors away from the established party, which would be a blow to Labour's fortunes in a general election.

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Starmer's decision on Wednesday came one day after Corbyn was reinstated following a 19-day suspension.

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Corbyn, who led the Labour Party from September 2015 until this past April, was suspended last month after the Equality and Human Rights Commission, a nondepartmental public body in England and Wales, found that the party's leadership has failed to address anti-Semitism and complaints of hatred toward Jews.

In a statement on Wednesday, Starmer said Labour's disciplinary process "does not have the confidence of the Jewish community. That became clear once again yesterday."

He reiterated his pledge to create a new independent disciplinary process "as soon as possible" and noted that Corbyn would not be readmitted yet as a Labour MP.

Instead, he will become an Independent MP.

In statements, British groups expressed mixed reactions to Wednesday's decision.

"We welcome Keir Starmer's decision to withhold the whip from Jeremy Corbyn," said Board of Deputies of British Jews President Marie van der Zyl.

"Despite the EHRC's finding that the party had acted unlawfully under Mr. Corbyn's watch, Jeremy Corbyn's initial reaction to the report was dismissive, and he has been shameless and remorseless for what he has put the Jewish community through. Meanwhile, Labour's disciplinary process is clearly still not fit for purpose. Keir Starmer has now taken the appropriate leadership decision not to restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn. We continue to say that 'zero tolerance' must mean precisely that, whether for anti-Semites or their apologists."

However, the UK-based Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) slammed the move.

Withholding the whip from Jeremy Corbyn is offering the Jewish community crumbs," said chief executive Gideon Falter.

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"The EHRC ruled that Labour's disciplinary processes were unfit but Sir Keir allowed Mr. Corbyn to be tried under them," he pointed out. "Not only that, but Mr. Corbyn should never have been suspended merely for his response to the EHRC's damning report, but for the responsibility he bears for the Labour Party being found guilty of committing unlawful acts of anti-Semitism by the EHRC."

Falter announced that his group filed a complaint with the EHRC in response to Wednesday's development.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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Ex-Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said Tuesday he has been reinstated to the UK opposition party after a three-week suspension – a decision that touched off fury from Jewish leaders angry about anti-Semitism in Labour that flourished during his tenure.

Corbyn was suspended after he said the problem of anti-Semitism in the party had been "dramatically overstated" for political reasons. His comment followed a scathing report from the UK equalities watchdog, which found "significant failings" and a "lack of leadership" in how the left-of-center party handled allegations of anti-Semitism among its members.

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Before the meeting of the National Executive Committee on Tuesday, Corbyn issued a statement saying that concerns about anti-Semitism in Labour were neither "overstated" nor "exaggerated," and the party must "never tolerate anti-Semitism or belittle concerns about it."

Jeremy Corbyn is not the victim of Labour anti-Semitism – Jewish members are

"Our movement must now come together to oppose and defeat this deeply damaging Conservative government," he said in a tweet.

After the Equalities and Human Rights Commission issued its report, Labour leader Keir Starmer promised "a culture change in the Labour Party," saying there would be "no more denials or excuses."

Labour has been grappling with allegations that anti-Semitism was allowed to fester under Corbyn, a long-time supporter of Palestinians and a critic of Israel who led the party for almost five years from 2015.

But the decision was met by outrage. The Jewish Labour Movement said it appeared Corbyn's case had been "expedited" by a "factionally aligned political committee."

"Once again we find ourselves having to remind the Labour Party that Jeremy Corbyn is not the victim of Labour anti-Semitism – Jewish members are,'' the group said.

Labour lawmaker Margaret Hodge tweeted: "This is a broken outcome from a broken system.''

"A factional, opaque and dysfunctional complaints process could never reach a fair conclusion,'' she said, adding that the watchdog had demanded an independent process.

"I simply cannot comprehend why it is acceptable for Corbyn to be a Labour MP if he thinks anti-Semitism is exaggerated and a political attack, refuses to apologize, never takes responsibility for his actions & rejects the findings of the EHRC report,'' she wrote. "Ridiculous."

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The row took place in 2019 under Labour's previous leader, far-left veteran Jeremy Corbyn, whose 4.5-year tenure as Britain's main opposition leader was marred by persistent allegations of anti-Semitism in party ranks.

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Labour's current leader, former public prosecutor Keir Starmer, has sought to draw a line under that aspect of the Corbyn era.

