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Ambulances to Ukraine

As some of you will remember I volunteered two years ago to drive an aid-filled ambulance to Ukraine for a remarkable undertaking known as Medical Life Lines Ukraine (MLLU).  Several of you made very generous donations at that time and in total I raised over £18,000 at the time.MLLU was set up and is being run by a small group of private citizens in Wimbledon and Putney.  They have done heroic work and have raised sufficient funds since the invasion began to deliver over 100 ambulances, medical equipment and other civilian rescue vehicles to the Ministry of Health in Lviv.  On two occasions convoys also took supplies of dog food for the rescue dogs trained to search for survivors in ruined buildings.  Photos of the very happy dogs and their handlers can be seen on the MLLU website https://www.medicallifelines.org.uk Now, I have volunteered to drive again and will be departing from Putney early on Sunday 7th September to join the other ambulances at Folkestone. From there the convoy will head across the Channel on the Euroshuttle (they transport us for free) before heading on to Lviv.Two years ago I did not think the humanitarian aid being delivered by MLLU would still be as vitally needed today as it was back then.  Tragically it looks like their work will continue to be needed for years to come given the continuing onslaught by Russian missiles and drones.  Ukraine remains a war zone and the regular air raid sirens remind any visitor that even Lviv, in the far west of the country, has been attacked.I have undertaken to raise at least an additional £7,000 to cover part of the cost of another ambulance in a future convoy and I am hoping that the spirit of generosity shown two years ago still lives on.  I would be truly grateful if you feel able to offer your support, some for a second time of course, but others for the first time.The link to my funding page is as follows https://www.justgiving.com/page/jonathan-callaway-1 where you will see I have almost reached my initial target.  I hope to raise far more of course and I can assure you every penny gets spent on humanitarian equipment.  The costs of driving the ambulances to Ukraine, about 1,200 miles, are covered by the volunteer drivers, as are their return travel costs.Donations are UK gift aid compliant as they are routed through our partner British-Ukrainian Aid, a registered UK charity.Do please also share this as widely as possible with friends and contacts so I can raise as much as I possibly can for MLLU.With many thanks in advanceJonathan

Jonathan Callaway ● 21d18 Comments ● 9d

100's Of Asylum Seekers Charged With Serious Crimes

Reported in The Sun today: Hundreds of asylum seekers living in tax-funded hotels have been charged with crimes such as rape, robbery & GBHIt is the first time the scale of criminal activity committed by those living in the controversial hotels has been brought to light. We monitored courts across the country for the first six months of the year and noted defendants who gave their address as one of 105 known asylum hotels. The true number of crimes could be even higher as the Home Office has refused to publish a list of all 210 in the UK currently being used to house 32,000 asylum seekers. Of the court cases we monitored, 29 related to sexual crimes — including seven alleged rapes, one proven incident of exposure and one of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child. A further 64 violence-related offences were recorded, including common assault, GBH, ABH, ­possessing a knife and possessing an imitation firearm. Yesterday at least five asylum seekers who had been staying at hotels appeared in court on charges including sexual assault, assault by beating and theft. And a Libyan asylum-seeker ­living at a Home Office hotel yesterday admitted threatening a member of staff with a knife, at Bournemouth crown court.https://apple.news/AoUWmfDboS_yLcfpIXMbB0AIf found guilty two things MUST happen - Detain and Deport!  Immediately!!No excuses from Starmer's slimy human rights pals who will invent all kinds of spurious claims to keep the gravy-train rolling!  End of!

