Benjamin Netanyahu’s intervention in the row about Jeremy Corbyn and the memorial wreath has been incredibly handy for the Labour leadership. The Israeli Prime Minister said Corbyn’s presence at the wreath laying for members of the group behind the 1972 Munich terror attack ‘deserves unequivocal condemnation from everyone – left, right and everything in between’. A number of Labour MPs have been calling on Corbyn to show contrition in order to resolve the ongoing row, but instead the party leader decided to hit back, accusing Netanyahu of ‘false’ claims and pointing to ‘the killing of over 160 Palestinian protesters in Gaza’.
John McDonnell, meanwhile, who has in recent weeks urged Corbyn to step back from his disciplinary stand-offs with members of his own party such as Margaret Hodge, chose to join in, saying that ‘having a politician like Netanyahu join the media feeding frenzy is a line in the sand’. By way of a pay-off, McDonnell used a phrase normally associated with those accusing the Labour leadership of ignoring the party’s antisemitism problem: ‘Enough is enough’.
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