Jon Lansman distances himself from ‘much of the left’ over their response to Hamas

Momentum founder Jon Lansman has openly distanced himself from the way “much of the left” has responded to the Hamas massacre of October 7th in Israel.

In an interview with New Statesman magazine, the former close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, said that the left’s response to last month’s atrocities, has shown him there “isn’t an understanding” or “much sympathy” for “the feeling in Israel that they need to prevent such an attack again.”

Damningly he adds:”I feel sorrow and I find it difficult to relate to how much of the left responded.”

Lansman, whose aunt lived in lived in Be’er-Sheva and who has five cousins in Israel today, rejects widespread calls from some on the left for a ceasefire in Gaza, “from the comfort of Britain”.

He adds:” I can understand that Israelis need to ensure such attacks [by Hamas] don’t happen again.”

In the same interview he also attacks the left’s characterisation of Israel as a “settler colonial state” telling interviewer George Eaton;”It’s not a characterisation I would make at all.

“Most Jews who’ve migrated to Israel have been refugees, they’ve been arriving recently from Ukraine. The reason for Israel’s existence is the Holocaust, the fact that no other place would take them! Not Britain, not the US, who introduced immigration controls.”

Last weekend Lansman criticised the use of the From the River To The Sea chant at Palestine demos in a post on social media.

He repeats this in the interview arguing;” The Jewish community in Britain, understandably, sees the phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ as an attack on Israel’s existence, people should understand that. ”

Lansman, who grew up in an Orthodox family in Southgate, north London, tells the magazine how as a 16 year-old he  visited Israel in 1973 and worked on the Sde Boker kibbutz in the Negev, picking peaches and pistachios.

He makes the point that unlike the left-wing of the 1930s, the “New Left” has emerged without any sense of why Jews migrated to Israel, and without real sympathy to the oppression of Jews.

The 66 year-old, who stood down from Momentum three years ago, also suggests that the response wars such as that in Iraq means many of the left these days fail to understand the necessity of military responses such as that mounted by Israel to Hamas. 

Lansman reveals he has little contact with Corbyn these days, although he bumped into him in Westminster a few months ago.

He repeats his claim that Corbyn failed to handle antisemitism allegations well, and suggests the he had a “real problem” engaging with communal bodies such as the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership council as a result of a decision to read out prepared statements written by Seumas Milne, Corbyn’s ex director of communications.

Lansman also reveals he backs current Labour leader Keir Starmer, who he describes as a “social democrat” rather than a Blairite.