Ken Livingstone, candidate for London Mayor, has been repeatedly associated with anti-semiticism.
You might think that this is an easy enough slur to throw at someone. Also something difficult to refute, since most anti-semites are likely to say their best friends are Jewish. And is it likely that Ken Livingstone would be stupid enough to put his re-election at risk by promulgating a racial theory that most people would regard as mad?
So as routinely as these accusations against Ken Livingstone arise, one tends to just put them to one side as a misunderstanding, a complex argument misinterpreted, a phase simply taken out of context.
But always little niggles of doubt remain.
For instance, in an article about Ken Livingstone in today's Independent (on pages 14 and 15 alongside the main Opinion column) the writer Owen Jones explains away the "misconstrued" Livingstone remarks about wealthy Jews.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/owen-jones-the-1-per-cent-have-an-interest-in-demonising-ken-livingstone-7640660.html
Nothing wrong with this you might think. In an important election one would expect the Labour claque to rally round their candidate (although the last paragraph of the article does tend to damn Ken Livingstone with faint praise - "an imperfect Labour candidate"). Even Jonathan Freedland's public withdrawal of support for Ken Livingstone is not likely to derail his campaign.
Therefore eminent columnist Mehdi Hassan (who writes for the New Statesman and the Guardian) is to be expected to produce an article endorsing the Livingstone cause:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/11/dont-want-boris-vote-ken
Again, nothing wrong with this you might think.
Except...
...only a couple of months ago Mehdi Hassan himself used the phrase "Jewish financier" in an entirely gratuitous reference to David Cameron's ancestry
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/12/steve-jobs-david-cameron-immigration).
"Wealthy Jews", "Jewish financier", "Gnomes of Zurich" - only a short step away from actually saying "Elders of Zion" is it not?
So you can see why I hesitate.
Ken Livingstone makes a slighting reference about the Jewish community. Shortly afterwards a leading and highly respected Asian-heritage journalist endorses the Livingstone campaign. Am I "misconstruing" all this, or are these people talking to each other in code?
You might think that this is an easy enough slur to throw at someone. Also something difficult to refute, since most anti-semites are likely to say their best friends are Jewish. And is it likely that Ken Livingstone would be stupid enough to put his re-election at risk by promulgating a racial theory that most people would regard as mad?
So as routinely as these accusations against Ken Livingstone arise, one tends to just put them to one side as a misunderstanding, a complex argument misinterpreted, a phase simply taken out of context.
But always little niggles of doubt remain.
For instance, in an article about Ken Livingstone in today's Independent (on pages 14 and 15 alongside the main Opinion column) the writer Owen Jones explains away the "misconstrued" Livingstone remarks about wealthy Jews.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/owen-jones-the-1-per-cent-have-an-interest-in-demonising-ken-livingstone-7640660.html
Nothing wrong with this you might think. In an important election one would expect the Labour claque to rally round their candidate (although the last paragraph of the article does tend to damn Ken Livingstone with faint praise - "an imperfect Labour candidate"). Even Jonathan Freedland's public withdrawal of support for Ken Livingstone is not likely to derail his campaign.
Therefore eminent columnist Mehdi Hassan (who writes for the New Statesman and the Guardian) is to be expected to produce an article endorsing the Livingstone cause:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/11/dont-want-boris-vote-ken
Again, nothing wrong with this you might think.
Except...
...only a couple of months ago Mehdi Hassan himself used the phrase "Jewish financier" in an entirely gratuitous reference to David Cameron's ancestry
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/12/steve-jobs-david-cameron-immigration).
"Wealthy Jews", "Jewish financier", "Gnomes of Zurich" - only a short step away from actually saying "Elders of Zion" is it not?
So you can see why I hesitate.
Ken Livingstone makes a slighting reference about the Jewish community. Shortly afterwards a leading and highly respected Asian-heritage journalist endorses the Livingstone campaign. Am I "misconstruing" all this, or are these people talking to each other in code?
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