Sue Hammond ● 12d2 Comments ● 12d

Anti Semitism is normalised in middle class Britain

Telegraph article that I doubt will be published in the Guardian.https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/12/anti-semitism-normalised-britain-british-board-jews-israel/Two politicians from opposite sides ends of the political spectrum just completed a six month investigation into U.K. antisemitism. They were stunned by what they found. This is the full text from their piece which accompanies a report in The Telegraph: if people don’t take note I fear for the future of my community in this country. Neither Dame Penny Mordaunt nor Lord John Mann are Jewish, by the way.'We are hard-nosed politicians. We are not shrinking violets who run around being easily offended and we are used to dealing with the extremes of human emotions and catastrophe through our parliamentary case work in the past.Even with decades of these experiences, we were still stunned into silence by the evidence that we received as independent chairs of the Board of Deputies Commission on Anti-Semitism, particularly from young people in the Jewish community.We spent months hearing evidence from the community, professionals and students about their experiences of anti-Semitism and were alarmed by the combination of the rawness of the impact of people’s everyday experiences intertwined with the extraordinary routines and normality within which this is occurring.We are two non-Jews from opposite sides of the political spectrum and we have both come to realise that if our Jewish community is facing discrimination, this is a failure of our society. We must ensure that everyone enjoys the rights and protections that we have worked so hard to develop over many years.What are we meant to say as hardened politicians to a young Jewish female performer who told us that following October 7 venues and promoters, who the artist had worked with for years, no longer wanted to engage with her? Or to students who saw their research staff members coming from an encampment with a megaphone, and disabilities liaison staff members who Jewish student’s trust with their health records shouting for an Intifada?We were told about the experience of a Jewish member of a professional body describe that body as taking years to investigate incidents of anti-Semitism, and heavily editing articles about anti-Semitism and the Jewish experience so as not to cause “offence” to its to broader membership.We heard about the noisy demonstrations and how intimidating people find the current environment, but as we dug deeper what really scared us was the increasing normalisation of far more extreme, personalised and sometimes life changing impact directed at individuals purely and simply because they are Jewish. Worrying dilemmas of where Jewish professionals believed that their professional body was actively discriminating against them but where they required membership from this body to be able to work and acquire the necessary protections.One of our 10 recommendations is that anti-Semitism cannot simply be sidelined as an issue of religious difference, allowing organisations to pretend to themselves that they don’t have to deal with the thornier issue of racism directed against individual human beings.This is an urgent issue not just for the Jewish community but for the United Kingdom as a whole. Jews have lived in this country for centuries and they have contributed greatly to our country. Any attempt to marginalise British Jews in our professions, cultural life, public services or any other arena harm us all.We are all harmed if we tolerate the abuse of some of our fellow citizens by those who hold warped or extreme views. All we are trying is achieve is to add value to what others are already doing.Typically with reports, we send a list of recommendations to government and this report certainly will be placed on the table of the Prime Minister and his Ministers and that of every political party leader.But there is a wider responsibility that we are concerned about. All our institutions, public sector and private sector have a responsibility to their Jewish employees, customers, neighbours and partners, to ensure that they are treated with equal respect and are able to get on with their lives with no negatives.Our recommendations are intended to help everybody to step up to the mark and play their small role in ensuring that we can each say to our Jewish friends, whoever they are and wherever they are, that you are not alone in our country.'

Lucille Grant ● 17d1 Comments ● 17d

The case for LNB's

Studies have shown and indeed we have seen locally in the case of Nick Clegg, that having a bobby on the doorstep (Local Neighbourhood Bobby - LNB) 24/7 significantly reduces crime at that location.I would like to make my doorstep a local neighborhood bobby doorstep or LNB.Why my doorstep you may ask, when crime in other areas is higher?Because people do not always obey the law!Besides there is so much crime that putting a bobby (LNB) on my doorstep will not make that much difference! It may go up slightly but that is offset by the benefits to me.Of course when I leave my doorstep (LBN), I will still expect to be protected by the police that serve the rest of the borough!Perhaps we should throw in a NHS doctor (LND) or even a dentist (LNT) and other resources meant for the general population.Or even a LTN:Studies have shown that stopping people driving on my road reduces accidents on my road.I of course will expect to be able to drive on other people's roads.I can justify it with the letters LTN!I think you get the idea.In the past, London did not have a 20 mph speed limit and blocking off speeding traffic though side roads was a safety issue. There was also the pollution issues in the past.Both these points are no longer valid if you listen to Labour supporters.Because many main roads including URR are 20 MPH because that makes them safer and they are also clean because of ULEZ, and Labour said ULEZ is the same as clean air!Those of us that live in the real world know this is just political nonsense.But more seriously people are being killed by buses and HGV's due to poor junctions and road layouts and the size (weight) of modern buses.Unfortunately more people are going to be killed due to converting mega sized buses to be electric and hence they will be heavier with faster acceleration.I'm actually a fan of electric vehicles which London has a proud history of 100 years ago.We actually need a more efficient, smaller lighter vehicles that are frequent  - not the dinosaurs from past decades with USB added.We need to ignore the nimbys and fanatics and look coldly at not just what is possible but what we can afford.

