During an appearance yesterday at a panel discussion at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, former British Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Tony Blair denounced current Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for anti-Semitism.
To be frank, this anti-Semitism row, it’s a shameful thing. If you told me, not merely back in May 1997, but at any point in the next 10 years, that the party I led for 13 years would have a problem with anti-Semitism, I would literally not have credited it, or believed it, and yet it is, and it’s there today.
Blair, who resided at 10 Downing Street from 1997 to 2007, also said that when he established the Equality and Human Rights Commission he "never dreamed it would be investigating the Labour Party."
As for Corbyn, Blair said, “Some of the remarks are not explicable in any other way, I’m afraid, and that is sad. Does he think he is? No, he doesn’t think he is at all.”
That's quite the rebuke. Not that it will matter much though. Blair is fairly persona non grata even among those in Labour pre-Corbyn who consider him a war criminal for the U.K.'s participation in the War in Iraq. So I doubt it will push Labour into pushing out Corbyn. The only thing that could push Corbyn out is if their polling shows the new Conservative Leader trouncing Labour in a general election.
Nevertheless, it should give pause when a man who was the most successful leader of the Labour Party says the man currently at the helm is an anti-Semite.
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