Harry's Place

In Tablet magazine:
The problem for the left today is that it has gone over largely—but not, Geras and others insisted, wholly—to the negative view of Judaism as an obstacle to human progress. Israel, Geras held, “has been an alibi for a new climate of anti-Semitism on the left,” a development whose full venomousness can only [...]

Following up on Sarah’s post, here are some photos I took when I stumbled onto a May Day demonstration, sponsored by the leftwing Zionist party Mapam (now merged into Meretz) and the affiliated kibbutz/youth movement Hashomer Hatzair, on my first visit to Israel. (Click to enlarge.)

The sign says “There isn’t a non-socialist Left.”

The demonstration concluded [...]

A number of you must be wondering why tolerance of antisemitism, and in some cases antisemitism itself, has found so ready a home within a section of the British Left, and why there is so little effort within mainstream progressive institutions to confront this germ of racism, and to root it out.
Many of you will [...]

HP readers in the New York City area may want to check this out:
Since the nineteenth century, Jews have played prominent roles in a variety of leftist political movements. At the same time, associations between Jews and communism have been a frequent leitmotif of antisemitic thinking. While the political Left often spoke out against antisemitism [...]

This is a cross post from Adloyada

Think this is a joke?
Read these extracts from Ken and the rise of Socialist Action
In October 2007, the Evening Standard published a list of the 25 most influential people running London.[1] Livingstone headed the list which contained the names of 13 other individuals who worked directly or [...]

The London mayor, Boris Johnson, has vetoed the appearance of adverts due to appear on London buses paid for by a religious cult which claims to be able to “cure” homosexuality through “spiritual healing”.
Mayor Johnson said, according to The Guardian:
“London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance. It [...]

This is a guest post by Red Flag
Has the well respected  philosophyfootball.com become the clothing arm of  Respect?
Take look at http://www.philosophyfootball.com/view_item.php?pid=784
“29.03.2012 was a sensational moment in British political history. George Galloway has dubbed his victory in Bradford West the Bradford Spring. There’s never been anything quite like it, a party from the Left, outside the Westminster mainstream, turning [...]

This is a guest post by Red Flag
In retrospect Bradford West was a disaster waiting to happen. Over the weekend left blogs have had a good thoughtful debate about lessons and future steps A key message has been that for Labour to learn for the future we must find out what [...]

Interesting piece on Conservative Home by Conservative MP Robert Halfon writing about how he believes the right has lost its dominance online to left wing campaigners.
In particular he is talking about the online campaign group 38 Degrees, which organised the Save our Forest campaign and more recently a campaign to defend the [...]

Here’s Harpal Brar, of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) and of Trehearne and Brar – seller of fine pashminas to the gentry – on the subject of torture (from 12:40):

I’m not saying that there’s no torture in Libya. I think that no regime in certain conditions could do without torture. It is a question of [...]