The ugly stain of anti-Semitism helped make Labour unelectable in Britain. Under Jeremy Corbyn, party officials prevaricated over purging far-left friends and comrades whose opposition to Israel had morphed into something more noxious and dangerous.
Corbyn’s successor Keir Starmer, a human rights lawyer of some standing before he became a politician, has known from the beginning that his party was lost unless he cracked down swiftly and unambiguously on this toxic tendency. His first announcement when elected leader on April 4 was that he would “tear this poison out by its roots.” Happily, he’s proving up to the task — as is true of his leadership overall. Boris Johnson, the Tory prime minister, finally has an opposition to reckon with.
