Page 1 of 3. Letter Number 2 to Jewish Voice for Labour. Still no answers on Spedding or indeed anything. Monday, 18 Sep
Letter Number 2 to Jewish Voice for Labour Still no answers on Spedding or indeed anything Monday, 18 September 2017
Dear JVL Steering Committee, It was because I was contacted by members who were unhappy with JVL’s direction, that I wrote to you concerning Gary Spedding. My reasons for believing that Spedding should not be admitted to a group which is serious about opposing the false anti-Semitism witch hunt or the Zionist campaign to equate anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism can be read here. Instead of explaining why Spedding and other Zionists such as Ari Moshe, Shlomo Anker and Rob Abrams have been welcomed by JVL, whereas I have been excluded, David Rosenberg chose to bluster and dissemble. Instead of entering into a debate with JVL’s members frankly he chose to insult their intelligence. I assume he was speaking on behalf of the Steering Committee. I used to have great respect for David but it is rapidly disappearing. Rosenberg wrote that I was barred from this and other groups because of my ‘serial abuse of people within those groups whom he disagrees with, his lying about and smearing of other left wing Jews.’ Apparently ‘The Zionist establishment should thank him.’
Witchhunter Ari Moshe is a valued member of JVL!
This is knockabout stuff. It does not even begin to tackle peoples’ genuine worries about the direction of JVL and why it is afraid to even mention the Palestinian still less Zionism in its fundamental principles. Or why it says nothing about the Right of Return. Already one person has resigned from the group today. Another resigned shortly after I was excluded. I talked a third person out of resigning tonight, because I would like JVL to succeed yet it is unclear where it is heading or what its purpose is. For example there has been no attempt to discuss the thorny question of whether it should be a Jewish only group when even the JLM admits non-Jews. This is apparently not for the children. Despite David’s rhetorical flourish, the Zionist establishment haven’t thanked me. Perhaps David hasn’t noticed but it is me, not him, who has been suspended from the Labour Party at the instigation of the JLM. The reason is obvious. David and the JSG are not anti-Zionist and have no record in the Palestine solidarity movement or around BDS. What surprises me is David’s transparently bad tempered lies. I was excluded from the JSG’s own Facebook Group because I posted a link to my blog criticising the refusal of the JSG to support Jackie Walker and dissociate themselves from Jon Lansman, a member of JSG. It was only after a determined campaign to force their land, by people such as Debbie Fink in Free Speech on Israel, did the JSG eventually and quite grudgingly oppose Jackie’s suspension,. although they have never done anything in practice. It is equally untrue that I was excluded from the JVL FB group for lying, smearing etc. Ian Saville, wrote to me on behalf of the moderators:
‘Your posts attacking the steering group (of which I am not a member) and other people posting on the page seem provocative and divisive, and have caused concern to other members. If you persist with such posts you will be removed from the group. It seems also that even before joining the group you circulated some of its members with unsolicited material attacking the JVL and disparaging the process of its formation.’
It was because I circulated this warning, coupled with my own response, JVL – What are they afraid of because it was not a private matter to threaten someone with exclusion for posting ‘provocative and divisive’ material that I was removed Ian Saville, one of the Moderators, then wrote to me privately complaining about my criticisms of him. In it he stated that: ‘In the end the consensus was that the fact that you chose to make public other people's private correspondence without even seeking permission was a breach which couldn't be tolerated. Some people saw your final post as a challenge to the Steering Group to exclude you, given that you chose to quote the warning you were given.’
David Rosenberg’s allegations about smear and lies are just that. It is also untrue that I circulated private correspondence. They were emails containing a debate between Rachel Lever and others regarding the formation of the JVL. No one has ever complained otherwise. The real reason why Rosenberg indulges in these silly and intemperate lies is political. What he and what’s left of the JSG believe is that we should be completely uncritical of Jeremy Corbyn and his retreat from Palestine. I take the view that if we don’t exert a counterpressure on Labour’s leadership, Corbyn included, then the JLM will triumph by default. In order to deflect my criticism of JVL’s direction, Rosenberg and the Moderators are happy to tolerate lies and smears, such as Spedding and his echo chamber Rob Abrams comparing me to Gilad Atzmon, the notorious anti-Semite. I am used to such accusations from the crazy wing of the Zionists - Jonathan Hoffman and Paul Bogdanor - but I didn’t think they would make an appearance on this list! My record in respect of Atzmon is well known and even members of the Board of Deputies and Jonathan Freedland are on record as accepting this. What is gratifying is the number of people who have commented on the messenger group and elsewhere saying that they too are concerned by people like Spedding, Ari Moshe etc. This refusal to openly debate these issues, without rancour or name calling, is seriously pissing people off. It should be possible to question for example whether the group should be Jewish only or include non-Jews as full members, or whether the policy of the group should be more explicitly pro-Palestinian without pandering to those who would be happier in the JLM. To resort to exclusions is the method of Stalinism! I am not going to be silenced. Up to 100,000 people read my blog each month and I have a somewhat larger Twitter following etc. What is the point of this attempt to control debate? I get the feeling that beneath the bluster, what David Rosenberg but also other members of the Steering Committee fear most of all is genuine debate around the way forward. Keeping it in the shtetl is not an option! In solidarity Tony Greenstein
Rob Abram's comparison between me and Atzmon is reminiscent of Trump's equation of Antifa with the neo-Nazis of Charlottesville - what he mean by ‘self identified’ Jews is anyone’s guess – a Zionist reference to the ‘right of Israel’ to be a racist state
