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Commentary — June 25, 2020

Sir Keir Starmer. Click to enlarge

I never had much time for the former leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn but his successor, Keir Starmer, seems little better.
To his credit Corbyn was one of the few principled politicians who spoke out against Zionism. Even if one considered his other ideas a little loopy at least he took a principled stand against Israeli excesses. That’s why there was a concerted effort to remove him under the pretext that he was “anti-Semitic”.
Of course he wasn’t but anyone who now speaks out against Zionism and Jewish supremacy is routinely smeared as an “anti-Semite”.
Starmer is now showing his true colours as he has just sacked his shadow education secretary Rebecca Long Bailey after she tweeted an interview with actress Maxine Peake in which she claimed:
“The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.”
Naturally the Israelis deny having taught such restrain techniques to Minneapolis police and Peake has been forced to qualify her statement. However, IDF members have been pictured using exactly the same knee-on-neck technique as was used on George Floyd.

Israeli police detain a Palestinian protestor on March 12 2019. Click to enlarge

Whether or not George Floyd’s killer learned the restrain technique from the Israelis, or whether Floyd actually died from a Fentanyl overdose as an autopsy report maintains, are moot points.
The fact remains that since 2012 at least 100 Minneapolis police officers have received training in restraint techniques and anti-terror tactics from Israeli law enforcement officers at Israel’s Chicago Consulate.
The Israelis regularly use such techniques against Palestinian protesters who are often little more than kids.
However to resend this in a tweet that linked it with George Floyd’s death was enough for Keir Starmer: even though Rebecca Long-Bailey  simply praised an actress who has been outspoken in her crticism of Israel she was sacked.

https://twitter.com/RLong_Bailey/status/1276078311215677440

Starmer’s decision will no doubt please Israel’s supporters in London. For many of Labour’s long time supporters though it will be seen as another nail in the Labour Party’s coffin. Will Keir Starmer be the man who finally buries the Labour Party?