“If you don’t oppose racism consistently then you don’t oppose racism at all” Owen Jones
Really ?
What Owen Jones pretends not to get about this JLM thing is that the issue is racism and his cheerful collusion with it..
What he probably genuinely fails to grasp is that he has, in one fell swoop, thrown away any right to be taken seriously on the subject.
Owen is a strange one. Some say he has sold out and is best now described as a former socialist. This, it is suggested, is because he is a shameless careerist. Yes and no. Careerism in Owen’s case is not about the accumulation of coin and creature comforts. It is about attracting more and more attention. He is an attention freak. Owen is entirely defined by the most extreme gut wrenching narcissism. An all encompassing need to look at himself and have us look at him.
Ordinarily, when a journalist has something on his/her mind, he or she starts scribbling. Not Owen. He heads off to the nearest video camera so that both he and we can be treated to another Owen action video.
Many people have a mug shot on their twitter profile. Owen has four. This need detracts and distracts from what he has to say. It also causes him to be happy to have his picture taken hugging just about ANYONE. He calls this propensity ” not being a dick.” If you say so Owen.
What disturbs me most about this narcissism is that it has led Owen to a seemingly ambivalent attitude towards racism. He has firmly established, by his rapidly developing relationship with the ultra racist and anti socialist Jewish Labour Movement, that his anti racism is, at best, highly selective.
Hands up if two years ago ago, you had heard of the Jewish Labour movement. I hadn’t either. It had been dormant for a good while. Then fresh life was breathed into it as part of the invocation of the Zionist nuclear option against the Labour Party.
When Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party the Israelists, in an unholy symbiotic alliance with the PLP hard right, tried to weaken him by accusations of antisemitism. This was an abject failure. He just went on getting stronger. Then when the Gerald Kaufman thing blew up they switched the focus. Now Corbyn while not necessarily himself antisemitic, was tolerant of antisemitism in the Party. His arrival had opened the antisemitism flood gates. Bah blah blah.
The important thing to remember here is they didn’t expect to get too much out of this. But to their amazement, Corbyn, under the malign influence of Lansman, Jamie Schneider and Owen Jones, and the naive influence of McDonnell, rolled over at the first wiff of grapeshot. He has remained prostrate before them ever since.
While amazed they weren’t dazed. Or at least they didn’t remain dazed for long. They almost immediately saw an opportunity. This was no less than an opportunity to literally take over, from within, one of Europes great political parties so far as attitudes to The State of Israel was concerned, and regulate all discourse within the party about that racist kleptomaniacal entity. At the time of scribbling they are just one meeting with Corbyn from total success.
This is not the time to discuss all the elements in the invocation of this AIPAC inspired option. We are concerned here with the JLM and its crucial role. The JLM chair, the hopelessly ineffectual Louise Ellman was elbowed aside, and replaced with a” professional”. That is, the notorious perjurer, would be union buster, fare dodger, money launderer and embezzler Jeremy Newmark, was ” elected” to take her place. At the same time the little thug, Ella Rose was seconded from the Israeli Embassy to fill the newly created role of ” Director”.
The JLM is essentially a wing of the Israeli Labor Party, which was the inspiration of, and is the bedrock of, the simple racist creed that underpins the State of Israel enterprise. That is, as much land as possible, as few Arabs as possible. JLM is nothing less than the emanation of the State of Israel in the Labour Party. It is affiliated to the World Zionist Organisation which pumps billions into the Israeli illegal colonies. As such it is signed up to the Jerusalem Declaration the stated aim of which is the settling of ” Eretz Israel” ( greater Israel.)
JLM and Labour Friends of Israel love to describe the Israeli Labor Party as ” Labour’s sister party. ” The only similarity between the two is that the names are almost spelt the same.
The alarm bells about Jones first rang when a photo appeared of him all huggy at the Labour Party Conference with Newmark, Rose and a delegate from the Israeli Labor Party.
This is same Ella Rose that wants to literally ” take out ” Jackie Walker because she is the wrong kind of Jew. That is. black and none Zionist.
