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Corbyn has always come over to me as a man of principles as a man of values. In other words whether you like his position or not a man of integrity something which we used to expect of Politicians when I was young but you would have a hard time finding now. I agree he dealt poorly with the accusations that the party was antisemetic. Research in reality showed that it had become less antisemetic since he became leader. He seemed not to want to hurt Jewish feelings and did not realise sometimes you just have to say no. Other people have suggested he was just so hurt that he was being accused of being antisemitic/racist, possibly the thing which had worked hardest against in his life.....on that you are right. He made a right good mess of that and handed it to the hard right on a plate.
It isn't a case of supporting Palestinians against Israel as in everything and even the Palestinians are not wanting that. That may be what Israel says it is but that really is not what anyone I have ever heard of believes in. It is simply about the Palestinians having rights very similar to what is going on in Ukraine is about the Ukrainians having rights. Israel currently is a hard right country. It gets on with Hungary even though Hungary a few years ago put up a monument to the man who arranged for Hungary's Jews to go to the Gas Chambers. Not all Jews support what Israel does. Jews like every other group of people have different viewpoints. In fact left wing viewpoints which Israel cannot stand are far closer to traditional Jewish thinking than the hard right views they currently espouse. Your thing about arabs wanting the death of Israel. Probably just talk. They do get into liking to thump their chests. Anthony Lerman an Jew and expert in antisemitism did some research on arab antisemitism. He found it to be very much about the unfairness of Israel and very little about Jewish ethnicity. An example of this when the 2 state solution first came up and people believed a satisfactory outcome was going to come, their antisemitsm almost disappeared. You are also right about the Israeli Embassy helping sending in one of its members who had previously worked on stopping basically criticism of Israel getting the job of director of the refound Labour Jewish Movement which was set up decades ago and had gone out of use decades ago.
I would say the 60's and 70's were better because the parties were paid for by the voters and therefore answered their voters. Most people had some political awareness and pretty much everyone's standard of living was getting better.
I mentioned Corbyn because we are now at the time when politics is flipping and there will again be the question of where we land. A genuine left which would be democratic socialism or the hard right probably dressed as someone else. Could even be labour and the Tories agreeing to it. The way in which they got rid of Corbyn and Starmer despite his promises also getting rid of the left in labour I think we can be quite sure in the UK it is going to be the hard right who win. (social democracy was our political position in the 60's and 70's)
Of course he comes across as a man of "principles" and "values". Because he probably thinks this is what makes him the politician he is.
That doesn't mean that this doesn't cloud his judgement, doesn't mean he won't stick to his "principles" no matter how wrong they are, either in terms of being correct and in terms of being the right thing at the right time.
The question of Israel is, why is Israel a hard right country? Because the hard right in Israel are no nonsense, they deal with the reality of the problem that all their neighbors would go out and kill all the Jews if they got the chance. We're seen it enough times.
We know the Palestinians, and other Arab countries, are willing to keep 5 million people in refugee camps in order to make a political statement. Yes, Israel kicked these people out, but there's a whole swathe of Muslim and Arab lands they could go to. But no, they keep them in the camps so they can get news. I mean, what?
Let's see how Corbyn reacts to these camps.
Palestinian Forum in Britain awards former Labour leader its highest honour, weeks after Keir Starmer said party would not support BDS movement
www.middleeasteye.net
""The Palestinian people have suffered like no other in that they have been under occupation for many decades, and many are living in refugee camps ever since 1948 in different countries around the region, but particularly in Lebanon," said Corbyn. "
Why are they suffering? Occupation? As far as I can tell the Jews were willing to live side by side with the Muslims. The Muslims were the ones who turned away from the Jews. Either way, back to Corbyn.
"Jeremy Corbyn decries US funding cut for Palestinian refugees"
Wait, he wants the camps to KEEP GOING? I mean, what?
I'd say in the 1960s and 1970s politicians didn't listen to the people much at all. With FPTP and with the media totally controlled by the government, how much listening went on? Yes, the Labour Party was all about improving the conditions of the working people, and for a long time they had success with that. But when you have a rising middle class and when Labour is living in the 1920s, trying to solve the problems that existed before....
Look at Tony Blair. He put education, healthcare and things people actually care about at the top of his platform. People voted for that, because that's what people want.
I know Labour people who are like "we must listen to the people", they go out and talk to a few people and they're like "we've listened to the people, they want exactly what I was saying before". It's ridiculous. It's living in a fantasy world.
People are better off than ever before, and Labour are talking like people need Socialism because..... because.... well because there are some lazy bastards who want free money, free housing etc.
The real issues are about affordable housing based on people being productive, getting people to be productive, getting education to lead to productive people, a welfare system that works for productive people.
Instead they aim their politics at a direction MOST PEOPLE (the important part here), don't want.
Labour don't even go in for Proportional Representation. Take a look at the last election, the Lib Dems and Labour got like 1,000 votes less than the Tories, but combined they didn't get anywhere near the seats. But Labour's worried about losing their place near the top, their chance (however slim) to get into 10 Downing Street. Ever heard Corbyn talk about PR?
Until everyone on the left agrees to work together, it really doesn’t matter who leads and who follows, we'll still fall divided.
evolvepolitics.com
"Corbyn’s opposition to proportional representation and a progressive alliance is truly baffling"
I mean, when Corbyn is spelled "T-W-A-T" you know he's a problem.
Politics is flipping, but not in the UK. With FPTP, like in the US, it keeps the status quo much easier. Like the comparison between 90 seat AfD in Germany and 1 seat UKIP in the UK. With the same percentage of the votes.