It has been so tempting to believe that the antisemitism unleashed by Labour could still be rolled back.
Even as scandal after scandal has unfolded, even as we hit new low after new low, there has always been a ray of hope.
The huge “Enough is Enough” demonstration, 11 months ago, felt like a turning point, as the issue finally hit the national press.
For months, the press has debated whether and even when a Labour split is going to happen. Each article arguing that “the moderates have to act now” has raised expectations that a centrist party will emerge, making the racists an unelectable irrelevance.
And of course, many people still put their trust in the essential decency of regular Brits, the majority of whom abhor racism of any kind.
Events across the pond have shown why these are all false hopes. Even if Jeremy Corbyn disappeared from the national stage tomorrow, the antisemitism we are experiencing will take years to fade away, because it is not a local issue. Nor is it a freak event unleashed by Corbyn’s unlikely rise to the leadership. It is part of a long-term, global phenomenon.
In the past month, American Jewry has been rocked by casual displays of antisemitism from two new Democratic Congresswomen.
Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, used a traditional antisemitic slur, accusing senators who voted for a bill opposing BDS of dual loyalty. “They forgot which country they represent,” she tweeted.
Her colleague Ilhan Omar implied that American politicians only supported Israel because of payments by AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby group. “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby,” she tweeted, referring to Benjamin Franklin, who is on the $100 bill.
Meanwhile, a third new Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, declared that she had a “lovely” conversation with Jeremy Corbyn, seemingly oblivious to the allegations of antisemitism swirling all around him. The Democratic party responded firmly to all three comments, and the latter two women have backtracked, to various degrees.
Nevertheless, the sudden prominence of antisemitic tropes in the halls of Congress is something new and alarming for 21st-century Jews. And its emergence, combined with a parallel process in the UK, as well as the wave of antisemitism currently sweeping across France, indicates a profound shift in the political zeitgeist across the Western world.
On both the left and the right, there is deep resentment against the perceived “political and financial elites”, which has been playing out since the financial crash more than 10 years ago. Across the board, there is a belief that society is organised unfairly, with no true equality of opportunity. There is also an increasing feeling that democracy is failing, and that our leaders do not listen to, and are not answerable to, regular voters.
This has allowed voices which used to be on the margins to enter the political mainstream. These radical voices want to smash existing social and political structures, and to rethink our alliances. And they are gaining traction, leaving a vacuum in the middle.
And the Jews? We are unwillingly on the front lines, as we have been throughout so much of history. Where there is social and political unrest, where some groups feel that the system is stacked against them, and where people look for a guiding hand which is secretly to blame for the ills of society – the Jews become the scapegoats.
So we can (and must) stand up to the racists in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party. We can fight for decency, and for the tolerant, multicultural values which were taken for granted in the political arena not that long ago. We can insist on our right to be treated without prejudice.
But we must also recognise that no matter how many battles we win right now, winning the war is likely beyond us. Antisemitism is only the symptom. The social unrest and the profound sense of injustice taking hold across the Western World are the illness. Solving those is not only beyond our little community, they will also take years to play out.
So don’t pin too many hopes on Labour splitting, or on regular people voting against racists. Corbyn or no Corbyn, antisemitism is part of the political landscape now – and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
