Jeremy Corbyn, a British MP, is a candidate for leadership of the Labor party. In an open letter, Alan Johnson explains why, even though they agree on many key political issues, he won’t be voting for Corbyn:
You said it was “my pleasure and my honor” to host “our friends from Hizballah and our friends from Hamas” in the House of Commons. Really?
Why do you not care that the Hamas charter states that “Islam will obliterate Israel” and enjoins all good Muslims to kill Jews, whom it blames for all the wars and revolutions in classic anti-Semitic fashion?
And why are Hizballah your friends? They are an anti-Semitic Islamist goose-stepping “Party of God” who persecute (and assassinate) liberals and democrats in Lebanon whenever they can. The Hizballah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said, “If Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” Your “friends” were enthusiastically slaughtering Syrian civilians on behalf of the Assad regime long before Islamic State or Nusra Front joined the fray. . . .
I just do not understand how you can support so unthinkingly those political forces which oppose to their dying breath everything—literally, everything—the labor movement has ever stood for: trade-union rights, freedom of speech and organization, women’s equality, gay and lesbian rights, anti-racism, the Enlightenment, and reason.
But as long as you do support those forces you will not get my vote. As long as you do, I will just have to remain politically homeless.
Read more on Left Foot Forward: http://leftfootforward.org/2015/06/an-open-letter-to-jeremy-corbyn/