Murderous Hate in and around Gaza

On Saturday 7th October, with complete surprise, Hamas fighters broke out of the blockaded Palestinian territory of Gaza and attacked Israeli soldiers and settlements in the area. There was also a rave going on which turned into a bloodbath.

The attack was without mercy, and it showed the extreme cruelty that indoctrinated young men are capable of when well led and motivated. No Israeli citizens were spared; men and women, the very old and even babies - all killed. Think about your worst nightmare and the reality of what happened that day is worse. With over 1,300 people killed, the vast majority Israeli, it was the biggest single lost of life in a day in Israel's history. 

The Israeli Army and the armed Israeli police force reaction was slow and hesitant. Incredibly it was several days before all the Hamas fighters were killed or forced back into Gaza. The world response was faster, instant condemnation of Hamas and offers of help. President Joe Biden, hopefully the last of the Israel-can-do-no-wrong democratic presidents pledged full support to Israel, American military support and extra ammunition. Much of the media, especially in the USA devoted itself to parroting the pro-Israel line. 

Israel's response is depressingly predictable and familiar. An orgy of bombing and shelling the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas of the world. This has been the standard Israeli response to any act of Palestinian resistance since the state's bloody and morally dubious foundation in 1948. The result is also depressingly predictable and familiar. Thousands of innocent Palestinian men and women, the very old and even babies - killed and maimed. The survivors and relatives will of course hate the country, society and people that has done this to them, and not a few will look for opportunities for revenge in the future.

It's tempting to write on, but fortunately there has been some outstanding writing already done on the situation. Sarah Helm has written a brave article on the dangers of Netanyahu's extreme nationalist government ethnically cleansing the Gaza Strip by expelling its population to Egypt. And the ever reliable Andrew Sullivan has written an outstanding article on this episode that is the best I've read so far.

Here at home, our doomed Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has shown unprecedented levels of support for Israel, including the offer of some ships and a unit of Royal marines. I assume these will contribute to the blockade of Gaza so that countries like Iran cannot ship weapons into the enclave. Perhaps as a British Indian he feels he has to do twice as much to avoid accusations of antisemitism. 

Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer has built his power base in the Labour Party by accusing people like me of antisemitism. So it's no surprise that he's given Israel unqualified support, to an extraordinary extent. As Marina Hyde writes: 

[It was] pretty unedifying to note Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry seemed unable to stand behind the idea of international law in interviews this week (particularly given the suspicion they might have said the diametric opposite four years ago). Well quite.

The media have also been irritating. For the first few days there was reporting that seemed to assume that this attack had been completely unprovoked and come out of a clear blue sky. Antisemitism was the official Israeli explanation for the whole thing. Belatedly, perhaps as a result of fury from people like me, there is now a lot more context given to the attack and more explanation of the general situation and history of the conflict. But there is a horrible, pervasive assumption behind much of the coverage that Israeli Jewish life far more valuable than any Palestinian Arab one . 

My own feelings are ones of deep sympathy to anyone who's lost anyone in this conflict. But coupled with that are feelings of anger and sorrow that my and many other good people's efforts to get a political solution to this conflict in the early years of this century failed. If there had been a just and fair negotiated solution to the conflict back then, I have no doubt that all the Israelis killed last Saturday, and all the Palestinians killed then and and being killed now would be alive and well.