Praise for "Weaponising Anti-Semitism"

Read advance praise for my book: "definitive," "explosive," "essential," "revealing," "shocking," "utterly compelling," "masterful," "forensic," "riveting," "incisive" and "brilliant."

My new book Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn will be published by OR Books in May (more on the new release date at the end of this post).

Although there have been one or two essay collections on the subject, this is the first book-length treatment of the manufactured “Labour anti-Semitism crisis” from a critical perspective. It is the only book giving a journalistic demolition of the stifling media groupthink which portrayed (and continues to portray) Jeremy Corbyn and his popular movement as racist.

Advance copies will be going out next month to reviewers and to those who have pre-ordered directly from OR.

In the process of finalising the text, I showed the manuscript to a number of people to get their quotes for the cover. Far more than I anticipated generously replied — there is a massive amount of goodwill out there for this book.

OR have already published a few of these, but here are some of the people who have praised my book so far:

• “For five years Jeremy Corbyn was portrayed as a bigot leading an anti-Semitic Labour Party. This important book makes the case for the defence” —Peter Oborne

• “Asa Winstanley tells this explosive story without fear, favour, or frills” — Roger Waters

• “Extremely important. This informative page-turner is full of intrigue”— Katie Halper

• “The hunt for left anti-Semitism is the hunt for weapons of mass destruction of our age … Asa Winstanley is providing a vital service by writing this book” — Alexei Sayle

• “A story that needs to be told” — Chris Mullin, author of A Very British Coup

• “Essential reading … Every bookshop should sell this book, and everyone should read it” — Ken Loach

• “A much-needed comprehensive (and meticulously documented) dissection of one of the most scandalously misreported and misrepresented episodes in recent British politics, including important insights into the workings and influence of Israel’s lobby in the UK and its ruthless stifling of critics” — Abdel Bari Atwan

• “Everyone should read Weaponising Anti-Semitism. The same cynical methods Winstanley lays out here will be used against any groundswell that questions the politics of empire” — Felix Biederman, Chapo Trap House

• “This is a must-read, authoritative reference source for the use of researchers, journalists, and all who are concerned about the demise of a once-proud British political party” — Ghada Karmi

• “This revealing record of the sordid story provides much insight not only into the ugly tactics of supporters of Israel’s crimes but also into the deep fear of democracy in dominant elite British culture and their media and other institutions” — Noam Chomsky

• “Asa Winstanley’s investigative work in exposing the bogus nature of the anti-Semitism smear campaign in the Labour Party has been outstanding journalism” — John Pilger

• “No reporter has covered the weaponisation of anti-Semitism in British politics as rigorously and courageously as Asa Winstanley … This book is essential for anyone trying to understand the Israel lobby’s role in the downfall of Jeremy Corbyn and serves as a warning for the left in other parts of the world” — Rania Khalek, Breakthrough News

• “Media and political opponents … cynically exploited the history of anti-Semitism to smear Corbyn and his followers with fabricated allegations. Asa Winstanley has written a definitive account of this tragic farce” — Aaron Maté

• “Because the rest of the British press colluded with apartheid agents to destroy Corbyn, it was left to Asa Winstanley to document their malign plot in painstaking detail. An authoritative and shocking history” — Max Blumenthal

• “An arresting account of the sordid saga of political subversion which dashed the hopes and dreams of millions in this country and beyond” — Lowkey

• “An excellent, easy to read, factual account of the unprincipled witch hunt against Corbyn, the left and supporters of Palestine. A must read” — Helen Marks, Jewish Voice for Labour and Liverpool Friends of Palestine activist

• “An important intervention, documenting the political calculations and manoeuvres that have turned this spurious argument into a mainstream orthodoxy” — Paul Kelemen, author of The British Left and Zionism

• “The lies worked: Corbyn was crushed; Labour was rendered back to Israel-supporting, neoliberal Blairism. Asa Winstanley tells this story vividly in all its shocking and depressing detail” — Tim Llewellyn, former BBC Middle East Correspondent

• “A detailed insight into the deliberate sabotage of a democratic project to elect a political leader who prioritised social justice, brought hope to millions of people and championed Palestinian rights” — Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action

• “Few people have paid closer attention to the still-unfolding ‘Labour anti-Semitism crisis’ than Asa Winstanley. In this book he draws across years of reporting … Winstanley provides normally overlooked and crucial details … an immensely useful resource” — Heather Mendick, Complaints on a Podcast

• “Asa Winstanley has done a masterful job, painstakingly documenting a McCarthyite campaign of political arson aimed at sabotaging Britain’s most popular left-wing leader in decades” — Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy Report

• “Asa Winstanley has left no stone unturned with this utterly compelling and detailed account” — Rachael Swindon, BuzzFeed’s “Woman leading Corbyn’s Twitter army”

• “An invaluable forensic account … It has indispensable lessons as a case study of the British sector of a world-wide campaign against the left’s support for Palestinian rights” — Moshé Machover, academic and Israeli dissident

• “In his outstanding new book, Asa Winstanley lays out the whole wretched story for the first time … the definitive account of one of the most intense propaganda campaigns in British history” — Matt Kennard, Declassified UK

• “This solid investigative journalism provides essential reading to anyone who is concerned about how our democratic process is subverted by a powerful elite influenced by the interests of an apartheid state” — Mnar Adley, editor-in-chief of MintPressNews.com

• “A riveting and candid account of the civil war that erupted in Britain’s Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn became its leader … Weaponising Anti-Semitism is essential reading for anyone interested in this tumultuous and intriguing chapter of British politics” — Daud Abdullah, director of Middle East Monitor

• “Proves once again that Asa is one of the most talented and necessary journalists of his generation” — Kerry-Anne Mendoza, founder of The Canary

• “Asa Winstanley has done more than any other journalist to expose what really lay behind the anti-Semitism smear campaign against Corbyn and his supporters in the Labour Party. His new book sets out in stark and disturbing detail how this assault on democracy was engineered” — Jonathan Cook, author of Disappearing Palestine

• “Thanks to Asa Winstanley’s incisive investigative journalism we now have the definitive version … After reading Winstanley’s book it’s quite clear that while Israel holds the Palestinians under a brutal occupation its supporters hold Keir Starmer’s Labour under a political occupation” — Yvonne Ridley, author of In the Hands of the Taliban

• “Weaponising Anti-Semitism provides readers with one of the timeliest analyses of how the pro-Israel lobby in the UK manipulated claims of anti-Semitism as a tool to undermine the Corbyn project and its support towards the issue of Palestine” — Zaher Birawi, chair of the Palestinian Forum in Britain

• “Asa Winstanley’s book is a must read. With his brilliant writing Asa captures the tragedy of the deliberate and successful Zionist campaign to bring down Jeremy Corbyn” — Miko Peled, author of The General’s Son

I’m incredibly honoured and humbled to be supported by so many great journalists, creatives, academics and activists, many of whose work I’ve respected since I was young. It’s a humbling recognition of the hard work I’ve put into this project over the last few years.

As I mentioned at the top of this update, the book’s publication date has been put back from April to 30 May due to various printing and publication complications which I won’t bore you with.

I and the entire OR Books team have been working diligently over the last few month to get the book into its final form. It’s worth taking the time to get it right. It’s been a long journey, but I promise it will be worth the wait.

If you’ve already pre-ordered a copy directly from OR Books, rest assured that you will still be the first to get a copy, before it hits bookshops. OR pre-orders should start shipping in April.

Click the book cover below to pre-order you copy today: