Last week, an 860-page internal Labor-party document on the problem of anti-Semitism in its ranks was leaked to the press. The report, composed in March, admits that hostility toward Jews is indeed a “problem in the party,” that those in control were too slow to respond to the problem, and that when they did address it they did so poorly. At the same time, it praises the erstwhile Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn—himself one of the worst offenders—for his handling of anti-Semitism from 2018 on. Moreover, the report concludes that the “abnormal intensity of factional opposition . . . inhibited” the party’s ability to deal with the problem; in other words, Corbyn’s opponents, not the anti-Semites, were the real problem. David Hirsh comments:

The report rules out in advance the possibility that anti-Semitism in the Labor party was connected to the politics of the Corbyn faction. It doesn’t even address it. It doesn’t say anything about the way that hostility to “Zionism” became the litmus test of who was inside and who was outside the community of the good. It doesn’t say anything about Stalinist anti-Semitism or about the anti-Semitism of the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel, or about the Corbyn faction’s record of jumping to the defense of anti-Semites against Jews.

It says that the Corbyn faction tried to expel the anti-Semites, . . . but that its opponents [within the party] sabotaged the procedural moves against the anti-Semites in order to facilitate the “myth” that Corbyn had a political problem of anti-Semitism. [In short], it blames the opponents of Corbyn—the opponents of anti-Semitism—for the anti-Semitism.

[The report’s account] is a classic stab-in-the-back myth. It claims that the reason the Corbyn movement didn’t win in 2017 was because it was betrayed by its enemies within the party. If it had not been stabbed in the back it would have won.

In the past few days, difficult-to-confirm reports have emerged of unrest in the Gaza Strip, and of civilians throwing stones at Hamas operatives. A recent video from Al Jazeera showed a Gazan declaring that “God will bring Qatar and Turkey to account” for the suffering of Palestinians in the current war. Being an agent of the Qatari government, the journalist turned away, and then pushed the interviewee with his hand to prevent him from getting near the microphone. Yet this brief exchange contributes much to the ongoing debate about Palestinian support for Hamas, and belies the frequent assertion by experts that the Israeli campaign is only “further radicalizing” the population.

For some time, Joseph Braude has worked with a number of journalists and researchers to interview ordinary Gazans under circumstances where they don’t fear reprisals. He notes that the sorts of opinions they share are rarely heard in Western media, let alone on Al Jazeera or Iran-sponsored outlets:

[A] resident of Khan Younis describes how locals in a bakery spontaneously attacked a Hamas member who had come to buy bread. The incident, hardly imaginable before the present war, reflects a widespread feeling of “disgust,” he says, after Gazan aspirations for “a dignified life and to live in peace” were set back by the Hamas atrocities of October 7.

Fears have grown that this misery will needlessly be prolonged by Westerners who strive, in effect, to perpetuate Hamas rule, according to one Gazan woman. Addressing protesters who have taken to the streets to demand a ceasefire on behalf of Palestinians, she calls on them to make a choice: “Either support the Palestinian people or the Hamas regime that oppresses them.” If protesters harbor a humanitarian motive, she asks, “Why don’t we see them demonstrating against Hamas?”

“Hamas is the destruction of the Palestinian people. We’ve had enough. They need to be wiped out—because if they remain, the people will be wiped out.”

You can watch videos of some of the interviews by clicking the link below.