'A Bacillus Which Every Gentile Carries With Him'

In case you didn't already know, there's a slomo coup currently underway in the UK against the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, two of whose supporters, Naz Shah and Ken Livingstone, are being smeared by the usual suspects as anti-Semites.

For an overview of the anti-Corbyn campaign, see How Israel lobby manufactured UK Labour Party's anti-Semitism crisis (Asa Winstanley, electronicintifada.net, 28/4/16), and Ken Livingstone: gobshite yes, antisemite no (Jamie Stern-Weiner, jaimiesternweiner.wordpress.com).

What is happening in the UK, it goes without saying, has nothing whatever to do with genuine anti-Semitism - hatred of Jews as Jews.

As the historic influence of the Zionist movement within Britain's Labour Party wanes, and particularly since the election of the pro-Palestinian Corbyn as its leader, Zionists, both inside and outside the Party, are increasingly resorting to false accusations of anti-Semitism to smear anyone in the Party who speaks out in fundamental opposition to political Zionism. Their aim is to sow discord, and, if possible, bring down Labour's most pro-Palestinian leader ever.

What should be understood, however, is that this smear tactic is integral to the ideology of political Zionism. Zionist logic dictates that a Jewish state in Palestine is necessary because Jews simply cannot live alongside non-Jews, who are, one and all, innately and incurably anti-Semitic.

As UK Labour's foremost Zionist dupe, Richard Crossman MP (1907-1974), recorded in his 1960 pen-portrait of Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist leader who secured the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and went on to become Israel's first president:

"Antisemitism, [Weizmann] used to say to me, is a bacillus which every Gentile carries with him, wherever he goes and however often he denies it. Like other bacilli, it may remain quiescent and harmless for years. But, once the right conditions are created, the bacilli multiply and the epidemic breaks out. The condition for an outbreak of overt antisemitism in any nation is that the number of Jews should rise beyond the safety level of that particular nation. Hence the only radical cure for antisemitism is the creation of the Jewish State. At our first meeting... Weizmann outlined this theory to me and asked me whether I was antisemitic. When I said, 'Of course', I felt that our friendship had begun. For, if a Gentile denied his latent antisemitism, Weizmann concluded that he must either be lying or, even worse, deceiving himself." (A Nation Reborn: The Israel of Weizmann, Bevin & Ben-Gurion, pp 21-22)

Mad, utterly mad, I know, but that's political Zionism for you.

The smear is therefore as predictable as night and day, and non-Jews should not be spooked by its use or take it too seriously. Instead of suspending Shah and Livingstone, pending an investigation, Corbyn should simply have used the opportunity to patiently explain the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism and charge the authors of the smear with cheapening the coin of anti-Semitism.