The eagle eyed amongst you, the ones who really keep their nose to the ground and their attention focused on politics, will have picked up that there is a war going on between Israel and Palestine, or more specifically Israel and Hamas, in the Gaza Strip since October last year. The ones of you who follow this blog will also have noticed that since then I have posted a lot of grumblings about Keir Starmer and nothing on this war. 

It’s taken me a while to put together what I think on this issue. To be honest, I’ve had a little performance anxiety, not something I usually experience when it comes time to share my opinion. I’m sure some people, perhaps everyone, will be upset by what follows. All I can say is that none of this is written to deliberately offend.

So, this is what I have to say: the mass murder committed by Hamas last October - where they deliberately targeted civilians, including children - is completely abhorrent, disgusting and brutal. At the same time, the response from Israel has been excessively brutal and has shown a horrific callousness for the value of human life, with civilians being targeted and hospitals destroyed. In war we should seek to minimise civilian casualties, but from my perspective Hamas and the IDF try to maximise them.

Ceasefire now. Stop killing civilians

This isn’t a particularly exciting take, but deliberately targeting civilians and killing indiscriminately is wrong. I can’t bring myself to justify it from either side. There should be an immediate ceasefire now to stop the killing. Then serious efforts to negotiate a lasting two-state solution to the long-term Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I’m sure that some will feel that the conditions in Gaza (described as an open-air prison) justify war. I’m also sure that many people believe that the attacks on the 7th of October also justify war. In war (either side argue), civilians are killed and hospitals and schools are destroyed. Britain deliberately targeted these things during the bombing campaigns of World War 2. I don’t think killing civilians is justified. Not in this war or any other.

Not an exciting take

It’s not a particularly spicy or attention-grabbing take to say that killing civilians is wrong. You might think I’m a centrist, refusing to take a side or arguing that both sides are equally wrong. This is not my intention. Yes, one side has done a lot more killing than the other. Despite this, or any other arguments, I will not justify deliberately targeting civilians or civilian deaths.

The actions of the IDF - indiscriminately bombing Gaza, displacing people, killing civilians - only plays into Hamas’s hands and makes them stronger. Western governments’ failure to prevent this, or to get the IDF to show any restraint, or even to condemn the IDF’s actions is a moral stain on our consciences and has destroyed what little credibility we still have with the rest of the world.

The IDF are inflicting punishment on all Palestinians for the actions of Hamas, as if they were one in the same. This is not justifiable, even despite Hamas winning elections in Gaza. Hamas has support in Gaza because of the way that Israel behaved in the past. Israel’s actions now – killing civilians, cutting off power and water, laying siege to an area of land where 50% of the population are children - works against their stated goal of destroying Hamas. Collective punishment of civilians for the actions of their government is wrong.

No collective responsibility

Hamas’s killing of Israeli civilians, including children, and kidnapping civilians, including children, is also injuring the Palestinian cause and is leading to only more suffering. Hamas is an antisemitic military force that deliberately targets civilians, and I will not justify their actions anymore than I will justify the actions of the IDF. The world is better off without Hamas, but that doesn’t justify the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.

In the wave of discourse the war has triggered, invariably Palestinians are being held responsible for the actions of Hamas, or ordinary Israelis are being held responsible for the actions of the IDF. The political supporters of both sides (inside and outside the Middle East) like to blame a whole people for the actions of a few. At the same time, we don’t hold all Americans responsible for what Donald Trump does or hold every Russian we meet responsible for Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

I would hate to be held personally responsible for all the shitty things that the British government does or has done; from the Invasion of Iraq, to benefit cuts that have created an explosion in child poverty. We need to stop blaming all Palestinians or all Israelis for all the death in this war or the violence will never end.

Hatred in Britain

I have spoken to British Jewish friends who are frightened by the level of hatred directed at Jews this war has provoked. There has been an increase in antisemitic attacks in Britain. This is shameful. The Jews are a people who have been historically oppressed, denied a voice, driven out of many countries and faced mass extermination. You’re not living in a liberal, tolerant country when Jews are feeling threatened. This hatred must end.

I have also spoken to British Muslims who feel that this war shows that the lives of Muslims or people of colour are worth less than white people. We would never allow over 30,000 (as of February, finding reliably figures is hard) white European civilians to be killed by any country for any reason; yet when it’s Muslims in the Middle East, an army of talking heads springs up to argue that actually the best thing is to kill tens of thousands of Muslims and destroy their homes and communities, and anyone who thinks otherwise is being naive.

British Muslims are also worried that if you point this out you’ll be accused of justifying terrorism or being an Islamic extremist (or at least part of a community that shelters terrorists and extremists). There has also been an increase in anti-Muslim hatred in Britain since the war began. Time and again with this conflict, we are forcing everyone into narrow brackets, assuming what they believe and justifying hatred against them. This has to stop.

Moral horrors

Every time I see a news article or opinion piece about this war I see the civilian death toll climbing, or read about something else that crosses a moral line. From journalists being killed, to hospitals devastated, to universities destroyed, to starvation, to aid being cut off, to aid workers being killed, to safe areas for refugees being bombed, to talk from members of Israel's government about clearing out the entire Gaza Strip and driving its population into Egypt, to politicians in Britain (especially the Labour Party) refusing to condemn actions even a child knows is wrong.

