You can no more ask Corbyn to part with his friends in Hamas than you ask him to crack a smile. These are things which simply violate his Socialist conscience.
Jeremy Corbyn last night vowed to keep up links with anti-Jewish terror groups despite a plea from Israel and British Jews to condemn them.
In an extraordinary move, the Labour leader refused to condemn Islamic militant organisations Hamas and Hezbollah with his party engulfed in a massive anti-Semitism storm.
Instead he insisted he would keep talking to the groups – which he once described as “friends” – in a one-man bid to bring peace to the Middle East.
Minor point. Hamas has fairly openly called for the extermination of the Jews. It's a violently racist terrorist organization. But the UK left has gotten into bed with it and worse. And these are the consequences.
In a statement issued late yesterday evening, Mr Corbyn’s spokesman said: “Jeremy Corbyn has been a longstanding supporter of Palestinian rights and the pursuit of peace and justice in the Middle East through dialogue and negotiation.
“He has met many people with whom he profoundly disagrees in order to promote peace and reconciliation processes, including in South Africa, Latin America, Ireland and the Middle East.
“He believes it is essential to speak to people with whom there is disagreement, particularly when they have large-scale support or democratic mandates.
“Simply talking to people who agree with you won’t help achieve justice or peace.”
It worked for Chamberlain. It's bound to work for Corbyn.
The "simply talking to people who agree with you" thing though is a rather hollow cliche. Somehow I don't think Corbyn hangs out with Neo Nazis to promote peace and reconciliation. For that matter I rather doubt that he'd have time for even more moderate figures.
When you call Hamas and Hezbollah friends, when you conduct a dialogue with Islamic terrorists, it's a choice and it's usually a very particular choice. Corbyn may not be on board with the full Hamas program, but if he didn't think that he had more in common with Hamas than he does with Israel, that would not have happened.