As a British Jew, I Already Feel More Afraid

 https://www.newsweek.com/andy-burnham-jews-antisemitism-britain-hamas-gaza-12217673

Andy Burnham, who was appointed Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade by King Charles III, is the symptom, not the cause, of a political system in turmoil.

For more than a decade, the Labour Party’s internal battles have been most glaring on how much they are willing to overlook antisemitism. Starmer’s predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, presided over a culture that brought anti-Zionist Jew-hatred into the mainstream, a kind of blueprint for some of the more radical Democrats in the U.S. The British Equality and Human Rights Commission concluded that the Labour party was liable for unlawful harassment of Jewish members, including the use of antisemitic tropes and minimizing or dismissing complaints as "smears". One of the now ousted Starmer’s rare achievements was to fight back against this.

Burnham insists he is against antisemitism. But the symbolism of his first political moves have caused Britain's Jews considerable alarm. There is a perception that he wants to make an effort to win back the support of areas with large Muslim populations, whose voters have been abandoning Labour for several years, as well as “progressives” who appear preoccupied about Israel above all else. Labour has haemorrhaged votes to a group known as the Gaza Independents (who make up four MPs in Parliament backed the Muslim Vote lobby group) and the Green Party, whose election campaigns repeatedly focus on Gaza at the expense of other issues.