Ed Robinson ● 21d2 Comments ● 20d

A “humanitarian city” and the Trump/Netanyahu Peace Prize

"WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented US President Donald Trump on Monday with a letter he sent to the Norwegian Nobel Committee nominating the latter for a Nobel Peace Prize.At the opening of their White House dinner, Netanyahu rose to his feet and surprised Trump with the letter.“It’s well deserved, and you should get it,”  Netanyahu said.“Wow,” Trump replied. “Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful.”In the letter, Netanyahu praised Trump’s “steadfast and exceptional dedication to promoting peace, security, and stability around the world.”He wrote that the Abraham Accords are “foremost” among Trump’s achievements in creating peace.“President Trump’s vision and bold leadership promoted innovative diplomacy defined not by conflict and extremism but by cooperation, dialogue, and shared prosperity,” Netanyahu continued."https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-surprises-trump-with-nobel-recommendation-as-leaders-stress-coordination/And also:-"[Israel]Defense Minister Israel Katz tells reporters in a briefing today that he instructed the IDF and the ministry to bring forward a plan to establish a new “humanitarian city” in the southern Gaza Strip, on the ruins of Rafah.The idea of the humanitarian area, according to Katz, is to accommodate initially some 600,000 Palestinians who have been living in the Mawasi area on the coast after being displaced from elsewhere in the Strip, after screening them to ensure Hamas operatives are not entering.Palestinians will not be allowed to leave the zone, he says.Eventually, the idea is to bring the entire Palestinian civilian population to the zone while the IDF secures it from a distance, as international bodies work to manage the area. An additional four aid distribution sites would be established in the area, according to Katz.Katz also emphasizes his ambition to encourage Palestinians to “voluntarily emigrate” from the Gaza Strip to other countries, saying this plan “should be fulfilled.”It’s unclear if the zone would be used as a transit point, as described in a Reuters report earlier today that detailed plans for “Humanitarian Transit Areas” where Gazans could “temporarily reside, deradicalize, re-integrate and prepare to relocate if they wish to do so.”The director general of the Defense Ministry, Amir Baram, has already begun advancing planning for the zone, which Katz stresses will not be run by the IDF, but instead by international bodies.Katz doesn’t specify which international organizations would operate the city, and other than the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, it is unlikely that any will cooperate given that the plan aims to displace the entire Palestinian population of the Strip.There are also concerns that Israel will establish settlements in the areas it forcibly evacuates. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that is not his plan, but he is beholden to far-right coalition partners who are determined to see it through."https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/katz-calls-for-plan-to-confine-all-gazans-in-humanitarian-city-to-be-built-over-ruins-of-rafah/"I love it when a plan comes together"

