The current situation regarding the Corbynist groups on Facebook from which I have not been expelled:

Understandably, their wrath is turned against the Conservative Party, expressed predominantly through memes, but if any comrade should call for a General Election, the replies come thick and fast, asserting that Starmer’s Labour is worse than the Conservatives. Sir Keir is spoken of as being affiliated to the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group and as a ‘puppet’ of the State of Israel. There are several memes which communicate the association of Starmer and the PLP with Israel, usually displaying the donations they have received from British Jewish supporters. The only way to assuage the anger of these comrades is to post a photo of Jeremy Corbyn, either en famille as a benevolent husband and father, or in a photoshop, where the former leader is gussied up as a lion, a superhero or a boxing champion.

There was a time when nearly every post in these groups concerned Israel or some kind of Jewish malfeasance, but I am glad to say, this seems to have abated. Offensive comments about Israel are usually in connection with Israel’s supposed influence over Keir Starmer. Obviously, if Margaret Hodge’s name is in the news, there is a great outpouring of disgust as Dame Margaret was always a favourite topic, producing some of the longest threads, with hundreds of replies (whereas a post about Afghanistan might get no replies, except for the brief assertion that Israel was worse).

Groups which define themselves by opposition to Israel and Jewish community organizations in the UK progress along a slightly different track. In this sense, JVL bears some resemblance to Truthers Against Zionist Lobbies and its sister group, Friends of the Middle East Against Israel. In these groups, negative reportage about Israel is meat and drink and, with some very right wing members in the current Israeli government, they have a wealth of material. There is a preference for drawing on reports from Jewish authors who are either reasonably critical of Israel or unambiguously hostile.

JVL naturally have great animus towards UK Jewish organizations who regard them as a sham group set up to defend antisemitism on the left, and many of their posts defend individuals or groups who have been perceived as antisemitic. Recently they strongly defended Roger Waters after his controversially politicized concerts and, only yesterday, attacked the Campaign Against Antisemitism who successfully dissuaded some venues from showing the film called Oh Jeremy Corbyn – the Big Lie. Today, they take issue with the EHRC report of three years ago, for faulting Ken Livingstone.

The result of this monomania (excuse the word – I am quite monomaniacal myself) is that comments on the JVL page very often dwell on the perceived duplicity and dictatorial nature of Jewish organizations in the UK, including the Jewish press. I long ago gave up expecting that the JVL administrators would remonstrate with their supporters whose enthusiasm became a bit too Sturmabteilung but this does not happen. Sometimes a person from outside the group takes issue with an error or a classical antisemitic trope but in the milieu of such groups, any outsider is always the Few and soon dismissed as a ‘hasbara troll’.

The group called PAIS, Palestinian and Irish Solidarity, where much happiness was expressed whenever Israelis were killed, went from public to private on Facebook. I tried to get back in, but they did not accept my application. I was not using my own name but, had somehow allowed suspicion to fall on my alias.

Engaging verbally in any of these groups is not a viable option. If you intend to look at them, stay shtumm, shtumm wie a shteyn.