I think it was a bloody stupid thing to do, not in britains interest and a sop to the people Labour thinks they may lose to the Greens and the Gaza MP’s. It is not serious politics, it reflects badly on Labour in terms of forethought, I think it’s exposed how utterly stupid they are. The British consulate is how we co-ordinate training of the PA, some NGO work, expect further consequences to British functioning through Jerusalem and on British intelligence co-operation (for example the Hezbollah plot which involved 3 tons of ammonium nitrate, I dread to think about if they hadn’t been found). It demonstrates how stupid they are, you can’t run a country on vibes. Andy Burnham’s statement about standing with the underdogs demonstrates how stupid he is, being smaller or weaker doesn’t make you automatically right, the Taliban were the underdogs, who thinks they were right?
There is no Genocide, the ICC have clearly stated they don’t have the evidence required to say it is. It’s brutal war but a country has the right to respond when it’s civilians are raped, mutilated and murdered. Unfortunately for Gaza Hamas does use civilian sites and has dug tunnels under Gaza which they use to launch attacks, all of that makes them legitimate targets. The reason Gaza looks like it does is specifically because of the tunnels, Israel is not unreasonable to want those gone given the cost inflicted on them by their use. Both Hamas and Israel are being looked at for war crimes. This doesn’t make the suffering of Gazans any less important but there is no getting around the fact that when you do what Hamas did then your group fully deserves to be stripped of the ability to do it again. Israel has no obligation to allow itself to be attacked, it’s first obligation is to it’s own security, it’s the most basic responsibility of a government, to secure it’s borders from threat (something which the fools leading Britain don’t seem to understand).
Having said that British Jews should not be grouped automatically with Israel. I understand why any Jewish person would feel this way about how Israel is being treated and I agree it’s all bloody stupid for probably different reasons. However you can’t disconnect British Jews from Israel when it comes to harassment etc (which I abhor, I think a lot of the pro Palestinian people are frankly disgusting in the way they behave towards and speak of Jews) and then reconnect them when it comes to actions the British government takes against Israel.
British Jews are obviously invested in the wellbeing of Israel for good reason and Jewish people are not a block but I think it’s difficult to make the argument simultaneously.
The basis of this sanction isn’t consistent with our attitudes towards other countries like northern cyprus which is occupied. It’s sloppy dog whistle politics with no substance and it will harm Britain and Palestinians more than it will harm Israel BUT and it pains me to say this because I believe Jews have experienced the worst overt racism I have seem directed at any group in the UK in recent history but I’m not sure it helps British Jews to link this with anti-semitism.
BTW I do think the left are bit too comfortable with islamists, I don’t get why they don’t understand that brown men can also be utter facists as well, they seem blind to whats going on. The number of idiots cheering on people like the Houthis while never no idea about how Yemenis have fled from them or what they are doing is bewildering to me. Or cheering on Iran while they mow down and repress their own people, or cheering on Hamas who as soon as the ceasefire was declared started shooting Gazans (they literally kidnapped two women the other day). Ì have literally spoken to people who want Iran to win so they can keep on funding the “resistance”. They would hold tens of millions of people across multiple countries hostage because they have such an unhinged hatred of Israel.