David Ainsworth ● 22d4 Comments ● 21d

The most moral army in the world is creating a humanitarian city

You have to be cruel to be kind. That'll be it.Israel clearing new section of Rafahpublished at 14:07 7 July14:07 7 JulyBenedict GarmanBBC Verify senior journalistDemolition work is under way in one of the few areas in Rafah, southern Gaza, where most buildings were still standing.Satellite imagery reveals that dozens of buildings in the Saudi neighbourhood, a residential area in the city’s northwest, have been destroyed in recent days.Below is a side-by-side comparison of satellite pictures. The one on the right was taken on Saturday, with the left taken one month ago. The latest image shows rubble and dust where buildings once stood - highlighted by the white boxes.[Satellite image captured on 5 June compared to 5 July showing RafahImage source,Planet Labs PBC]These are likely to be demolitions rather than air strikes because this is an area held by the IDF for some time and in other areas where they have operational control there have frequently been videos showing controlled detonations.The pace and comprehensive nature of the destruction, as well as local, external reports, external of buildings in the neighbourhood being blown up tallies with this.The neighbourhood was built by the Saudi Rehousing Project - a partnership between the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) and Saudi Arabia. The project's aim was to provide houses for people displaced as a result of previous conflict with Israel.It was only opened in 2015, external, and was home to around 10,000 people.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c98wejpp89pt?post=asset%3Ae370bb65-510e-4b45-b67d-0a7470534d18#postAnd today:-Israel’s Katz outlines plans for 'humanitarian city' on ruins of Rafahpublished at 10:2610:26Benedict GarmanBBC Verify senior journalistSatellite imagery showing how whole areas of Rafah has been demolishedImage source,Planet LabsIsrael's defence minister Israel Katz has described a plan he says is under way to establish a new 'humanitarian city' on the ruins of Rafah in the south of Gaza.The plan initially aims to accommodate 600,000 displaced Palestinians who are currently living in the al-Mawasi area on the Gazan coast. This is where Israeli forces have told people to go for “safety” throughout the war - though it has also been targeted by strikes more than 100 times.At least four more aid distribution sites - like the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation facilities already in operation - would be built under the Katz plan. We have already identified one new aid site under construction and can see that it has developed further in recent satellite imagery.Katz said development of this zone would happen during any potential ceasefire, assuming the current indirect ceasefire negotiations are successful. The ultimate aim would be to eventually move the entire Gazan population into the “city”.Satellite imagery, like the image above, captured on 4 July by Planet Labs, shows Rafah has been almost entirely reduced to rubble. Yesterday we reported on demolitions taking place in one of the last areas still standing.Demolitions continue elsewhere in Rafah too, with drone footage, external published on Sunday - we’ve screen-grabbed a key frame below - showing a building named as al-Shawka Girls' Secondary School in online maps being blown up in a controlled explosion.Screen grab of drone footage showing a building marked as girls' school on satellite mapping being demolishedImage source,Xhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c75rvk9pqn0tAnd the girls' school:-https://x.com/YinonMagal/status/1941831414019711113

David Ainsworth ● 22d1 Comments ● 21d

Nearly half of Israelis support army killing all Palestinians in Gaza, poll finds

