Is the British Labour Party anti-Semitic?

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Is it "goysplaining" to say that Corbyn isn't going to literally start a Final Solution? I'm critical of the man and the party on the issue, but I really think that's hyperbole. For another comparison, it's pretty clear that the conservative party is Islamophobic, but only the most deranged Tory hater believes Boris and co are going to start a mass pogrom. Not to traipse down the "actually we found a Jew who thinks it's OK so I can say k***" dumb route, but I highly doubt people like Ed Miliband and Alex Sobel would be keeping the whip if they believed that. (I know of the idea of the self-hating Jew, but I would feel weird as a Gentile labeling any Jew as self-hating)

It's clear to me that there is an anti-Semitic problem in Labour, which isn't to say that the majority of Labour's members are anti-semitic, but that leadership has ignored the issue for too long especially because the current leadership spent years associating themselves with factions of the far-left that are certainly anti-Semitic (e.g. they use "Zionist" as a perjorative, are obsessed with the supposed "control" that Israel and/or Mossad have over Western governments, indulge in the most crass insinuations about Jews in relations to banking and so on). I don't think this is unique to Labour - and if the party was to start griping about unfairness, they wouldn't be totally unreasonable to point at similar examples in the Lib Dems, Tories and Greens, but a party that defines itself as anti-racist must be especially vigilant in ridding itself of the taint.

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I'm pretty sure you're posting in good faith, so a few things:

1) I haven't seen anyone say that Corbyn is going to literally going start another final solution (that was not how I interpreted Ray's post) and I certainly haven't said anything to that effect.  Nor would I because obviously Corbyn isn't going to start some sort of second Holocaust. 

2) There is middle ground between "Jeremy Corbyn is not an anti-Semite" and "Jeremy Corbyn is literally the next Hitler." 

3) That said, it's hardly unreasonable to suggest that at the more extreme end of possible scenarios is one where Corbyn gives the appearance of tacit approval of violent anti-Semitism more or less the way Trump did of violent racism when he tried to "both sides" Charlottesville.  That isn't the most likely outcome imo, but it wouldn't exactly be way off-brand for Corbyn either.

4) On a related note - and this next part isn't directed at you, so much as it is an expression of general frustration with certain maroon-avatars - it's really starting to get on my nerves how certain folks on Atlas seem to feel every Jewish poster owes them an explanation for any dumb thing they heard another Jewish persons say on Twitter once.  We're not a frigging hive mind and not all Jewish people feel the exact same way about every issue.

I may have misunderstood Ray, but I seem to remember similar statements from him that seemed to suggest he feared Corbyn would drop a nuclear missile in Israel. The issue is that the AS that Corbyn has surrounded himself in isn't that kind - which in this country remains the domain of the far-right, a faction which - regardless of what you may think about Corbyn - has no truck with the Labour leader, and despises him for many reasons. Corbyn's AS is more the "muted" kind endemic in the middle-class of this country (and probably most countries) and in his case is wrapped up around the obsession with supposed Israeli influence. Definitely something problematic that should be pulled out, but a clear step (in my mind) from Trump's "good people" remark about those chanting "Jews shall not replace us".

Definitely agree with the bolded. Throughout this whole debate, I've tried to read the opinions of British Jews throughout the spectrum and they obviously are not even remotely operating under a hive-mind. Rest assured, if it gets to the stage that Jews across the board are leaving and casting aside the party, I would follow them out. No policy plank is worth that kind of garbage.

A third and, mercifully you may well say, final point now: an additional issue is that for a brief but significant period in the 1950s and 60s (a very important time in the history of the Jewish community in Britain for obvious reasons), the Labour Party was one of the main bulwarks against antisemitism in British society. There was no easier way to get on the wrong side of Gaitskell or Wilson than to be caught making an antisemitic remark: some otherwise promising MPs had their careers derailed for doing so. This was a long time ago now, but history is history and it has added a real sense of betrayal to what has happened: e.g. that the institution that Grandfather voted for is now like this being widely seen as adding a grotesquely personal insult to what would be felt as an injury no matter.

didn't Bevin have problematic views, or am I mistaken? Although I suppose he was the old guard by that stage anyway.

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the British irony thing was the most repulsive thing he's said though tbh.

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the British irony thing was the most repulsive thing he's said though tbh.

How about when he called a convicted terrorist who received seven life sentences for organizing a Hamas suicide bombing that killed seven people his “brother” on Iranian State TV.  Corbyn also implied that said terrorist should never have been imprisoned in the first place given what he was accused of (“you have to ask the question why they [Palestinians arrested for terrorism] were in prison in the first place.”).  That was much worse imo.  

Then there was the time he repeatedly compared Israel to the Nazis at an event called “Never Again — For Anyone: From Auschwitz to Gaza.”  

I hadn’t even heard of the British irony comment before, but I’d file that one under “dumb, but harmless.”  It’s certainly not the worst thing Corbyn has done by any stretch of the imagination.  I don’t know that I’d even call it anti-Semitic per-se, just...well...dumb.

The issue for me is it seemed to case "Zionists" as inherently foreign and non-British, which is one of the the more alarming form of anti-semitism around