The Chris Hedges Report Podcast with Asa Winstanley

When the socialist Jeremy Corbyn became the leader of the Labour Party in Britain in 2015 and mounted a grassroots campaign in 2017 to become the British Prime Minister the ruling corporate elites, along with the war industry, panicked. They conspired with the Israel lobby to mount a vicious campaign of character assassination against Corbyn and his supporters, accusing them, even if they were Jewish, of anti-Semitism. Corbyn has been a long-time champion of Palestinian rights. The media did its part to crucify Corbyn as a bigot while Labour party officials ruthlessly purged the party of Corbyn supporters. Corbyn was eventually driven out of the party in 2020 after the snap election loss against Boris Johnson. The neutralization of Corbyn is an ominous precedent. The purging of Corbyn and his supporters effectively emasculated the left within the Labour Party. This was its goal. The unholy alliance between Israel, the war industry and the corporatists raise the question of whether it is possible in Britain or the United States to reform the system from within. Joining me to discuss these issues is Asa Winstanley an associate editor and reporter with the website Electronic Intifada and the author of “Weaponizing Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn.”