OK, its the evening of the last day of the Labour Party Conference. It’s a party. We can all get unguarded at a party and find ourselves getting our mug shots taken hugging people that the next day we wish we hadn’t hugged.
However, this was just a few hours after Owen had sat in the hall at the Labour Party conference and listened to the JLM calling for a continuation of the Lansman/ Newmark/McNicol purges !!!
These suspicions were proved to be amply justified when the astonishing news broke that Owen was to headline at the JLM’s inaugural Henry Smith lecture .It is impossible to overestimate the shock and horror this provoked in many socialists and anti racists , including many that had hitherto regarded themselves as Owen ” fans”.
Now I am not among those who said that Owen should not have done this. If I were consequential enough to be invited to do so I would. I would regard it as a great opportunity to tell JLM a lot of stuff they don’t want to hear and ask a lot of questions they don’t want to answer. It is not Owen’s presence that damns him. What damns him is what he said and the predictability of it.
It is clear that JLM think They have caught a live tame one. Sadly Owen’s responses ( and some lack of responses) to the criticism he has had over this, do nothing to disabuse the JLM of this notion.
Owen told us all about the ( ficticious) antisemitism problem on the left in general, and the Labour Party in particular. He spouted all the much loved drivel that filters down from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, through the Embassy, through the UK front organisations, to the hapless rest of us. We heard about how Israel is all about the self determination of the Jewish people. For ” self determination ” read, ” we can do whatever the fuck we want”. Sadly they can.
We heard about how Owen supports the Two State Delusion. And how he wants self determination for the Palestinian people too. He didn’t mention how Israel holds a veto and it is Israel that determines the lot of the Palestinians , and will continue to do so until the world takes some effective action. We heard a lot about ” peace” and very little about justice. We were told how we should export peace not import conflict. We heard a lot about building bridges. We were not reminded that it is bridges that kept apartheid South Africa afloat for so long. We didn’t have it pointed out that the peace seemingly on offer is Pax Israeliana.
And Newmark will have sat through it with the usual supercilious smirk on his face.
And Owen will have got a standing O. Maybe several.
The ” lecture” was in the form of Owen in conversation with Sara Sackman. Sara was very excited about it all. She was just sooooooo looking forward to conversing with Owen who she tells us is ” a thoughtful critic of Israeli government policy “
Thoughtful
Critic of Israeli government policy.
Geddit ?
And there was fawning praise from the Jewish News and Jewish Chronicle, those twin pillars of the Israelist gutter press, which Owen will have loved. This was the real reward for his complicity. He had already given an interview to the JC whose editor is a founding signatory to the Muslim hating/baiting Henry Jackson Society, that Hope Not Hate fingered as “ dragging hatred of Muslims into the mainstream” . In this interview he made some exceedingly dubious statements, including the blatant lie that only 1% of Jews are non Zionists.
And there was the inevitable photo ops.
JLM, of course, in close alliance with Lansman, are a major force that drove and continue to drive the purges. Newmark was in constant contact with McNicol, encouraging him and pointing him in ” directions”.
Len McCluskey was right to point out that this is a left/right issue, and that the appropriate relationship is one with socialists, including socialist Jews, within the party. Owen and Lansman are of the view that Corbyn’s best interests are served by him getting into bed with the most right wing Jews he can find. These include Jonathan Arkush and Ella Rose, who is in the van of the blatantly racist harassment of Jackie Walker, who JLM regard as the wrong kind of Jew. That is non Zionist and black. They refer to her as a ” court Jew” which is eqivalent to ” house nigger”.
Owen is, of course, not short of justifications for his relationship with JLM. Some of them are excrutiatingly embarrassing. Notably, that the JLM cannot be all bad because they endorsed Rhea Wolfson’s successful bid to get elected to the NEC.
I cannot believe Owen is so naive as to not have asked himself how and why this came to be. Someone as close to Corbyn’s ” team” as he claims to be will know perfectly well.
How did an organisation so firmly on the Labour Party hard right, ninety four per cent of whose members voted for Owen Smith in the leadership election, come to endorse an unimpeachable Corbynista like Rhea ?
