It’s a given now that if New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez so much as breathes, the response will be so histrionic as to border on the incomprehensible. Predictably, upon tweeting that she had spoken with UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on the telephone, a deluge of outrage descended on her for daring to converse with her closest ideological counterpart in the United Kingdom. That Ocasio-Cortez had engaged in conversation with the leader of the second-biggest political party in the UK was reprehensible, the line went, because Corbyn had faced accusations of antisemitism.

The furor around the Corbyn-AOC chat bears resemblances to the furor around Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar’s comments about AIPAC: a throwaway comment by the young legislator was cast as virulently antisemitic, and discussion of the issue has been all but shut down.

The discussion around antisemitism in the Labour Party has been complex and fraught, and remains ongoing. Jennie Formby, the party general secretary, released a report on the current state of investigations around allegations of antisemitism this month. Several issues were clear: as no one denies, antisemitism is a legitimate issue in the Labour Party, as it is in the UK as a whole, and the party has now committed to dealing with allegations of antisemitism leveled against individual members.