Rafael Behr

[wingco]

This piece is attracting a lot of praise. Comments on it on The Guardian are pre-moderated and are a tide of unanimously laudatory comment. If it had been solely about his experiences of having a heart attack and the shift in perspective this might have engendered in him personally, fine. But buried within the piece is the implication that Jeremy Corbyn and his rabid supporters, as well as the supposed existential threat a Labour government would have represented to British Jews, was what tipped him over into cardiac arrest. This represents a bit of a low, I'd say. Every seven days, they find a way of sticking another dart in. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...a-heart-attack

[Flynnie]

Felix Biederman was right.

[Nefertiti2]

I have to say that I find comparing Jeremy Corbyn supporters to perpetrators of a genocide enormously disproportionate, but an insult to the victims, which included many members of my family.

blaming us for his heart attack shows the narcissist in every Guardian columnist.

[Cal Alamein]

Nef, I agree.
Take away the anti-Corbyn/anti-semitism four paragraphs in the middle of the piece and I would have appreciated reading a very informative article of the experience of a young-ish person who suffered a heart attack and how he has had to adjust his life. Those four paragraphs were bitter, jarring and awkward at best.

[ooh aah]

My brother had a heart attack back in October. He was in ICU for 2 months. He's still only 32. He has a young family, and is now at real risk if he catches covid. His quality of life, and actual life chances would have been improved immeasurably under a Labour government, so I don't need to hear shit stirring guardian columnists trying to justify their facilitation of the worst UK government for a hundred years.

[Etienne]

I honestly despair at how almost everyone on all sides in the left antisemitism consistently chooses to read everything by those on the other side in the worst possible light.

[Nefertiti2]

What is “the best possible light “ of Behrs remarks about me, or wingco, or MsD or johnr?

he is making a direct and highly contentious comparison between the antisemitism in the Labour Party and the Nazis and suggesting that anyone voting Labour was comparable with those who drove Jews out of Germany

There had been antisemitism on the left before 2015, when Jeremy Corbyn became leader, but under him the party was more hospitable to the prejudice. Corbyn was a magnet for every ultra-left crank and fanatic whose fixation on the evils of “Zionism” shaded into conspiracy theories about Jews plotting behind the scenes, pulling the financial strings of a puppet government.
Observing that trend was grim enough, but the stressful part was writing about it amid a culture of indifference that permeated the wider British left. To criticise Corbyn in print was to invite a torrent of abuse online. His hardcore supporters said the charge of antisemitism was itself a devious plot against the leader, more evidence of the conspiracy. The more squeamish fellow-travellers agreed that the whole thing stank, but held their noses anyway and campaigned for Labour.

That complicity animated a pungent hereditary fear: no matter how rooted Jews felt in a country, a movement, a culture, one day there will come along a mob carrying tools to dig us up, telling us we don’t truly belong. It is the cautionary tale our grandparents told about keeping a suitcase packed and a passport close at hand. “At least we are finding out who would have hidden us in their attic,” one Jewish friend said to me. We laughed because it wasn’t even a joke.

I think the charge of antisemitism (or its selective pursuit for facebook posts by nonentitites compared to things said or written by Eg Boris Johnson, or Jacob Rees Mogg ) was a devious plot, by the way.

[Etienne]

No, he isn't.

[Nefertiti2]

No, he isn't.

Yes he is-

“At least we are finding out who would have hidden us in their attic,” one Jewish friend said to me. We laughed because it wasn’t even a joke.

[Nefertiti2]

Great arguing by the way- ,love the way you respond to arguments and eloquently present your case . You could get a column in the Guardian.

[Etienne]

You're making my argument for me.

[Nefertiti2]

You’re making no argument whatsoever

[Nefertiti2]

Offensive

under him the party was more hospitable to the prejudice. Corbyn was a magnet for every ultra-left crank and fanatic whose fixation on the evils of “Zionism” shaded into conspiracy theories about Jews plotting behind the scenes, pulling the financial strings of a puppet government.

What do you think this means in the context of remarks about the Laboiur Party?

“At least we are finding out who would have hidden us in their attic,” one Jewish friend said to me. We laughed because it wasn’t even a joke

As you seem to be defending the article you could give me the courtesy of a response

[Etienne]

Rachel Shabi in the Nation has got closest to my feelings on the issue: https://www.thenation.com/article/wo...-antisemitism/

I just think it's a colossal failure of empathy that when a Jewish person, describing a life threatening and life limiting event is accused simply of acting in bad faith.

