Condolences from Netanyahu will not provide any comfort
ARE there any depths of hypocrisy and inhumanity to which the Tories will not sink in their attitude to the current slaughter in Gaza? This week we heard news of the deaths of seven aid workers and I cannot imagine the impact on their families, who must have spent the last six months dreading exactly this.
No amount of pride in their dedication and selflessness can soften their loss, but they are unlikely to be comforted by the public condolences of a Prime Minister who promised honesty and integrity but has doggedly supported Israel’s genocide as justifiable self-defence.
He has called in the Israeli representative and is demanding an investigation and answers from Netanyahu. Where were his condolences for the relatives of the 34,000 defenceless Palestinians already killed, even after being herded into ever smaller so-called “safe areas”?
Some 70% of the dead are women and children, the future of their people, but the UK and US still regard them as collateral damage of Israel’s right to self-defence. Where is Sunak’s demand for an investigation of this? Are 34,000 Palestinian lives worth less than those of seven aid workers?
It must be obvious by now that Netanyahu intends to clear all Palestinians from “the land God gave Israel”. Simply driving them off that land is not his objective, as the closure of the borders ensures that they have no means of escape. Cutting off water and power and blocking medical and food supplies is obviously intended to starve to death those not killed by bombs and bullets. If that is not genocide, what is?
Yet the UK Government facilitates it by refusing to use the strongest deterrent available to them, a ban on the continued supply of weapons to Israel until a permanent ceasefire is agreed, which makes them complicit under international law.
Starmer and Labour, too, have done nothing to stop the genocide, only calling for a temporary ceasefire in order to block the SNP motion, and are therefore also complicit. If they had really cared enough about ending the massacre, they would have voted for the SNP motion, but hatred of the SNP prevailed. Meanwhile, as a sop to public opinion which mainly supports the Palestinians, our RAF make emergency food drops to the starving victims and leave the public to raise funds for aid.
Blocking arms sales could be the fastest, most positive contribution to ending this cruel, illegal war, so why is it not used? I suspect the usual reason for Tory decisions – money talks louder than lives. We cannot block arms sales to Israel, it would damage manufacturers’ profits and that would damage shareholders’ dividends. They might even stop donating to the party!
So here is a solution to protect the money AND help the Palestinians. Ban the arms companies from selling to Israel until the war stops and a solution is negotiated. Instead, get the companies to send the weapons destined for Israel to Ukraine, to defeat the equally fanatical aggressor there, and pay for them with some of the Russian assets frozen in the UK.
Sadly, there is little chance of either the Tories or Labour developing enough backbone to stand up for justice and humanity, which means it is past time for Scotland to leave this despicable Union.
L McGregor
Falkirk
HAVE people considered that the murder of these aid workers was utterly deliberate? As IDF and Israeli settlers have effectively reduced land aid to a trickle, it is conceivable that this aid via a maritime route was believed to be effective and a threat to mass starvation.
The fanaticism of the Zionists is boundless and this could be an attempt to nip the maritime route in the bud!
Dr Kris Hansen via email