Corbyn's Labour was badly beaten by Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives in a December election, its fourth defeat in a row. Starmer is seeking to break with the past in time for the next election, in 2024.

Labour was being sued for defamation by seven ex-employees who said they were falsely accused of acting in bad faith after they cooperated with a BBC documentary entitled "Is Labour anti-Semitic?"

When the film was broadcast, Labour had said the staff members had "political axes to grind" because they did not support Corbyn's leadership. The party had also accused the BBC journalist who presented the program of maliciously seeking to mislead the public as part of an anti-Corbyn agenda.

In a settlement read out in court on Wednesday, Labour retracted the accusations against its former employees and the BBC journalist, apologized unreservedly to all of them and agreed to pay them a substantial sum to settle the case.

"Anti-Semitism has been a stain on the Labour Party in recent years," a party spokesman said. "If we are to restore the trust of the Jewish community, we must demonstrate a change of leadership."

Corbyn, who remains a Labour lawmaker, criticized the settlement and apology, saying they were "a political decision, not a legal one."

In June, Starmer sacked one of his senior team members, staunch Corbyn ally Rebecca Long-Bailey, after she tweeted an article that he said contained an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.

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Former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott and the former Shadow Immigration Minister Bell Ribeiro-Addy both addressed the meeting on the Zoom online platform, as well as Tony Greenstein, who was expelled over anti-Semitism allegations, and Jackie Walker, who was kicked out of the party on misconduct charges.

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Both Abbott and Ribeiro-Addy gave speeches in which they responded to the recently leaked report on Labour anti-Semitism, but rather than addressing anti-Jewish discrimination in the party, both MPs attacked the party's wing who are against former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, blaming them for December's general election defeat.

"The participation of Diane Abbott and Bell Ribeiro-Addy in an online conference with Jackie Walker and Tony Greenstein is a brazen challenge to Sir Keir Starmer," said Gideon Falter, chief executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, in a statement.

 "During his leadership campaign, Sir Keir pledged that any MP who provides a platform for Labour members expelled in connection with anti-Semitism will themselves be suspended from Labour," continued Falter. "Instead of keeping his promise and immediately suspending both Diane Abbott and Bell Ribeiro-Addy from the party, Labour has merely 'reminded them of their responsibilities.'"

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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The report reveals extremely disconcerting trends of increased and intensifying anti-Semitic incidents across the globe in general, and in Western Europe and the United States in particular.

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In 2019, according to the report, seven Jews and non-Jews were murdered in a series of anti-Semitic attacks, and many others were wounded. The report also states that anti-Semitic violence came from different directions and was inspired by various ideologies, by the far-right, white supremacists, the extreme left, radical Islam and even escalating street violence perpetrated by African-American youths.

The epicenters of anti-Semitism: Western democracies

The report reveals that anti-Semitism mainly poses a threat to Jews living in Western democracies with large Jewish communities – the US, France, Great Britain and Germany. The US saw a rise in the number of violent anti-Semitic incidents, with over 100 violent street attacks in Brooklyn alone in the past year.

In France, too, there was a drastic increase in the number of reported anti-Semitic attacks in the first half of 2019. And for the second consecutive year, online anti-Semitic abuse intensified, with many anti-Semitic commenters no longer searching for an excuse, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to spew classic anti-Semitic rhetoric.

In Germany, there was a 20% increase in anti-Semitic incidents, among them the Halle synagogue shooting on October 9, in which two bystanders lost their lives. Additionally, throughout 2019 Jews were assaulted in the streets, targeted with insults and threats, and neo-Nazi groups and political parties openly disseminated neo-Nazi propaganda and called for the release of Holocaust deniers from prison.

In Great Britain, meanwhile, where an ant-Semitic candidate, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, vied for the premiership in 2019, the Jewish community sensed an existential threat to its future in the country.

Success in combatting anti-Semitism on social media

A positive trend noted in the report was the drastic drop, about 25%, in anti-Semitic discourse on monitored online sites and forums, primarily the result of new policies – mainly on Facebook and Twitter. However, anti-Semitic activists have been moving to alternative social media sites and to the dark web.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Tzipi Hotovely addressed the report's findings at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday.

