But it’s very irritating seeing smart people pretend 4 and 5 aren’t happening or care about the damage that does and how it obfuscates / muddies the water
I don't know how many people here actually spent any time in Labour party constituency meetings, but I've been to a few, in Bethnal Green and Bow, Vauxhall, Cardiff West, Cardiff North and the Vale of Glamorgan. BG&B was the worst for this, but in all of them there was always a vocal contingent whose definition of left wing politics was dominated by Israel and Palestine. These were precisely the people who had a difficult time keeping a grip on their
own purported distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-semitism. They were the people who considered Oona King to be the Labour Friends of Israel candidate in 2005, and yet for some reason didn't actually jump ship to Respect. They
loved Corbyn. Also, a lot of the Respect people loved Corbyn and joined (or re-joined, or tried to) the Labour Party because of him. That's why the issue got worse and more visible after 2015, not because Jewish members were inventing it. It's not a bad thing at all that these people are ostentatiously ripping up their membership cards in disgust. Good.
Corbyn and his crew couldn't deal with this problem because they knew that by doing so they would be attacking their core supporters,
who they agreed with anyway. It was just like Trump and the Proud Boys.