FOR decades, Britain’s Labour Party has been the natural home for Jews. In the early 20th century, the party put out a welcome mat to Jewish migrants. After all, it was under a Labour government, administering the British mandate in Palestine, that the State of Israel was created in 1948.

But by some strange transformation, the party, which has a long tradition of fighting all kinds of racism has become a cesspit of anti-Semitism. At least, that is the impression being created by some sections of the media and some politicians, both Labour and Tory, and the Zionist lobby in United Kingdom. Last week it reached a crescendo, with Jonathan Goldstein, the chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, personally attacking the party leader Jeremy Corbyn calling him “the figurehead of an anti-Semitic political culture.” To some, Labour has become the new “nasty party” taken over by a mob no different from the supporters of the Third Reich. And Corbyn has allowed himself to become “the poster boy of anti-Semites everywhere.”

What is the evidence?

The most cited is his opposition in 2012 to have a mural that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic removed in the name of freedom of expression. The mural showed “six elderly white men, some with what could be described as stereotypically Jewish features” playing a Monopoly-style game with the board balanced on people’s backs. Corbyn apologized several times saying, “I did not look more closely at the image I was commenting on.”

Apologized but the case did not close because his enemies were not concerned with the removal or otherwise of a mural. That they had much larger goals in mind became clear with last week’s demonstration called by the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council at which approximately 1,500 people declared “Dayenu” (It would have been enough).

The demonstration in front of British Parliament took place at the start of a week in which Israel used lethal force against a peaceful march by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, killing 17 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more. The BBC and Sky devoted more time to the painter Mear One’s mural than to the Gaza massacre. So they were shielding Israel from criticism or condemnation for a massacre which happened last week using a row over a mural which took place six years ago.

This is to force Corbyn and those in the party sympathetic to Palestinian cause to accept a definition of anti-Semitism which effectively outlaws criticism, however mild, of Israel’s conduct. They have ensured Corbyn would be silent in the face of new Israeli atrocities in Gaza or the West Bank. Large presence in the demonstration of Conservatives and Tony Blair’s supporters in the Labour Party gave the game away.

Corbyn’s opponents, Zionists, Tories and Blairites also have their gazes fixed on next general election, which is due in 2022 by the latest. Corbyn, on his election as party leader in 2015, was at first seen as an electoral liability. No longer. Despite two years of attacks, Labour dramatically increased its vote in the 2017 snap election, with the biggest surge since 1945. Pressing the too-confident Conservatives hard, the party won 40 percent of the vote. Now he is considered a potential prime minister. This is what has unnerved his opponents. So concerted efforts are being made to prevent his victory or force him to recast his foreign policy in the Blairite mold. In fact, many believe that the grouse against Corbyn is not that he is anti-Semite but he is not Tony Blair when it comes to Israel and the larger Middle East.

This is not to deny that there are pockets of anti-Semitism in Labour and Tory parties and the wider British society. But the best way to fight it is not to mix the ordinary Jews’ concerns with geopolitical objectives of Israel.