
Early in Jeremy Corbyn’s term as Labour leader, I remember watching clips of a phone-in he hosted for Press TV, Iran’s official television channel. (These have now been deleted from YouTube.) In one, he listened politely as a caller described Israel as a “disease” – not agreeing, but not disagreeing either – and replied: “OK, thank you for your call”. Another caller described the BBC as “Zionist liars”, to equally little reaction.