Thread.
I had the misfortune yesterday to encounter some anti-Semitism vigilantes. I won’t name them.
They decided I was an ‘archetypal Corbynite anti-Semite’, and believed I was thus a representative for the entire movement. 1

The vigilantes decided I was an anti-Semite because I’d disputed a remark in a comment piece by a Times journalist. So they crawled over my timeline, clearly searching for keywords. 2

Keywords like ‘Rothschild’. And they found it! So they republished my tweet, with a comment that I was ‘spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories’. 3

In fact they’d misread it. I’d been talking to s'one who believed we owed money to the Rothschilds (a common anti-Semitic canard), and had been debating with him about national debt and who we owe money to. In one reply, I’d said “No Rothschilds, no secretive foreign agencies.” 4

“No Rothschilds”. But in the hasty, paranoid world of these self-appointed guardians, merely using the word ‘Rothschild’ was enough to trigger their righteous wrath. 5

I mention all this merely as a warning. Anti-Semitism is a dreadful stain on humanity and must be fiercely resisted wherever it raises its ugly head. But accusations of anti-Semitism have become routine in some quarters, and, in my experience, based on nothing at all. 6

If you’re one of the people who claim Corbynists are anti-Semites, take note: you got this one 100% wrong, and you made complete fools of yourselves. Thanks for the apology, but it shouldn't have happened. You might try to learn from it. 7

And if you’re in the media and propagate the Corbynist anti-Semitism slander, ask yourself: how much of the ‘evidence’ you cite is of this kind? 8.