Brexit has divided the UK like no other issue in living memory, and passions on both sides of the “remain” versus “leave” debate are fierce, no less so in the Jewish community.
By JEREMY SHARONBritain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn walk through the Commons Members Lobby in Parliament, London, Britain, October 14, 2019(photo credit: REUTERS/KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/POOL)
The Brexit imbroglio in the UK has dominated and confounded that country for over three years, and the latest chapter in the sorry story is the snap election called for December 12, when the single biggest issue will be about how, or even if, Britain will exit the European Union.Brexit has divided the UK like no other issue in living memory, and passions on both sides of the “remain” versus “leave” debate are fierce, no less so in the Jewish community.The Conservative Party headed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson is committed to leaving the EU on the basis of the negotiated deal obtained by Johnson.The Labour Party has vacillated on the issue, and promises to secure “a better deal” from the EU, which it would then put to the British public in a new referendum, although bizarrely has not said whether it would campaign for remain or leave in such a referendum.On the other hand, the Liberal Democrats – a third party with a small number of seats – has pledged to scrap Brexit altogether, a promise that has made it attractive once more to a far larger slice of the electorate.But for British Jews, there is another concern of even greater weight and concern than Brexit: whether Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party he leads gets a shot at running the country.Since Corbyn took over Labour in 2015, his party has become mired ever deeper in antisemitic scandals involving hundreds of incidents of various forms of Jew hatred among its ranks, including Corbyn himself.From the Labour Party adopting a self-modified definition of antisemitism, to Corbyn saying “Zionists” don’t understand “English irony,” the hounding of Jewish Labour MPs within the party and the innumerable incidents in which party members at every level have made antisemitic comments, Labour has become the object of antipathy in the UK Jewish community.The enmity toward the State of Israel from Corbyn and large swaths of the Labour Party – from where many of the antisemitic incidents have spawned – is another reason for the Jewish community’s aversion to Labour.According to a recent poll done for the Jewish Chronicle, just 7% of British Jews would consider voting for Labour.
And although opinion polls put the Conservatives far ahead of Labour, the vagaries of the electoral system, and the different possible constellations of the electoral map after the results are in, could very conceivably put Corbyn and Labour in power.BUT THE HOSTILITY toward Corbyn and his party of British Jews has put many of them in a quandary, since a large portion of the community, and likely the majority, is in favor of remaining inside the European Union.A vote for a Conservative candidate would be a vote for Brexit, which many British Jews oppose.But due to the UK’s constituency based first-past-the-post electoral system, failure to vote for a Conservative candidate could allow the Labour Party candidate to win and pave the way for Corbyn’s entry into No. 10 Downing Street.So voting for the third party Liberal Democrats who have pledged to stop Brexit is a huge risk for British Jews due to the electoral system, since voting for a Liberal Democrat candidate in a constituency where Labour is competitive could hand that seat to Corbyn’s party.“The Jewish community is seen as centrist and broadly in favor of remain, and naturally speaking Jewish voters might go for the Liberal Democrats,” says Richard Ferrer, editor of the Jewish News weekly newspaper.“A lot of people are making difficult decisions that have little to do with their political affiliation and inclinations, and instead are about how to avoid a Corbyn government and a hard socialist Britain,” he said, in reference to the Labour Party’s socialist economic policies.Ferrer said that the possibility of a Labour government was seen so starkly by British Jews that there is “panic on the streets of Jewish London,” noting the Jewish Chronicle’s recent front page pleading with all UK citizens to vote so that Labour cannot form a government, and an opinion article by a senior UK Reform rabbi calling on his congregants not to vote for Corbyn’s party.“If you took a poll of Jews in the street and asked them whether their priority was their Brexit stance or keeping Corbyn out of government, the majority would say the latter,” said Ferrer.Jonathan Arkush, former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, notes that many British Jews, especially younger Jews, have a greater affinity with the traditional center-left Labour Party than for the Conservatives. Moreover, he said, anecdotal evidence suggests that the “strong majority” of British Jews are “remainers.”But despite these inclinations, Arkush too says that the overwhelming majority of the UK Jewish community is simply not willing to even entertain the idea of voting Labour because of the antisemitism that has taken hold of the party.And such is the desire to defeat Corbyn that many Jews will vote tactically to defeat a Labour candidate, Arkush says, meaning they could vote for either a Conservative or Liberal Democrat candidate on the sole basis of who is more likely to defeat the Labour candidate and regardless of their Brexit stance.Arkush says that a Labour government would be “the most unfriendly and unsympathetic administration to the Jewish community in many decades, certainly within living memory,” and that a Labour government would make the Jewish community feel deeply uncomfortable, vulnerable and isolated.He added that government funding for security at Jewish institutions could be at risk, and that the abuse of Jews and the antisemitic zeitgeist seen in the Labour Party could spill over into the general public should Corbyn become prime minister.Ferrer noted that Britain would almost immediately recognize a State of Palestine under a Corbyn-led government, and Jewish organizations might find it difficult to express full-throated support for Israel.But despite all this, a Labour government would not be an existential threat to British Jewry, and neither Ferrer nor Arkush foresee any major emigration of Jews from the country.“It would be an extremely rough voyage for British Jews were we to see a Corbyn-led administration, but not that many would leave,” said Arkush.The abandonment by British Jews of their personal opinions over the Brexit question in deference to their mission to prevent Corbyn entering Downing Street is instructive of how poisonous the Labour Party has become to the Jewish community there.Brexit is the single biggest issue that the UK has faced since the Second World War, and will define the country for generations to come.
