Monday, September 27, 2010

Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband has been elected Leader of the British Labor Party. This is historic for two reasons, first he is Jewish, only the second Jew to become Leader of a major political party in Britain, Manny Shinwell was Labor Chairman in the 1930's and Michael Howard was Leader of the Conservative Party in the early 2000's. Ed will run the next election campaign against the Conservative-Liberal coalition and if he wins would become the first Jewish PM of Britain (although Disraeli was PM he was a convert to Christianity. Second, the unexpected defeat of his elder brother David, formerly British FM, shows a move away from the Blair-Mandelson-Brown New Labor that was all the rage from the 90's until a few years ago. It is felt that David Miliband was connected to the Blair wing of the Labor Party, while Ed represented a new face and a break from the recent past. Many Labor members were opposed to the war in Iraq and regarded Blair as slavishly following US policy. Ed is known to be more to the left and more ideological than David, a fact that earned him the nickname "Red Ed." Many think that this is a choice that will consign the Labor Party to electoral oblivion, but of course that may be wishful thinking. It depends on how Ed leads and how he combats David Cameron and his coalition Government.

Searching for a paradigm, one is immediately faced with the choice of Barack Obama in the US as the Democratic candidate for President. He was from a minority group, he was liberal and to the left of the Democratic Party, he was fighting an electoral campaign against a conservative opponent. But, most of all it was as if he came from nowhere, and that is the same attraction of Ed Miliband. It is well known now that the Miliband parents were committed Marxists, and the brothers have displayed a strong commitment to socialism in their lives and campaigns. One aspect that might become a future weakness is that David Miliband was the front runner thru most of the campaign right until the last moment, and Ed pipped him at the post with support from the powerful Trade Unions. So Ed will be seen not only as the left-wing candidate, but also as the Union candidate. If he supports their policies and supports unpopular strikes that could be his downfall. It is also noteworthy that the main Trade Union, the TUC, has recently passed an anti-Israel resolution, although this is not unusual.

While the Brown Government was quite pro-Israel, nevertheless David Miliband as FM was quite open in criticizing Israeli policy. The problem with Jews in power in the Diaspora is that they tend to bend over backwards in order not to be accused of being overly pro-Israel. This might be a problem with Ed too, who as a more leftist ideologue, might disfavor the idea of a Jewish State. Ed's mother Marion Kozak is a member of the Jews for Justice for Palestinians that is sponsoring a boat currently headed for Gaza. Nevertheless, Israel exists and he will have to bend his ideology to deal with it. It is also noteworthy that the new British Ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, is also Jewish. The good news is that is doesn't seem to matter to anybody nowadays that these Jewish citizens of Britain have achieved such influential positions, particularly as Ed won in a secret ballot. Maybe things are changing for the better.

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