I fail to see how this is a Tories story – the Jewish Chronicle reports that Policy Exchange received (and presumably published) the email this story is based on. Then again, there are several problems with presentation of both the story and James McIntyre’s defence that suggest there is something of a spin operation here.

Firstly, the punctuation of the email as reproduced in the post above, which appears to have gained an extra paragraph from that reproduced by Mr McIntyre (and again in the Jewish Chronicle and at Next Left). This means that it appears the first paragraph finished with the Chief Rabbi apparently directly linking Mr Kaminski to being neo-nazi. Clever, but hardly honest. If you quote a source, it is best to do it accurately.

Secondly, what is not obvious is what the email requesting a quote to Rabbi Schudrich and Rabbi Marcus actually requested, as Mr McIntyre does not include the full exchange, merely the responses. Rabbi Marcus’ rather general condemnation and Rabbi Schudrich’s comment that he does not comment on political decisions suggest this was a question designed to ask whether the Conservatives should be allied to Mr Kaminski in light of his past remarks. In this light I do not think either rabbis’ comments could be taken as a condemnation, although both express understandable concerns.

Overall, this post is of the standard of the whole saga – both Conservative defence and Labour attack have been based on weak evidence and assumption. Clearly Rabbi Schudrich did not call Mr Kaminski either neo-Nazi or anti-semetic, although he acknowledges he was associated with people who held such views in the past. He therefore was fully correct, and not contradictory : the remarks to Policy Exchange are designed to show Rabbi Schudrich neither accused Mr Kaminski personally of being anti-semetic, nor of being a neo-Nazi. They do not claim he did not say what he did in the email to Mr McIntyre (which makes no such claim) nor in the reported email to Mr Helm. There is no contradiction here. To attack a clarification by a figure who clearly is uneasy at Mr Kaminski’s past associations but has never (that we know about) spoke of his unease of his present policies is as desperate as is the attempt by the Conservatives which Mr Helm implies exists to portray Rabbi Schudrich as a friend of Mr Kaminski.

Mr Kaminski has made mistakes in past judgements, as have many politicians. If he proves to make them again, then there will be a case against him. At the moment the standard of spin in this post (and those of Messrs Helm and Katawala) to disregard the clarification is as idiotic as assuming the clarification means Mr Kaminski is loved by Rabbi Schudrich.

Well, the Polish Chief Rabbi was on R4 this morning.

Have a listen.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8333000/8333228.stm

It’s at 8.10am

I think it will (should) take some of the hysteria out of this spat.