{"id":184481,"date":"2021-05-29T16:03:15","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T16:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1436153"},"modified":"2021-05-29T16:03:15","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T16:03:15","slug":"as-boris-johnson-hosts-viktor-orban-we-now-know-who-the-real-antisemite-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/05\/29\/as-boris-johnson-hosts-viktor-orban-we-now-know-who-the-real-antisemite-is\/","title":{"rendered":"As Boris Johnson hosts Viktor Orb\u00e1n, we now know who the real antisemite is"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout his time as Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn was subjected<\/a> to a vicious, politically motivated smear campaign. This was based in large part on the claim that Labour had seen a dramatic increase in antisemitism amongst its membership during Corbyn’s leadership.<\/p>\n

However, as The Canary<\/em> has previously argued<\/a>, of the respective leaders of the UK\u2019s two major political parties during the 2019 general election, it was in fact Boris Johnson that had far more to answer for in terms of antisemitism. Now, that reality has been confirmed by Johnson’s latest guest at Downing Street. And this, in turn, raises the question of whether Jeremy Corbyn should be given another chance to face Johnson at the next general election.<\/p>\n

A member of the new Eurofascist movement<\/h5>\n

On 28 May, Viktor Orb\u00e1n arrived<\/a> in London to meet with the British prime minister. The visit was ostensibly to discuss UK-Hungary relations following the UK\u2019s exit from the European Union. Government ministers have defended the meeting as a legitimate exercise in relationship-building following Brexit. Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, for example, described it as “completely reasonable”.<\/p>\n

But others have been quick to point out that hosting Orb\u00e1n lends credibility to his far-right agenda and controversial stances. In particular, his characterization of migrants as “a poison” and comments about so-called \u201cMuslim invaders\u201d have drawn criticism. Orb\u00e1n has been widely<\/a> characterized<\/a> as far-right. And along with other Eastern European leaders such as<\/a> Poland\u2019s Mateusz Morawiecki, he’s part of an emerging ultra-nationalist<\/a> political trend. One that that arguably borders on fascism.<\/p>\n

Establishment double standards on antisemitism<\/h5>\n

But from a UK perspective, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s most salient characteristic is his well-documented antisemitism. According to Politico<\/em>, during<\/a> Hungary\u2019s 2017 parliamentary elections Orb\u00e1n \u201cpromoted anti-Semitic imagery of powerful Jewish financiers scheming to control the world\u201d. It added that his government\u2019s \u201canti-migrant rhetoric endangers all minorities, including Jews, and its comparisons with the 1930s are unmistakable\u201d. Orb\u00e1n has also been accused<\/a> of attempting to minimize Hungary\u2019s role in the Nazi Holocaust.<\/p>\n

The fact that the Conservatives are presumably willing to overlook all of this reveals how their and their backers\u2019 charge of antisemitism against Corbyn was a cynical ploy all along. After all, if Corbyn had met with an actual antisemite, we would have never heard the end of it. But because of the UK media’s well-documented<\/a> right-wing slant, Johnson largely gets a free pass.<\/p>\n

Part of a long history<\/h5>\n

And it\u2019s far form the first time he has either. As The Canary<\/em> has previously reported<\/a>, before becoming prime minister Johnson wrote a novel with some suspiciously antisemitic tropes. He was also<\/a> part of a group of MPs who were present at the unveiling of a statue of Nancy Astor. Astor was an MP who openly held antisemitic beliefs.<\/p>\n

Clearly, this is another flagrant example of the double standards the UK media and establishment apply to political figures according to their ideological orientation. As academic Norman Finkelstein explained to The Canary<\/em> in an exclusive interview<\/a> in 2019:<\/p>\n

British elites suddenly discovered \u2018we can use the antisemitism card in order to try to stifle genuine\u2026 leftist insurgencies among the population\u2019. And so what used to be a kind of sectarian issue waged by Jewish organisations faithful to the party line emanating from Israel vs critics of Israel, now it\u2019s no longer sectarian because the whole British elite has decided they\u2019re going to use this antisemitism card to stop Jeremy Corbyn and the political insurgency he represents.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s time the Labour membership came to terms with the fact that the 2019 election wasn’t a clean fight. And that Corbyn should be reinstated as Labour leader.<\/p>\n

Featured image via YouTube<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

By Peter Bolton<\/a><\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on The Canary<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout his time as Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn was subjected to a vicious, politically motivated smear campaign. This was based in large part on \u2026 <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/div>\n

By Peter Bolton<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1392,189,365,492,33,19697,2675,1395,281],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184481"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188862,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184481\/revisions\/188862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}