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    TONY BLAIR IN ISRAEL: ANTISEMITISM MUST BE ROOTED OUT OF BRITISH LABOUR Archived Message

    Posted by johnlilburne on June 7, 2019, 11:41 am

    Do you recognize the Labour Party today?" She asked. "No," he replied. "The leadership is from the far Left." He acknowledged that Labour had always been Left, but not as far Left as it is today.

    "This antisemitism is a shameful thing," he said. "If you had told me that the party that I led for 13 years would have problems with antisemitism, I would not have believed it. Antisemitism must be confronted immediately. It's a poison that must be rooted out and eradicated."

    He warned that antisemitism could ruin the Labour Party.

    Levi's next question was whether Labour is institutionally antisemitic.

    Blair replied that the Labour Party is being investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which he had established, never dreaming at the time that it would investigate the Labour Party. "Most people in Britain recoil from antisemitism," he said.

    Commenting that the Jewish community of Britain used to be strongly identified with Labour, Blair said he was troubled by the number of Jews who say that if Jeremy Corbyn is elected Prime Minister, they will leave the country. "That's a terrible thing," he said.

    Levi's next question was obvious.

    "Is Corbyn an antisemite?"

    Blair was careful with his answer. "Corbyn says that he's not, but some of the remarks he makes are not explicable in any other way."

    He added that antisemitism always ends up in the same place but doesn't always begin in the same way, and must be fought with renewed vigor.

    Aware that anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism, Blair said that there is an urgent need to go out and explain to a new generation of younger people what Zionism means, because for them it has become "something you would criticize but not support."

    He would like to have people from outside the government go out and talk about Israel, because such people could say that they don't necessarily agree with the government's policies, but that they believe in Israel's right to exist.

    They could also say that while they understand the situation in Gaza, they would like to know which democratic government would tolerate having hundreds of people taking shelter every night from explosives coming from across the border. "They could ask their interlocutors if they were innocent, but charged with a crime, in which Middle Eastern country they would prefer to be tried, and – if they were gay – in which Middle Eastern country they would want to live," Blair continued

    When Levi asked whether the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was dead, Blair replied: "It's not dead in the water, but it needs the general cultural acceptance for the State of Israel."

    ven though he is no longer the Middle East envoy of the Quartet, Blair is still actively building relationships between Israel and the rest of the region, because that's important, he said.

    "The State of Israel needs to know that the State of Palestine will be properly governed with peaceful relations with Israel," so that Israel can feel confident about security, said Blair.

    "In the end," Blair surmised, "the majority of people on both sides prefer to live in peace if the politics can be sorted out."

    When Levi asked his opinion on the current political situation in Israel, Blair declined to comment, saying that he had good relations with a series of Israeli prime ministers, and he wanted to keep it that way, but he did underscore that "in times of crisis and national security, the country tends to pull together."

    It was this ability to overcome differences that gave Blair confidence that Israel, as a vibrant democracy, will sort itself out.



    https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Tony-Blair-There-is-a-need-to-explain-to-younger-people-what-Zionism-is-591509

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