"To our great regret, the trend of rising anti-Semitism is continuing, and it seems the lessons of history are not erasing the deep hatred toward the Jewish people," she said. "Our duty is to turn the impressive show of international solidarity here on Thursday [at the Fifth World Holocaust Forum] into an actionable work plan to effectively fight hatred of Israel."

Hotovely added: "2019 was a watershed period for US Jewry. Half of the hate crimes reported to the FBI targeted Jews; there were terrible anti-Semitic attacks, such as the attack at the synagogue in San Diego, the attack at the kosher grocery in Jersey City and the Hanukkah attack in Monsey (New York); all these represent a dangerous and worrying escalation. In France and Britain the concerning trend is continuing at unprecedented levels. The Corbyn case proves that the problem of anti-Semitism reaches the highest levels of politics."

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A number of senior government ministers and members of French President Emmanuel Macron's party issued condemnations of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's remarks, while fellow members of Mélenchon's La France Insoumise ["Unbowed" or "Unsubmissive" France] party backed his attacks on the leaders of France's Jewish community.

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Mélenchon said that Corbyn had lost because of "arrogant orders from the [Jewish] communities and the council that represents Jewish institutions in France [CRIF]," and added that Corbyn had been "forced" to spend his time defending himself against insults and shots in the back from his own political camp.

"He was forced to run without being able to defend himself against gross accusations of anti-Semitism from the Chief Rabbi of England and the Likud's various networks of influence," Mélenchon said.

The politician said that rather than responding to the allegations, Corbyn had spent his time apologizing and "offering guarantees of good behavior," which Mélenchon said demonstrated "weakness."

France's Interior Minister, Christophe Castaner, responded to Mélenchon's remarks by saying that "hatred and the belief in conspiracy theories feed off one another."

French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer characterized Mélenchon's opinions as "loathsome."

Gabriel Attal, secretary of state to the Minister of National Education and Youth, who is of Jewish heritage, said that Mélenchon's comments were "very serious" because they attributed Corbyn's – and the Labour Party's – defeat to the Jews.

Supporters of Mélenchon said that he was not anti-Semitic and that he had been trying to make it clear that he would "not be influenced by financial or community groups."

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"A senior in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened that Iran would destroy Tel Aviv from Lebanon and exposed a truth – Hezbollah is simply Iran's arm in Lebanon against Israel," Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

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"Even though Nasrallah immediately denied the senior Iranian commander's remarks, I would like to make it clear that if Nasrallah dares to attack Israel, the organization and the Lebanese state that enable aggression from its territory against us will pay a very heavy price," the prime minister said.

Netanyahu also congratulated his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, for his landslide victory at the polls last week, calling it "a crushing victory in the struggle against anti-Semitism."

"I expect to continue working with Boris Jonson in the coming years in order to continue strengthening the excellent relations between Israel and Britain. They are manifest in vast mutual trade data, tourism, and very many other areas. They are also substantial in security and counterterrorism in hitherto unprecedented ways. I expect to continue," Netanyahu added.

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz echoed the premier, saying that "Britain and all of Europe were saved from the danger of [Labour leader] Jeremy Corbyn. He is an anti-Semite of a new kind, not the kind that is for exterminating the Jews, but in favor of exterminating the state of the Jews."

Parts of this article were originally published by i24NEWS.

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"The elections may be over, but concerns about the resurgence of anti-Semitism remain," Mirvis said in a statement.

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"Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of prejudice continue to afflict our communities and, as has been well-publicized, even our political parties," he said.

"It is vital that we now bring the country together, ensuring that the voices of people from across our society are heard and respected. We must focus on our shared values and leave all hatred and prejudice far behind us," Mirvis added.

Outgoing Labor party leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose party was soundly defeated in Thursday's vote, has been criticized for years for having allowed anti-Semitism to flourish in the party ranks under his stewardship.

Last month, Mirvis denounced Corbyn as unfit to be prime minister, lamenting "a new poison – sanctioned from the top – has taken root in the Labour Party."

Following the results of Thursday's election, which saw the Conservatives' Boris Johnson win in a landslide, Board of Deputies of British Jews President Marie van der Zyl called for swift action to be taken to restore the Jewish community's faith in Britain's main opposition party.

"We urge the next leader of the Labour Party to act quickly to implement the steps repeatedly recommended by groups representing British Jews and to finally begin to resolve this crisis," she added.

In a concession speech, Corbyn said that he intended to step down as leader of Labour, but did not specify an exact date.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS.

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