Wherever there is trouble in Europe, wherever rumours of war circulate and men’s minds are distraught with fear of change and calamity, you may be sure that a hooked-nosed Rothschild is at his games somewhere near the region of the disturbances.
No this isn’t Jeremy Corbyn, nor is it one of the Labour Party’s unsubtle Jewish detractors. Rather, it is Keir Hardie, Labour’s first Member of Parliament (MP), writing in his Labour Leader paper of 1891.
Over a century later, one would think that Labour’s current leader has revived such uncouth sentiment, with Mr Corbyn’s handling of the current anti-semitism debate threatening to tear apart the British Left.
Indeed, the fact that the party’s National Executive Committee has been forced to convene to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s full definition of what anti-semitism actually means, demonstrates the mess Corbyn has made of the situation.
If he had acted more vehemently in response to Naz Shah and Ken Livingstone’s foolish comments, it is unlikely this melodrama would have occurred, and the Conservative Party would not be enjoying a surprise respite amidst its own Brexit troubles.
Much of the early Labour Party antipathy towards the Jews was a result of its members socialist, anti-capitalist worldview. With Jewish people seemingly occupying a disproportionately high number of prominent positions within global political and financial institutions at the end of the 19th century, they were readily associated with the degradation of the proletariat.
“Jew moneylenders now control every Foreign Office in Europe” sniped the Social Democratic Federation’s (SDF) Justice paper in 1884. Labour leaders even saw the Boer War as a conspiracy of the Jews to grab the gold fields of South Africa.
Of course, some of this vitriol was consistent with views prevailing more broadly across society at the time. This does not excuse them, it is simply a reality. Today, with the history of Jewish persecution in the 20th century impossible to escape, one must tread much more carefully.
Anti-semitism undoubtedly still exists among many segments of society, although to what extent is hard to gauge. With Israel linking almost every conceivable issue to religion and race – burnished by a right-wing government intent on destroying the two-state solution – it is easy to gain an impression that anti-semitic fervour is on the rise.
Corbyn has not helped himself with careless past comments in support of militant Palestinian groups – not to mention others around the world – and his unwillingness to draw a line under the anti-semitism row sooner makes any move or remark on his part now seem disingenuous.
At least this latest episode in his checkered political career will allow him to draw a parallel with Hardie, the darling of Labour socialism, however much he may want it to disappear.
History's Shadow 