Mail Corbyn Holocaust Smear Busted
For a paper that makes out it would be more than happy to see Jeremy Corbyn become leader of the Labour Party, the Mail is unusually wary of the prospect, so much so that today it has resorted to one of the oldest smears in the book - the potentially toxic combination of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism. Sadly, the appearance of those “distancing” quote marks signals that this is another pile of bullpucky.
Is he that scary?
“EXCLUSIVE: Jeremy Corbyn's 'long-standing links' with notorious Holocaust denier and his 'anti-Semitic' organisation revealed”, announces the headline, before adding “Paul Eisen, a self-professed Holocaust denier, says that he has been close to Corbyn for more than 15 years … He has come out in support of Corbyn's campaign on his blog”. That would be the world of social media that the Mail warns its readers against.
Sadly, all that the Mail has is Eisen’s own account, for which they can find no corroboration - not even from Corbyn himself. The story is not helped by the headline claim “Eisen's group is seen as so extreme that it was disowned by the mainstream Palestinian Solidarity Campaign in 2007” actually being “In 2007, the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign proposed a motion disowning Eisen's group”. And there’s more.
Or rather, there’s more rather weak nudge-nudgery, such as Eisen writing “During the time when I felt so marginalised and isolated, when the movement with which he was associated so despised me, Jeremy always said hello”. Hardly a damning indictment, is it? Nor is “The alleged relationship with Eisen will be particularly embarrassing for the Labour leadership contender as the Holocaust denier believes Corbyn stood by him when he felt ostracised” [my emphases].
It’s clear that Jonathan Arkush, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, saw the Mail coming and qualified his statement accordingly: “Paul Eisen is a notorious Holocaust denier and if Jeremy Corbyn does have links with him this would be very alarming. We would ask Mr Corbyn to clarify the situation”. Quite so.
So what does the Corbyn camp have to say? “Paul Eisen is not someone Jeremy Corbyn's office has any dealings with. Based upon what is in written in the articles here, anyone can call themselves a ‘long time associate’ when in fact that is not the case. Paul Eisen clearly holds some of the most extreme views that are entirely his, and Jeremy totally opposes them and disassociates himself from them”.
Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism are the kinds of smears that are all too easily tried on a politician who has talked to Palestinian groups like Hamas. But in this case, smears is all they are. And for the Mail to do the smearing, given its past behaviour, is the most rank kind of hypocrisy. All that it does is alert anyone who was not already aware that the inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker are scared witless of Jeremy Corbyn.
One can only guess at what the next Corbyn bashing smear is going to be.
Interestingly, the Mail fails to mention two important facts: 1. that Eisen is one of Corbyn's constituents and has been for over 20 years, and 2. that Eisen's parents were both Jews which 'officially' would make Eisner Jewish, too.
ReplyDeleteEisen is the UK's Norman Finkelstein?
As the person who proposed the PSC motion in 2007 I would say that the fact that Eisen is Jewish, which he is, is irrelevant to the fact that he is a holocaust denier and a supporter of neo-Nazis like Ernst Zundel. You probably need a psychiatrist to work out why someone who is Jewish is a supporter of neo-Nazism and holocaust denial. Probably a form of extreme alienation caused by the actions of Israel in claiming to represent Jews.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that Eisen is the UK's Norman Finkelstein is risible.
Paul Eisen is indeed a Jewish holocaust denier, antisemite and all purpose common or garden racist too. Apart from being Jewish Eisen has nothing in common with Norman Finkelstein. The latter is the son of holocaust survivors who lost nearly 100 family members in the holocaust. Finkelstein wrote The Holocaust Industry where he condemns The State of Israel for making political capital out of the holocaust and the holocaust compensation Claims Conference for inflating the number of holocaust survivors to get more money from various corporations and states who were complicit in the holocaust. Part of Finkelstein's beef is that by inflating the number of survivors, the Claims Conference is logically reducing the number of those who were killed and thereby adding grist to the mill of Eisen-style holocaust denial.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes you ask if Eisen is "the UK's Norman Finkelstein"? There's absolutely no comparison. Finkelstein is a serious scholar who has never denied the Holocaust. He doesn't write much about the Holocaust, if at all - but he has written about what he calls (rightly in my view) "the Holocaust Industry", something totally different. Finkelstein is not antisemitic. He has, famously, been a severe critic of the policies of successive Israeli governments, but there has been no antisemitism in the way he has done this, in sharp contradistinction to such people as Eisen, Atzmon and others. Incidentally, just because someone's parents are or were Jewish doesn't mean that their offspring are. I know nothing about Eisen's religious views, if any, but just for example if the child of Jewish parents embraces a different faith, at that point they cease being members of the Jewish People (assuming, of course, that we can agree on a definition of the Jewish People).
ReplyDeleteYes. Paul Eisen is 100% Jewish. He is also as decent, truthful and honourable a human being as I have ever met.
ReplyDeleteIn one sense at least he is a modern-day Christ. A Jew who warns his own people not to follow their (Zionist) leaders.....and Jewish Leadership is entirely Zionist. Because they are LIARS, of Satan and if the Jewish people do not realise this they will be led to absolute disaster.
Ian McDonald
ReplyDelete"No one to Vote for" is clearly scared of identifying himself, and reflects the views of hateful nut-case extremists, i.e nazis, other racists, and some islamic fundamentalists (talks about "Satan"!). His support for Paul Eisen's holocaust denial is indicative of his hatred for all jews not just simple opposition to zionism, while comments above from Tony Greenstein and Brian Robinson, jews who strongly support Palestinian independence and oppose zionism, reflect the intelligent condemnation of zionism without the appalling hateful baggage of holocaust denial.
Ian
ReplyDeleteThe difference between Eisen , Greenstein and Mark Elf is an illusion . Eisen denies the murder of 6,000,000 Jews . Greenstein and Elf advocate and strive for the eradication of the State of Israel in the knowledge that it could only be achieved by force of arms and the death of many tens of thousands on both sides . Then again what does that matter to a pair of unreconstructed Trots who follow the Communist line that the end justifies the means . The idea that these two are any way different from Eisen is risible .
"uncle harvey" clearly doesn't understand the difference between eradication of a state through violence and the overthrow by peaceful democratic means of the existing political structure of a state. Israel is already a single state that oppresses a large minority of residents within it. It has done that through it official policies of nishul (displacement) and hafrada (which in Hebrew means what apartheid meant in S Africa). It could become a single state for all its citizens without apartheid-hafrada, and it can do so either voluntarily through an act of political wisdom, or be dragged kicking and screamning by the inevitable march of events.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, how could people who in your estimation know that a policy is going to result in the murder of millions be no "different from" someone who denied that there really was once such a policy?
Many years ago there was a famous play made into an even more famous film called 'Harvey'. Harvey, the hero's best friend, was a six-foot, three-and-a-half-inch tall invisible rabbit.
Poor old Harvey can't tell the difference between Jews and Jewish supremacy. For him the abolition of the latter is as bad as the annihilation of the former.
ReplyDeleteHe also seems not to know that many states have been abolished without a shot being fired.
Still, we live and learn and maybe one day Harvey will learn.
Keep dreaming comrades .
ReplyDelete