The Green Party has been taken over by the anti-Israel obsessives that nearly destroyed the Labour Party. But if Andy Burnham has his way, these people could be helping to run the country before long.
Mr Burnham wants to introduce proportional representation for UK elections. That would give smaller parties, such as the Greens, a route to power as part of a future coalition government.
Green Party declares itself anti-Zionist
The Green Party used to be about protecting the environment, but that is no longer the case. This week, it declared itself "an anti-Zionist party", passing a policy stating "Zionism is racism", despite protests from Green MPs and former leader Caroline Lucas.
To understand how this happened, consider one of the leading members of Greens for Palestine, the group behind the motion.
Salma Yaqoob is a former Birmingham councillor who co-founded the RESPECT party with Left-wing firebrand George Galloway. She then joined Labour when Jeremy Corbyn was leader and tried to become the party's candidate for West Midlands mayor. When Mr Corbyn began work on creating a new party, known as Your Party, she was briefly involved in that.
Now she is in the Greens, and she is not alone. The Corbynites have left Labour and taken over the Green Party.
What the Zionism motion means
The Zionism motion approved by the Green conference this week is completely mad.
Zionism is the idea that the state of Israel should exist – not a particularly controversial idea, given that it has existed since 1948. In today's world, it means supporting the continued existence of the state of Israel.
It has nothing to do with supporting Palestinians or criticising Israel. If you support what is usually known as the two-state solution in the Middle East – the creation of an independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel – then you are a Zionist, because one of those two states would be Israel.
A two-state solution is the position of the United Nations, of every major party in the UK (except the Greens) and of the Palestinian Authority, the government of the Palestinian people. All racist, according to the Greens.
You are still a Zionist if you think Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal who should be in jail, as long as you don't actually want to see the entire country gone. Still a racist, according to the Greens.
Impact of proportional representation
This matters because, while peace in the region is a long way away, the best chance of achieving it is for Palestine and Israel to live together as neighbours. You can dream about wiping Israel off the map if you want, but it won't ever happen. In practice, you're just wishing for permanent war and death.
This is why the Palestinians signed the Oslo Accords recognising Israel in 1993 and 1995. And of course, many British Jews, even those who vehemently oppose the present Israeli government, are committed to Israel's existence and safety. They know that it provided refuge to Jews driven out of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa and is home to the descendants of those refugees today. But that's racist, according to the Green Party.
Right now, the views of the Green Party don't matter much. But if Andy Burnham gets his way, that will change. His plan to introduce proportional representation in the UK would give fringe groups such as the Green Party a real chance of being part of future British governments, as part of a coalition.
The Corbynites would be in power, and Andy Burnham will have put them there.
