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The anti-semitism thing in the Labour party is a complex issue. It's been bubbling for some time.
IMO this is not Corbyn using the anti-semitism accusations for his own purposes, it is the opposing wing of the party using anti-semitism as a way to undermine and diminish him and his wing within the party.
They have tried everything. From the first notions of him running for leader and realised he might have popular appeal they set out to oppose him - and from the moment he won the leadership they tried to undermine him.
There is and has been for many years an internal war in the party between what could be described as left-v-right, or traditionalist-v modernising tendencies- though it doesn't break down quite as simply as that. There are in most branches two distinct factions. This is mirrored at the highest level - and both sides engage in a combination of very localised disputes (which faction controls the vote on this or that local issue) and national positions and policies - they connect up and down the chain, with regional organisers calling in their faction members on tnis or that campaign issue, andd local leaders calling in their faction to attend meetings when their votes are needed, to dirty tricks on the council party group, and leaks to the press to ensure their people get the right committee seats - and on up to the district, the national committee, the parliamentary party and the shadow cabinet.
I was a participant in that war at multiple levels for a good few years. I know how the party works.
Yes there will have been incidents of anti-semitism - it's gonna happen in a large enough organisation. And there may also have been people for whom anger at Israel's actions in Palestine have drifted into a more general disdain for Israel as a country and an assumption of every Jewish person they meet that they they are somehow connected to the issue.
But there is also a tendency for anybody who criticises Israel to be labelled an anti-semite - and there is also a tendency for those who oppose Israel's stance and sympathise with the Palestinians to concentrate on the left, while there is a similar tendency for those who are more supportive of Israel to concentrate on the right (of the party - not of the political spectrum). Again, this is not universally so - it is only a tendency; however it does mean, I think that the same people calling any critic of Israel an anti-semite also tend to be among those who hate Corbyn and his wing of the party
I believe a relatively small problem of slightly increased incidents of genuine anti-semitism (as mirrored in the country at large) has been grasped by a bunch of political opportunists who have tried every other way to upset Corbyn's grasp on the party and failed - this is the thing that looked like it might stick. At the point it was all starting to die back and give way to other matters they leapt on it again.
They would rather shatter the party into a thousand pieces than let the left lead it.
The left can be just as vicious and inward looking, with plots and pub room strategy meetings - in my experience though - the attempts to destroy a right wing leader of the party tend to get put to the side during campaigning and if that leader is the one taking us into an election. I have never known the right not try to sabotage a left wing leader regardless of the political landscape they are in.
That is what the anti-semitism row is about in my opinion.
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