I get that people are angry. I get that it's not fair. To quote Shabi,"It is unspeakably grim that anti-Semitism was used in this way, perhaps worst of all by a Conservative government that is eye-wateringly mired in Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, and indeed, anti-Semitism. There is something particularly noxious about a nativist right government denouncing the very idea of structural racism—and then gleefully attacking Labour over anti-Semitism."

I get that people on the left who have spent their lives campaigning against racism find it difficult when they are portrayed as complicit in racism. These are all legitimate emotions.

But it is also legitimate for a people who have centuries of experience of racism, pogroms, expulsions and boycotts to feel under threat when anti-semitism is on the rise (as it unquestionably is). It is legitimate for people who's ancestors were murdered or forced to flee. I understand that this is your ancestry, Nef and that you don't feel like that. But I have left wing Jewish friends who do feel like that. They were considering emigrating if Corbyn won. They were not confecting outrage. They were not motivated by political considerations. You can argue that their judgement as to what would happen if Corbyn had won was flawed (maybe hugely flawed). I think that myself. But to say they are being hysterical, or dishonest is insulting (as well as counter-productive). Behr may be exaggerating for political effect. Or it may be what he genuinely felt. I find debating anti-semitism stressful and no-one cares what I think, I don't have to face hundreds of people telling me I'm a cunt. I find it plausible that a Jewish person, writing at a time when almost half of British Jews said that they would consider emigrating if Corbyn won might have had fears of what might happen at least in the back of his mind.*

But instead we have two Twitters conversations going on. One where people queue up to mock Behr for saying that Corbyn and his fans wanted to bring in death camps, when he's said nothing of the sort (he's not a fucking clown like Heffer). And one where people queue up to say that the reaction on the left of mocking a Jew who has just had a heart attack for feeling threatened by anti-semitism shows that the Left are all cunts and how the country would have gone to hell if they were in power, blithely oblivious to the hell that we're actually in.

And the result is that the Left continues to get marginalised, anti-Semitism contimues to rise, Johnson continues to fuck the country and people who should be comrades spend their time trying to find the least charitable reading of what their opponents say.

*I know that poll might not be entirely representative. But it could be overstated by a factor of 5 and still be hugely significant.

[Etienne]

I'm not going to say anything else on this today. I've got things to do. I don't think a plea for tolerance and empathy should be a controversial position that requires extended justification in any case.

[Nefertiti2]

If they were considering emigrating if Corbyn won and you concede that judgement was "flawed, maybe hugely flawed" then where did they get the idea that a jam-maker was an antisemite who wanted to have them killed.

I feel sympathy for those Jews who have been at the receiving end of a constant tirade about Labour antisemitism which was in the news daily and In which anything from Corbyn's pronunciation of the word Epstein to his failure to comment on the antisemitism of the author of a book on Empire in a foreword he wrote several years before becoming leader. When people are constantly told that someone hates you then they get scared.

When the official Jewish Community from the Board of Deputies to the Chief Rabbi is calling Corbyn an antisemite and a threat (egged on by Ian Austin Joan Ryan Tracy Ann Oberman and Rachel Riley) then it's scarce;y suprised that some people are scared. Meanwhile Left wing Jews who speak out and might be reassuring get attacked as "asajews" Self-hating jews" Kapos, and worse. All of those have been said to me.


But Rafael Behr is not an innocent in this. he was one of the people who was whipping up the tirade. And the comparison with the Sho'ah is frankly repulsive.

[Nefertiti2]

I'm not going to say anything else on this today. I've got things to do. I don't think a plea for tolerance and empathy should be a controversial position that requires extended justification in any case.

Show me the plea for tolerance and empathy in Behr's piece. It's hate speech.

Oh i see your contribution was the plea for tolerance. Thanks for the response, anyway.

But pleas for tolerance don't work when responding to the person who has just implied as Wingco put it

Jeremy Corbyn and his rabid supporters, as well as the supposed existential threat a Labour government would have represented to British Jews, was what tipped him over into cardiac arrest.

To which he also insinuates that anyone who didn't speak out against Corbyn would have not hidden Jews in their attic.

How should I tolerantly respond to someone who has implied I would be complicit in genocide.

[MsD]

It made me so angry my blood pressure spiked. Can I sue him?

[Satchmo Distel]

Sorry to interrupt but I just wanted to ask is Rafael was related to Dani Behr. Carry on...

[Nefertiti2]

Sorry to interrupt but I just wanted to ask is Rafael was related to Dani Behr. Carry on...

I don't think so. his family came from South Africa

However that piece is interesting in how much he sees his Jewish identity as bound up with Israel

I have long since abandoned any practice of Judaism. I don't believe in God. But Jewishness is a cultural watermark that is indelible if it gets minted into you at an early age. It resists apathy and apostasy. In that respect, it has much in common with Catholicism and allegiance to minor-league football clubs, except, unlike a lifelong interest in Accrington Stanley, Jewishness comes with strings attached to Israel.

