by KIT KLARENBERG
Ever since “Israel’s” genocidal assault on Gaza began, millions of people around the world have taken to the streets to protest the Zionist carnage. On October 15 in London, an estimated 150,000 shut down key sites in the capital’s epicenter. That march culminated in a series of speeches by political figures and activists, with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn being the main event.
From the Israeli lobby’s perspective, Corbyn’s lifelong history of anti-racist campaigning and solidarity with the Palestinian struggle made his political destruction absolutely imperative. So Zionist operatives set to work, manufacturing a bogus “anti-Semitism crisis” to torpedo his leadership, discredit his supporters within the Labour Party, and ensure a crushing defeat in the 2019 general election.
The recently released Weaponizing Anti-Semitism by investigative journalist Asa Winstanley lays bare the lobby’s multi-year crusade to take down Corbyn and his supporters within Labour. A key figure referenced by Winstanley is Ruth Smeeth, Labour MP 2015—2019. Winstanley writes:
She was so dedicated to sabotaging her own party that she didn’t seem overly concerned that her campaign ultimately came at the cost of losing her own Labour seat in 2019.
Smeeth wreaked havoc in a variety of ways, wearing her Jewish heritage on her sleeve every step of the way. Yet, in her many media appearances during this time, in which she defamed Corbyn and Labour figures such as Momentum activist Marc Wadsworth and Derby North MP Chris Williamson as anti-Semitic, her background as director of public affairs and campaigns for the Zionist lobby group Britain “Israel” Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) was never mentioned by mainstream journalists.
This was hardly irrelevant, given that Smeeth received sizable donations from key BICOM figures after becoming an MP. A more critical media may have also asked why she was named a “strictly protect” U.S. embassy informant in one of many diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in 2011. The “strictly protect” designation means a sensitive and confidential information source. Now, The Grayzone can exclusively reveal there are further ties between Smeeth, the Zionist lobby, and the information war against Corbyn.
‘Lack of Credibility’
In late 2018, files related to the internal workings of Integrity Initiative, a Foreign Office-funded outfit staffed by British military and intelligence veterans, began leaking online. They showed the organization was conducting arm’s length, state-backed information warfare operations to tarnish “enemy” governments such as China and Russia, and left-wing, anti-war figures at home, including Jeremy Corbyn.
The disclosures meant the Integrity Initiative’s parent charity, the Institute for Statecraft, was forced to issue a public apology to Corbyn since it had used its official Twitter account to attack him and the Labour Party. Such party political activity is illegal under Foreign Office funding rules. This was but the proverbial tip of the iceberg, masking far more extensive efforts by the organization to undermine the Labour leader.
Unnoticed at the time, among the leaked papers was an Integrity Initiative event invite list, featuring Ruth Smeeth. The purpose of the meeting, convened on July 6, 2017, isn’t clear from the document itself, although prospective attendees included parliamentarians, journalists, high-ranking military officials, and other luminaries.
Given this composition, and the timing—not a month after a shock general election that returned the Conservatives to power, but with a much reduced majority, after pollsters and pundits universally predicted a brutal routing for Labour—it is somewhat inconceivable the result was not a topic of discussion.
The first MP among four listed, Smeeth is notably the only invitee of dozens named without accompanying contact details. This oversight may be an irrelevant anomaly, but it is far more likely Smeeth had a pre-existing relationship with Institute for Statecraft director Daniel Lafayeedney, meaning she could be invited by him privately.
An SAS veteran whose business affairs once led a British high court judge to indict his “lack of credibility in January 2007, Lafayeedney attended “Israel’s” annual Herzliya Conference on “counter-terrorism” in “Israel”. His official affiliation was given as BICOM. At this time, Smeeth was still the organization’s press officer, suggesting she may well have arranged Lafayeedney’s appearance. Chaim Zabludowicz, a key funder of BICOM who Winstanley claims personally donated to Smeeth while she was an MP, was also present.
How Lafayeedney came to be affiliated with BICOM isn’t clear. Aside from the Herzliya Conference listing, since deleted from the web, there are no other references to his role in the organization in the public domain. Still, his connections to high-level figures within the Zionist entity’s military and intelligence apparatus were well-established by that point.
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