Nearly half of Israelis support army killing all Palestinians in Gaza, poll finds24 May 2025An overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews support the transfer of Palestinians from Gaza, according to a poll by Pennsylvania State University.The survey, conducted in March and published by Haaretz newspaper on Thursday, found that 82 percent of Israeli Jews support the forced expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.Meanwhile, 47 percent of Israeli Jews answered yes to the question: "Do you support the claim that the [Israeli army] in conquering an enemy city, should act in a manner similar to the way the Israelites did when they conquered Jericho under the leadership of Joshua, ie to kill all its inhabitants?" The reference is to the biblical account of the conquest of Jericho.Earlier this month, Israel launched the "Operation Gideon's Chariots" in the besieged strip, which, according to the Israeli news outlet Ynet, is intended to advance US President Donald Trump's plan to "clean out" Gaza.Ynet reported that during the operation, the Israeli army plans to push as many Palestinians as possible towards the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip, where food and aid will be delivered. The new military plan is also aimed at promoting the "voluntary emigration" of Palestinians, according to Ynet.The new plan has garnered support among the majority of the Israeli public, even though the Israeli army's chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, warned that it would pose a danger to the lives of the Israeli captives in Gaza.According to a separate Channel 13 poll, 44 percent of the Israeli public supports the operation while 40 percent oppose it.The same poll showed that the Israeli public also supports the continuation of the full blockade that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip since the beginning of March. It found that 53 percent of the Israeli public think that Israel should not allow humanitarian aid into the enclave.Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that one of Israel's war goals is to implement Trump's proposed plan to expel the Palestinians from Gaza.At a press conference, Netanyahu said that he was willing to end the war but only "under clear conditions that will ensure the safety of Israel: all the hostages come home, Hamas lays down its arms, steps down from power, its leadership is exiled from the strip"."And we carry out the Trump plan - a plan that is so correct and so revolutionary," he added.Secular public supports expulsionAccording to the Penn State poll, support for the mass expulsion of Palestinians from the enclave was also found among 70 percent of the secular Jewish public, parts of which are considered liberal. Meanwhile, support among the Masortim (traditionalists), religious, and ultra-Orthodox communities exceeds 90 percent.The sweeping and cross-political and social support for the expulsion of Palestinians does not stop at the borders of the occupied Gaza Strip. According to the poll, 56 percent of Israeli Jews support the expulsion of Palestinian citizens of Israel from their land.While the highest levels of support for the move were recorded amongst the Masortim, religious, and ultra-Orthodox communities, exceeding 60 percent, there was also significant backing among the secular public. Thirty-eight percent of secular Israeli Jews support the expulsion of Palestinian citizens of Israel from the country, the poll reported.Commenting on the results survey, Shay Hazkani, a professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of Maryland, and Tamir Sorek, a professor in the history department at Penn State University, wrote: "There are those who see the shock and anxiety that befell the Israeli public in the wake of the events of October 7th as the only explanation for this radicalization."But the massacre only seems to have unleashed demons that have been nurtured over decades in the media and in the legal and educational systems."Throughout the war, Israeli media outlets have echoed calls for the expulsion and killing of Palestinians. Recently, Israeli human rights organisations submitted a request to the Supreme Court to open an investigation against Channel 14, seen as loyal to Netanyahu, on suspicion of "incitement to genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity".The education system has also played a role in shaping extremist views among young Israelis. Hazkani and Sorek say that since the early 2000s, it has undergone a process of radicalisation.According to the poll, only 9 percent of Jewish men under the age of 40, representing most of the soldiers in regular and reserve duty, were fully opposed to the ideas of expulsion and transfer.Religious languageIt was only last March that the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed a petition filed by human rights organisations seeking to compel the government to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. In the ruling, one of the justices used religious language to justify the verdict.Since the beginning of the war, religious language has been widely used in Israel to describe the war in Gaza. One frequently invoked term is “Amalek” - referring to an ancient enemy of the Israelites, against whom Jewish tradition commands an all-out war.A week after the 7 October Hamas-led attack, Netanyahu urged ground troops preparing to enter Gaza to "remember what Amalek has done to you".Religious discourse in Israel, however, is not limited to the religious public. The poll found that 65 percent of the Jewish population believes there is a modern-day "Amalek". And of those, about 93 percent think the "mitzvah" , or commandment, to “wipe out the memory of Amalek” should still apply today."Zionism, in addition to being a national movement, is also a movement of immigrant-settlers, which seeks to push the local population out," wrote Hazkani and Sorek."The aspiration for absolute and permanent security can lead to an operative plan to eliminate the opposing population, and therefore every settlement project has the potential for ethnic cleansing and genocide."https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/majority-israelis-support-expulsion-palestinians-gaza-poll

