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No change
So I woke up this morning, noting a slight chill in the air. But nothing spectacular, either weatherwise or any other wise. There certainly doesn’t seem to be any change in the political scene at all.
Yet there is a flurry of headlines that think the opposite, and the BBC spells it out clearly: “Sir Keir Starmer is expected to announce the UK’s recognition of a Palestinian state in a statement on Sunday afternoon.”
There are two main problems with this. One is that there is no Palestinian state waiting to be recognised. The other is that UK policy has long been to support a two-state solution. This would necessarily involve recognition. So, as of this slightly chilly “Sunday afternoon”, nothing will have changed. Yet we are to believe that brave Keir has looked at the situation over the last few weeks and, calling into play the courage for which he is justly famed, has “shifted” his policy in defiance of Trump. Bravo! But it’s all bullshit.
In any case, Netanyahu, backed by Trump, won’t be making way for a Palestinian state. There will be no Palestinians left in the West Bank or Gaza, when Bibi and Trump have done their worst; and let’s not forget that Gaza itself is set to be the new Riviera, set up for rich people who have become bored with Nice, Cannes and Monte Carlo, with their nice clean beaches. The new, Trump-owned beaches of Gaza won’t just be clean: they’ll have been cleansed.
What more could you want?
Disproportionate slaughter?
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, says “There is nothing more atrocious and preposterous” than the lawsuit filed in the international court of justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocidal actions against Palestinians in the Gaza war.
Israel is a Jewish state. The Nazis committed genocide against the Jews, murdering 6 million of them. That historical tragedy is called the Holocaust – with a capital H.
I say there is nothing more atrocious and preposterous than Israel doing the same to the Palestinians.
Some have said the Israeli response to the Hamas attack is “disproportionate”. That’s not good enough, is it? We’ve all seen what it is: it’s a holocaust. Even if they haven’t reached 6 million.
We should call it by that name. And Israel should be held accountable.
Telling the truth: the undiplomatic diplomat
Following the horrors of the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s collective punishment of innocent civilians in Gaza in response, Craig Mokhiber, director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights until yesterday, has said four things some of which, up to now, have been almost unmentionable. But, daring to say them, he is certainly a hero.
He has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza. You’re not allowed to even suggest that Israel could ever be guilty of genocide or ethnic cleansing, after the mass slaughter of the Jews in the Nazi Holocaust. But Mokhiber says what is happening in Gaza is “a textbook case of genocide”, and he also accuses the UN of failing to prevent it.
He accuses “the US, the UK and much of Europe” not only of that failure but also of “arming Israel’s assault and providing political and diplomatic cover for it.”
He says:
The current wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in an ethno-nationalist colonial settler ideology, in continuation of decades of their systematic persecution and purging, based entirely upon their status as Arabs … leaves no room for doubt.
He suggests a solution:
We must support the establishment of a single, democratic secular state in all of historic Palestine, with equal rights for Christians, Muslims, and Jews … and, therefore, the dismantling of the deeply racist, settler-colonial project and an end to apartheid across the land.
These are the things he’s said.
He’s a hero.
Top UN official in New York steps down citing ‘genocide’ of Palestinian civilians: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/un-official-resigns-israel-hamas-war-palestine-new-york?embed=true
Answering the question asked – a new approach in British politics
This exchange took place last night on Channel 4 News between Jon Snow and John McDonnell, Labour’s newly appointed shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. It had a slightly odd start because Snow had been asking about economic questions. He said that trust (by the electorate) would be important. “The last Labour government”, Snow said, “left Britain with the worst deficit since the Second World War.” MacDonnell nodded. Snow continued, “And establishing trust is difficult.” Then without any warning he changed the direction of the interview:
“Snow I mean, if we take your case, for example, if we take something like what you said about the IRA, people will find that very hard to understand …
McDonnell [nods] Yes.
Snow … Why would one honour the IRA with their guns and bullets? – to quote you.
McD Yes, I need to explain quite a bit, and I’ll do it briefly if you don’t mind. This was 13 years ago at a time when the peace process was extremely fragile, and we were worried at that stage that, if elements within the IRA, or the Republican movement, thought they were going to be humiliated and defeated, there’d be a major split, and that way the bombings and the military campaign would continue on. So some of us had to go out there – I might not have chosen the right words – but actually explain to them that they could stand down with dignity, they weren’t being defeated, they were standing down, they could put their weapons all aside – and I was saying that to both sides. Now, I know as a result of that I got attacked, but actually it worked, and if it saved one life it was worth it.”
Two things: it’s interesting that by this account people like McDonnell (Republican sympathisers, who had for a long time been accused of being IRA apologists) were absolutely essential to keep the peace process going. It wasn’t just Blair and Clinton, and Senator this and Representative that, the great and the good who all got medals. Nevertheless the McDonnells and the Corbyns have been vilified and sidelined ever since.
Secondly, Corbyn’s approach to Hamas and Palestine/Israel seems similar: “We have to talk to Hamas, we can’t just ignore them.” He’s been criticised for saying that and for meeting Hamas but reckons that everybody knows it’s true, including Israel, and says, “Blair has spoken to Hamas more times than I have.” But it seems that Blair, our ludicrously named “peace envoy”, had little success in bringing the several sides together. There’s no surprise in that. It needs someone with a bit of form to get in there.
Vilified and sidelined, did I say? Well, until now. Because now, Corbyn has proved himself electable. And McDonald had a fairly optimistic take on the future in the interview:
“Snow … why is it that so many of your colleagues think that you are so far out as to be unfit to be Chancellor?
McD Well, it’s because in this place [the House of Commons] I’ve had to oppose a lot of things and sometimes that’s meant swimming against the stream, and that has meant Jeremy and I have been isolated. But actually we were right on many of these issues – we were right on Iraq, we were right to vote against the privatisations, we were right to vote against the cuts that even New Labour introduced to benefits. So I think we’ve been proven right. And I think the tide is now with us.”
And I, for one, hope you’re right, John.
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