As a clinical psychologist, may I contribute to this debate the 4 elements of a real apology? 1. Damage assessment. A real apology inventories the damage done. It’s not just, “I was late to BDS.” It’s also, “I led you to believe you wouldn’t need BDS, that Israel could reform itself and, worse, that there was a real antisemitism problem on the Labour Left.” It’s not just, “I wavered in my principled defence of Palestine and its national liberation struggle,” it’s also, “I’ve made it hard for you to trust my judgment going forward; I've made you wonder what my real motives were.” 2. What you did wrong. A real apology identifies what you actually did wrong. “I should have called the antisemitism smear campaign for what it was and defended its victims: Jackie Walker @Jackiew80333500, Chris Williamson, @DerbyChrisW, Ken Livingstone, Ken Loach, @AsaWinstanley and others who are welcome to contact me to let me know how I hurt them and give me a chance to apologize and atone.” “I should have denounced my liberal Zionism earlier.” Instead of saying, “I’m sorry if I offended anyone,” or, worse, "At the time Jeremy Corbyn was saying the same thing or less radical things," either identify what you did wrong or don’t apologize at all. This can lead to an agreement to disagree, or it can lead to understanding how you could have expressed yourself fully but differently, and then to a real apology. 3. Why you did wrong. A real apology identifies the actual reasons for your bad behavior. Maybe mention the pressure exerted by the liberal media, the JLM, the Momentum liberal Zionists, etc. You could also describe, from the inside, how hard it is to risk touching the third rail of Western politics and risk ostracism in the media, how everytime you spoke about Palestine you had to make sure the liberal Zionists would not come after you, etc. The next step, what will be different, will be convincing only to the extent that it is tied to the reasons you misbehaved. The more superficial or generic the explanation, the less effective the apology will be. 4. What’s different now. The relationship is not ready to move on until you’ve made some necessary changes, which address the reasons for your misconduct. “I’m going to remind myself my commitment is to Palestine liberation and not acceptance by the liberal class and liberal Zionists.” “I changed the way I’m looking at my role so I’m more willing to reflect critically on my past mistakes and illusion that all was well in occupied Palestine before the 1967 war. I now see the genocidal logic was baked into Zionism as an essentially settler-colonial project, so there is no room for any "liberal Zionism". Also, "I realize now that there are some people who actually want to use anti-semitism to divide and weaken the Left and weaken solidarity for the legitimate right of resistance of Palestinians, in whatever way they choose. This is why, regardless of what I may think about this or that movement and its ideology, I fully support all forms of Palestinian resistance.” Finally, offer to rewrite your presentation of Israel's history and the Left links to Zionism in any future editions of your book, as well as your account of antisemitism in Labour. I will post this in the comments to Owen's video. Let's see how long the comment lasts. With thanks to psychologytoday.com/us/blog/…