David Ainsworth ● 23d11 Comments ● 22d

Glastonbury ~ Mr Vylan😡

Will he be arrested and charged and jailed for inciting violence like Lucy Connolly? Or will the Two-TierKeir justice system kick in? Rupert Lowe on FB this morning:“I heard you want your country back. Ha. Shut the f*** up” angrily yells Vylan, fresh from calling for “death to the IDF”, to a chanting crowd of white middle-class British liberals excitedly waving their foreign flags. All rather depressing, isn’t it?I note the intense border security at Glastonbury, which far outstrips that of Dover’s. Build bridges, not walls, they cry - apart from around their own filthy little sanctuary.How so very progressive of them, flying their Palestinian flags - they must all feel so very proud of themselves. Sipping their £8 iced lattes, posting on tiktok from the newest iphone. Really revolutionary stuff.A fatal blow struck against the capitalist system. Well done, everyone.All broadcast live on the BBC, our ‘national’ broadcaster. Fantastic work from them, as usual.None of this is Britain. Real Britain. Actual Britain. Decent Britain.Not the Britain built by generations of hardworking, patriotic British men and women.Who quite frankly, have had enough. I know I have.We will all be closely watching, as Lucy Connolly rots in jail, what action the police will take against this revolting man - the precedent has been set.So, yes Mr Vylan. You heard correctly, we do want our country back.But no. We will definitely not "shut the fuck up".Learn how to sing, take a shower and sod off.Watch the cretinous half-wit here:https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1APMABcqjF/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Sue Hammond ● 31d136 Comments ● 24d

Is a Glastonbury chant the real problem?