This never used to be a big deal. For hundreds of years, Israel was a metaphor for Jews. It was a word in scriptures and history books, an ancient place where a semi-mythic nation once lived under Hebrew kings. It was a nostalgia.

But in 1948 it became a real state, with real politics and a real army. And thus a strange Middle Eastern country - thousands of miles away from my home, of which I am not a citizen, and in which I have never lived - acquired a stake in my identity 26 years before I was born.


Every time Israel goes to war, every time it attacks or is attacked; when it is pilloried by the British Left, or propped up by the American Right; and every time al-Qaeda issues a statement blaming Zionism for the ills of the world, I feel a little part of me gets caught in the crossfire.

'What is the purpose of your visit to Israel?' they ask. A bit of my identity is being held hostage there and I wonder if it is possible to set it free.

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/sarah_ox_laugh/status/1350752977443667970?s=20

[Snake Plissken]

Normally, I'd dismiss it as an overreaction, but the fact that The Graun decided to pre-moderate comments on what is largely a good and timely piece to me indicates that it knows exactly what that section is meant to be doing.

[DCI Harry Batt]

As I said elsewhere in here, I found it really odd and out of place in an otherwise interesting and indeed moving moving piece.

I'd like to have shared it, as I think others would like to read it. But I just can't with that in it.

I've mostly stayed out of arguments about Labour anti-semitism, finding almost no-one else I agree with, not being a Labour supporter and not believing I'm the best placed person to opine. I've more recently noticed that that has meant my being less vocal about support for Palestinians and opposition to the occupation, and that does need to change.

[Nefertiti2]

As I said elsewhere in here, I found it really odd and out of place in an otherwise interesting and indeed moving moving piece.

I'd like to have shared it, as I think others would like to read it. But I just can't with that
I've more recently noticed that that has meant my being less vocal about support for Palestinians and opposition to the occupation, and that does need to change.

This, for many of those campaigning, is the desired outcome

[Posty Webber]

Rachel Shabi in the Nation has got closest to my feelings on the issue: https://www.thenation.com/article/wo...-antisemitism/

I just think it's a colossal failure of empathy that when a Jewish person, describing a life threatening and life limiting event is accused simply of acting in bad faith.

I get that people are angry. I get that it's not fair. To quote Shabi,"It is unspeakably grim that anti-Semitism was used in this way, perhaps worst of all by a Conservative government that is eye-wateringly mired in Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, and indeed, anti-Semitism. There is something particularly noxious about a nativist right government denouncing the very idea of structural racism—and then gleefully attacking Labour over anti-Semitism."

I get that people on the left who have spent their lives campaigning against racism find it difficult when they are portrayed as complicit in racism. These are all legitimate emotions.

But it is also legitimate for a people who have centuries of experience of racism, pogroms, expulsions and boycotts to feel under threat when anti-semitism is on the rise (as it unquestionably is). It is legitimate for people who's ancestors . I understand that this is your ancestry, Nef and that you don't feel like that. But I have left win Jewish friends who do feel like that. They were considering emigrating if Corbyn won. They were not confecting outrage. They were not motivated by political considerations. You can argue that their judgement as to what would happen if Corbyn had won was flawed (maybe hugely flawed). I think that myself. But to say they are being hysterical, or dishonest is insulting (as well as counter-productive). Behr may be exaggerating for political effect. Or it may be what he genuinely felt. I find debating anti-semitism and no-one cares what I think, I don't have to face hundreds of people telling me I'm a cunt. I find it plausible that a Jewish person, writing at a time when almost half of British Jews said that they would consider emigrating if Corbyn won might have had fears of what might happen at least in the back of his mind.*

But instead we have two Twitters conversations going on. One where people queue up to mock Behr for saying that Corbyn and his fans wanted to bring in death camps, when he's said nothing of the sort (he's not a fucking clown like Heffer). And one where people queue up to say that the reaction on the left of mocking a Jew who has just had a heart attack for feeling threatened by anti-semitism shows that the Left are all cunts and how the country would have gone to hell if they were in power, blithely oblivious to the hell that we're actually in.

And the result is that the Left continues to get marginalised, anti-Semitism contimues to rise, Johnson continues to fuck the country and people who should be comrades spend their time trying to find the least charitable reading of what their opponents say.

*I know that poll might not be entirely representative. But it could be overstated by a factor of 5 and still be hugely significant.

Thanks man.