Putting aside anything else, the fact that the media and anti-Corbyn actors across the political spectrum managed to create a situation where the average person on the street thought 1/3 of the Labour membership had been disciplined for antisemitism is truly shocking and should give us all pause for thought.
Whilst those of us on the left will obviously be very frustrated at the way that false impression was built and used as a rod to beat Corbyn with, the main takeaway should be to consider how terrifying the last few years must have been for the majority of the Jewish community, who have faced or witnessed antisemitic abuse either in person or online, are constantly hearing in the media or from community leaders that one of the candidates to be Prime Minister is backed by hundreds of thousands of antisemites, and whose concerns about the situation, rather than being met with understanding, were often met with antisemitic accusations of complicity with an Israel-backed conspiracy.
With all that in mind, the left should have some empathy and understand why some things we think are self-evident facts might still be sensitive. On the other hand, frankly, there has to be some reckoning for those who created and fed a climate of fear which quite literally left many Jews afraid for their lives for the sake of anti-left factionalism within the Party and anti-left electoral strategy outside of it.