The war needs to stop. The killing of civilians needs to stop. Food needs to be allowed into the affected areas. Palestinians must be allowed to return to their homes. Their communities must be rebuilt.

Israeli civilians must be able to live free and without fear of being killed, like music festival goers were on October the 7th. This can only come about through a negotiated piece, like what happened eventually in Northern Ireland. The thing is, no one thinks that by the end of all this Israel will be less secure; however, there is a chance Gazans will all be driven out of the Gaza Strip, or that they will be allowed to stay but with a severely reduced standard of living and having to live under the constant watchful gaze of the IDF creating a climate of fear no one would want to live under.

Not justifying death

You might feel that saying that the war must stop now is taking one side. So be it. If you feel this view is antisemitic, or that anything I have written here is antisemitic or gives cover to antisemites, then please let me know. I don’t want to add to the fear that Jews live with. I want to see less death in the world, and I don’t believe this huge amount of killing will lead to less death.

I know this isn’t bold, but it’s better than the talking heads who seem to wake up each day to think of new ways to justify the deaths of huge numbers of people who belong to a different culture and religion.

How could this happen?

I am left wondering how could this happen? So much death. So many lives destroyed. The products of civilisation laid waste. Things that are supposed to be sacred and protected, from hospitals to universities, destroyed. Have we entered a phase in history where might makes right and if you want to destroy your neighbour then you can, because the West can’t think of a way to say to Benjamin Netanyahu and his government that it’s wrong to kill so many people? After asking nicely, we’re powerless to stop the killing.

There is more than enough blame and hypocrisy to go around. Many people have shown solidarity with Ukraine when they came under a brutal attack from Russia, and rightly strongly objected to Russia for laying waste to Ukraine, yet they remain silent when Israel lays waste to Gaza. Is this because Israel is in the club of powerful Western allies that get to do what they want to poorer countries? Or is it because we in the West also collectively blame the Gazans for what Hamas did?

Maybe it’s because we tried asking the Israeli government nicely to not kill quite so many civilians and they didn’t listen. If we were to go further and say, stop sending weapons to the IDF, then this would involve admitting that all those people who bang on about the rights of Palestinians have a point, and Western governments cannot allow a sudden outbreak of caring about people in non-Western countries.

Starmer and his reasons

The Labour Party is one part of the British political establishment that has worked hard to prevent there being a sudden outbreak of concern for dead civilians who are Muslims. Since the beginning of this war, they have pretty much explicitly made the point that Israel can do whatever it wants to its Palestinian neighbours. Keir Starmer appeared to say in an LBC interview that Israel has the right to cut off water and power to Gaza, which is a war crime. Later he tried to row back on that, after his subordinates defended what he said.

Starmer was a human rights lawyer, so he knows that this is a war crime. Why has he and many senior Labour politicians (aside from a few notable exceptions such as Sadiq Khan) refused to condemn the mass killing of Palestinian civilians? I guess its for the same reason Labour does anything else: they are completely committed to winning the vote of an angry Boomer Tory/Labour swing voter called Neil from Nuneaton who hates lefties, young people, people who march and probably Muslims as well.

I guess tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have to die so that Labour can avoid having an awkward conversation with Neil about the fact that he can’t have his every angry whim indulged in a world filled with so many problems. Then again, if Starmer were not going to tell Neil he’s wrong about child poverty in the UK or the environment, then he’s not going to risk enraging Neil by challenging his view that all Palestinians are bad and deserve what happens to them.

Cynicism about politics

Refusing to condemn (and even giving his blessing to) war crimes is a disgusting moral failing from Starmer. There have been many war crimes and moral failings in this war from the IDF and Labour has not condemned them. It’s yet another sign that Starmer doesn’t care about anything other than moving counters from the blue column to the red so that he can become Prime Minister without offering any change to the status quo.

I had hoped that having a human rights lawyer as Labour leader would mean that human rights (such as the right not to wake up to a guided bomb for breakfast) were respected, but I guess I’m just a naive fool for believing that politicians would care about Muslim civilians in a country outside Europe. This is just another step on my road to complete cynicism.

Living free from the horror of war

There will be those on the left who think that I don’t go far enough, or even that my measured comments are covert support for Israel. If you draw that conclusion from my honest words then I have failed. I am working on a longer article about this war and the left’s response to it. Who knows when I will be happy that my thoughts are clear enough to post it, but I continue to think and to read and try to empathise with people who are suffering.

I can imagine that the uncontroversial take outlined above will piss everyone off because I’m not coming hard enough down on one side or signing up to someone else’s take. I’m okay with that. Being angry right now in the face of so much death is fine.

All I have to say is that there should be a ceasefire now to stop the killing and then we need to move towards a two-state solution and a lasting peace. No more killing now so that there can be peace later. That plan has failed. We need to stop killing now so that everyone can live free from the horror of war.

Image of the Gaza War taken by Hosnysalah and used under Pixabay Content License.