Last night we read about a reception held with Chief Rabbi Mirvis and PM Starmer at Downing Street. Jewish News article here.

I gave Keir Starmer a lot of slack. I was impressed with how he tried to root out antisemitism in the Labour Party. (I am aware of his inconsistencies when serving under Corbyn). What I couldn’t understand is why he did not apply the same passion to rooting out the anti-zionism of the past two years? Despite it coming two years late, I was pleased to see his comments at the event:

he ended by saying that in the same way he had rooted antisemitism out of the Labour Party he would now seek to do the same as he tackled Jew-hatred in wider society.

he ended by saying that in the same way he had rooted antisemitism out of the Labour Party he would now seek to do the same as he tackled Jew-hatred in wider society.

However, looking at his other statements at the event, it is clear that he still fundamentally doesn’t understand the problem. We don’t know what conversations the Chief Rabbi has in private, but I can only hope that he made some of the following points to the PM directly.

“We’ve got to defeat all ideologies of hatred against Jews, and that includes Islamist ideologies of hatred towards Jews—a political ideology distinct from Islam and abhorrent to the vast majority of Muslims. But we have to address that ideology. We have to recognise what it is and call it out for what it........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)