I see Ken Livingstone has jumped two-footed into the Labour anti-semitism thing

[Burney]

Describing Hitler as a Zionist and claiming that he's never heard anyone in Labour say anything anti-semitic.

[The Jorge]

Describing Hitler as a Zionist and claiming that he's never heard anyone in Labour say anything anti-semitic.

Now you know that isnt exactly what he said. Silly boy though, he should know that you cannot criticise Israel nowadays.

[Luis Anaconda]

I don't think Berni does the quote full justice actually - it's the lovely aside about the deaths of six million people that comes across so well:

"Let’s remember when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism – this before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews."

And the second quote was
"I’ve been in the Labour party for 47 years; I’ve never heard anyone say anything anti-Semitic." That is exactly what he said

[Burney]

Now you know that isnt exactly what he said. Silly boy though, he should know that you cannot criticise Israel nowadays.

Well actually, as la has demonstrated, the full quote of what he said is much, much worse than my rather kind paraphrasing of it.

I can easily believe that Ken Livingstone doesn't believe he's ever heard any Labour member say anything anti-semitic.

However, as is well-established, Ken has a pretty high bar when it comes to what constitutes anti-semitism, doesn't he?

[Monty92]

Now you know that isnt exactly what he said. Silly boy though, he should know that you cannot criticise Israel nowadays.

I agree. As I said yesterday, I don't like this trend at all. We (by which I don't mean Jews) should be rising above this ****.

[The Jorge]

There's a bunch of other quotes too, mind. But, clumsiness aside, is it really worthy of the opprobrium?

[TheCurly]

It's almost as if there is an election coming up

[Monty92]

There's a bunch of other quotes too, mind. But, clumsiness aside, is it really worthy of the opprobrium?

Here's the most striking quote for me, that displays what an utter intellectual pygmy he is.

"There’s one stark fact that virtually no one in the British media ever reports, in almost all these conflicts the death toll is usually between 60 and 100 Palestinians killed for every Israeli. Now, any other country doing that would be accused of war crimes but it’s like we have a double standard about the policies of the Israeli government."

[The Jorge]

Well actually, as la has demonstrated, the full quote of what he said is much, much worse than my rather kind paraphrasing of it.

I can easily believe that Ken Livingstone doesn't believe he's ever heard any Labour member say anything anti-semitic.

However, as is well-established, Ken has a pretty high bar when it comes to what constitutes anti-semitism, doesn't he?

Or everyone seems to have a very low bar, where criticism of Israel is considered anti-semetic.

[Herbette Chapman - aged 15]

This is what he actually said

Asked whether he thought Ms Shah's comments were anti-Semitic on BBC radio, he said: "No it's completely over the top but it's not anti-Semitic ...

"Let's remember when Hitler won his election in 1932 his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism.

"This is before he went mad and ended up killing 6m Jews."