The answer is that it was a part of Jon Lansman’s efforts to stitch up Ken Livingstone. Lansman is forever telling us that he works closely with Newmark, and how distressed he gets whenever Newmark is upset.
It will be recalled that in April 2016 Ken made some remarks that the Israelists, whose grip on the Party was tightening by the day, denounced as being antisemitic. Ken was duly suspended “ pending investigation “. Now how long would you expect an investigation into a couple of sentences to take ? Five minutes ?
Except that the NEC elections were fast approaching and Lansman saw an opportunity to increase the Israelists representation on the committee. He made a public call for Ken to retire from public life and then on May 10th published the ” centre left slate” that he expected all self respecting lefties should vote for. Six names for six grass roots places. Ordinarily, of course, Ken would have been one of the names and would have been a shoe in. But Lansman, being privy to all the “problem with antisemitism ” shenanigans knew that Ken would still be suspended when nominations closed on June 24th.
Lansman announced that Ken had been replaced on the slate by Rhea Wolfson.
For Lansman Rhea dots all the i’s and crosses all the t’s. Her Corbynista credentials may be impeccable but so are her hard core Israelist credentials. Also her lack of any discernible integrity or sense of honour, and her naked ambition, ensured that she would go along with the wheeze.
Rhea quickly declared that ” Jews have been excluded from the Labour Party for too long.”
Huh ?
Then Lansman proceeded to hawk her around Momentum meetings.
Perfect.
Rhea continues to play her part well. At the compliance unit meeting that led to Jackie Walker and Marc Wadsworth being referred to the secretive NCC ( presumably operating out of room 101), it was Rheas’s ” impassioned pleas ” that swung the day so far as these referrals were concerned. This is to say, if, as seems likely, Jackie and Marc are expelled from the party, many fingers will be pointing at Rhea. And. of course, at Jones.
It gets worse.
Owen asks us to note that JLM have been appointed to the equalities sub committee of the NEC., ” by the party leadership“. Well I have got news for Owen. It has been noted.
Owen seems to think this proves something. I am not sure what. For Owen this did not seem to be further proof of the scale of corruption pertaining in the Party machinery. It did not seem to be further proof of the startling level of influence a racist agency of a foreign power, led by a notorious perjurer and would be union buster, has secured in the Party. For Owen this is not something to be outraged over but something to be welcomed. There is no sense that Owen grasps the absurdity of this situation.
Alice, it gets worserer and worserer.
Owen tells us that ” socialists have a responsibility to stand with Jewish people and to be seen to stand with Jewish people. It’s in that spirit that I’m attending the JLM event.”
That is, Owen equates the British wing of the neofascist Israeli Labor Party with ” Jewish people”.
Following the furore over his hob nobbing with the JLM racists Owen decided to keep his head down, and we did not hear from him on the purges or the alleged antisemitism in the party for a good while. Then up popped the mural thing and Corbyn’s craven reaction. Owen has an uncanny nose for which way the attention grabbing winds are blowing and immediately burst back onto the antisemitism scene. He set himself up as the St. George that was going to slay the ” antisemitism in the Labour Party ” dragon. He is going to drive the ” antisemites” from ” the left” which he seems to be claiming ownership of. He and his partner in tedium, Ellie Mai O’Hagen, hurriedly put together one of their excrutiating podcasts complete with guests including David Schneider and Michael Segalov. This was an hour of drivel that would have made the older ones among us nostalgic for our sixth form days.
David suffers from the same desease that all comedians suffer from. That is, a desperate need to be amusing at all times. He seems to think ” Corbyn will stop at nothing to smear Corbyn” is wildly funny and he repeats the mantra at every opportunity. David holds himself out as one who can educate us about antisemitism and is given to supplying us with tests. At the same time he is a guest contributor at the racist cess pit, Harrys Place. Thanks David but no thanks.
Michael summed up the whole proceedings with ” antisemitism is on the increase ” and cites CST mumbo jumbo as evidence !!!!!!!
Thing is because Owen’s self worship always gets in the way he is all over the place. One minute he is demanding Corbyn be replaced, the next minute…..
So the question needs asking. Which side are you on boy ?
Tir Tairngire 