"On Sunday, the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire grilled Starmer’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, on remarks from the Israeli embassy in London condemning what it termed “the normalisation of extremist language” and the “glorification of violence” at Glastonbury.Unexpectedly, Streeting avoided jumping whole-heartedly on the media outrage band-wagon, led by the Mail on Sunday, whose front page demanded the arrest of the two band members for what the paper wrongly described as a chant demanding “Death to Israelis”. The Mail, apparently, believes that all Israelis, presumably including the country’s children, are currently serving in the Israeli military.There are four important points to make about the interview between Derbyshire and Streeting:1. The Israeli embassy in London, like the Israeli government it represents, has precisely no concerns about the “glorification of violence” when Israel is doing either the glorifying or the violence. Israel is currently celebrating its “success” in slaughtering and maiming hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, including huge numbers of children; attacks by its soldiers and state-backed Jewish settler militias on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank; its eradication of whole communities in Lebanon; and its bombing of residential tower blocks across Tehran, killing many hundreds.Violence has been Israel’s signature policy for the past 21 months – and long before that. Israel has revelled in the carnage it has inflicted on populations across the region.In a post on social media, the Israeli embassy additionally argued of Bob Vylan’s chant: “When speech crosses into incitement, hatred, and advocacy of ethnic cleansing, it must be called out – especially when amplified by public figures on prominent platforms.”And yet public figures from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to British prime minister Keir Starmer have incited against the Palestinians, with Netanyahu comparing them to “Amalek”, a people the Israelites were commanded by God to exterminate, and Starmer terming the wholesale starvation of the people of Gaza “self-defence”.Israeli officials from Netanyahu down have advocated the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. And, even more seriously, Israel has not just threatened but repeatedly carried out the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians under its belligerent rule.2. It is beyond ridiculous for the BBC to echo the Israeli government in prioritising a harsh crackdown on words at Glastonbury "glorifying violence" towards Israeli soldiers ahead of the actual violence of genocide being committed by those Israel soldiers.The BBC has avoided criticising the Israeli government for its actual violence – its bombing and active starvation of Palestinian civilians – and the Starmer government for colluding in that violence, or what the International Court of Justice termed more than a year ago a “plausible” genocide by Israel.As a recent report by the Centre for Media Monitoring confirmed, the BBC has dramatically skewed its language to present Israel, the aggressor, in a more favourable light than the victim, the Palestinians of Gaza. The BBC’s own whistleblowing journalists have warned that the state broadcaster has all but banned the use of the word “genocide”, even by experts on the matter.By arming Israel, by organising spy flights over Gaza from RAF base Akrotiri on Cyprus, and by providing diplomatic cover, Starmer has effectively glorified Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian children in the enclave. Bob Vylan’s chants of “Death to the IDF” have a far more dangerous counterpart in Starmer’s recital of Israel’s “right to defend itself” when that “defence” involves Israel mercilessly starving Gaza’s population of food, water and power.Bob Vylan are a punk band; Starmer is the British prime minister, the man who directs Britain’s foreign policy and directs its army.No one, least of all the BBC, has held Israeli or British officials accountable not just for glorifying violence but for actually carrying it out on an industrial scale for nearly two years.But the BBC is suddenly interested in holding to account two punk musicians for leading a chant – one that made a symbolic, hypothetical threat of violence – against an Israeli military carrying out the ultimate form of violence, an actual genocide. In a serious media, Israel’s supposed “concerns” about the glorification of violence and extremist language would be laughed off the stage rather than respectfully aired.3. Wes Streeting is being congratulated and condemned in equal measure on social media for refusing to be drawn into the Mail and BBC’s confected outrage. “I’d say to the Israeli embassy, get your own house in order,” he responded to Derbyshire. But hang on a minute. Streeting’s resistance to Derbyshire’s line of questioning was perhaps unexpected. But it also, let us not forget, serves the interests of both the Starmer and Israeli governments.Streeting’s insistence that Israel “get its house in order” had, as he made clear, nothing to do with its 21-month slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. Starmer is still defining the Gaza genocide as Israel’s supposed “right to defend itself”. In responding to Derbyshire, Streeting expressed concern only at what he called violent “settler attacks” in the West Bank. He said the Israeli embassy needed to “get your own house in order in terms of the conduct of your own citizens and the settlers in the West Bank”.This was intended purely as deflection, designed to serve Starmer and Israel, the West’s key client state in the oil-rich Middle East. It benefits the UK government to make an issue of West Bank settler attacks – and present them as disorganised, random violence by individual extremists that the Israeli government is not responsible for but needs to get a firmer grip on.By highlighting problems in the West Bank, the Starmer government can avoid addressing the genocide in Gaza and the Israeli state’s clear responsibility for that genocide. Which is precisely why in recent weeks Britain has made so much noise about imposing feeble penalties on a handful of extremist settlers and two fascist ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that represent those settlers.Starmer and Streeting’s prioritising of Israel’s West Bank violence over Israel’s Gaza violence is a switch and bait twice over.Most of the violence in the West Bank is not coming from settler extremists, even though they are the ones being punished by the UK. It is coming from the Israeli military, which has bulldozed thousands of homes there over the past year, driving 40,000 Palestinians off their lands.Further, settler violence is not random. It is coordinated with Israeli field commanders, many of them settlers themselves, to uproot Palestinians so that Israel can move in Jewish settlers to colonise the land – or, in the words of successive Israeli governments, “Judaise” it.None of this is new either. Israel has engineered and imposed a violent, apartheid system on Palestinians for decades to make life unbearable and encourage them to leave their homeland.Second, Glastonbury’s anger-fuelled chant against the IDF was not primarily motivated by Israel’s violent actions in the West Bank. It was against the Israeli military for committing a genocide in Gaza, which the British government has been supporting. Streeting’s aim was to drag the debate on to safer territory for him and Starmer: that Britain needs to deal not with a genocide in Gaza but with a handful of violent loons in the West Bank.Even in criticising the Israeli government for not doing enough to tackle settler violence, Streeting is still operating within the confines of a public discourse dictated by Israel, which prefers any criticism to be directed at individuals not at the Israeli state behind those individuals.4. The BBC, the Starmer government and the Israel lobby are all delighted to play their part in this game of deflection and deception because these kinds of moral panics obscure the real issue: that all these parties are actively colluding in Israel's genocide in Gaza. While the media and government can now have a long backwards and forwards about whether criticism of Israel's genocidal army needs to be defined in law as a criminal offence or "terrorism", Israel will get a free pass to continue with the real terrorism: a genocide in Gaza.Famously, the black civil rights fighter Malcolm X observed of the role of the media: “They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. … If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” Sixty years on, nothing has changed."https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/is-a-glastonbury-chant-the-real-problem

David Ainsworth ● 25d0 Comments ● 25d