Although Keir Starmer going out to bat for the genocidal Netanyahu regime (and giving it feminine pronouns) is very much the established norm, on some level I'm puzzled by his decision today to double down on David Lammy's insistence that Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza. Ultimately this will not remain a matter of interpretation for self-interested politicians - the question of whether genocide has occurred will be adjudicated in international courts and also by academics. When a legal and academic consensus of genocide is established, and I do think that's now a question of 'when' rather than 'if', Starmer will clearly be seen to have been catastrophically on the wrong side of history, and that's bound to be detrimental to his legacy. It really is odd that he's not leaving himself a bit of wiggle-room.
In one specific sense, of course, Lammy was just indisputably wrong and there should have been no great difficulty in publicly admitting that. He suggested that not enough Palestinians had been killed for it to be genocide, and using that word would trivialise 'real' genocides like the Holocaust in which millions died. However, the first legally recognised genocide in Europe after the Holocaust was the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, in which "only" 8000 people died. That's less than a fifth of the minimum death toll in Gaza (likely to be a massive underestimate) and is a little over 0.1% of the number killed in the Holocaust. Ultimately defining genocide isn't a numbers game, it's about the nature and characteristics of the act.
In the long run, the UK government's good relations with Netanyahu could end up looking as poorly judged as having good relations with Hitler - the only real difference between the two leaders' actions is one of scale. It's interesting that one of the reasons given for scepticism over the claims that Donald Trump is a fascist is that true fascist governments of the past have tended to be violently expansionist. Well, Trump may not tick that box (notwithstanding his fury when Denmark refused to sell him Greenland) but Netanyahu certainly does - he's made no secret of the fact that he's going all-out for annexation of what both he and Bill Clinton call "Judea and Samaria", ie. the sovereign Palestinian territory of the West Bank. The Israeli government also meets a number of the other criteria for fascism, notably militarism, suppression of opposition and a belief in racial supremacy.
An authentic fascist leader is committing an authentic genocide in plain sight in the year 2024 - and yet he remains the West's number one buddy. That's going to have long-term consequences for leaders like Starmer, probably well beyond what most people can imagine right now.
gaza casualties are over 70% civilian, that is a real dirty war
ReplyDeletethe israelis have hit every hospital, and are now on track to have hit every school, with precision weapons; it's not an accident
and will tell the world these are all Hamas HQs
they are all liars, genetically incapable of telling the truth about anything
They are deliberately targeting and murdering Palestinian children with piloted drones. And the unionists in the U K are playing their part in supporting and facilitating it. Shameful.
DeleteAnon at 8.04
DeleteYes. We were all livid at the Lidge
..not forgetting the Lodge
Deletelet us never forget or surrender to the vicious idolatry of the green brigade who targeted every lodge in scotland with statues of the virgin mary and prevented true protestant men from walking the kings highway, which just randomly goes past that church where the priest thrust his face into an orange brothers phlegm as he cleared his throat
DeleteRetired US Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who was Chief of Staff to Sec of State Colin Powell, said he never believes official Israeli figures as "Israelis are Patent Liars" and says that anything coming from the Israeli Govt "Is all Propaganda".
Deletethe ashkenazi are not even from the middle east - they don't qualify even if you think a 3000 year old property deal between imaginary entities holds much water
ReplyDeleteI call him Mikdred Glutch
Deletewhat if they build the third temple, sacrifice the red heifer and - nothing happens
Deletethey will feel awfully silly
Mhairi Black has announced she is not standing.
ReplyDelete.....right. So she must be sitting-down then....yes?
DeleteElton John said the opposite.
Delete8.34am - good hopefully that will mean no more drag queens going to primary schools.
DeleteOn the face of it the ease with which establishment politicians in the west, have accepted and defended the deliberate mass murder of civilians in Gaza is difficult to understand. That includes for me. I didn't expect the likes of Starmer to wade in the blood of children quite so determinedly.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's to do with the ongoing decline of the west, the rise of BRICS as an alternative, and the grinding failure of western governments to find a progressive, democratic way out of the disintegration of neoliberalism. Netanyahu is a fascist but at least he's 'our' fascist and not Putin's or Xi's.
A second state visit for Trump comes from the same thinking. Starmer will hide behind the old psychological defences of 'realism' in a harsh world.
We have to keep pointing out that these fellow travellers of barbarism are full parts of the problem by their own choice. Starmer and his like do these things because they have neither the inclination or the courage to stand up for the economic and political alternatives that systemic collapse faces us with in the west.
It makes it a bit easier when it's someone else's primary school being obliterated. Loathsome enablers of mass murder is where the UK Labour Party, and plenty of others, are placing themselves.
“ I didn’t expect the likes of Starmer to wade in the blood of children. “ Well you have been paying insufficient attention. This is the guy who said it was fine for Israel to cut off food, water and fuel to Gaza.
DeleteBe sensible - that was part of what was surprising. Think about things don't just blurt.
DeleteMaybe Donald will strike the two state deal neither side's leaders want and contine to kill their own people to stymie.
ReplyDeleteAnd pigs may fly.
I've just heard Nicola Sturgeon has been piloting a bomber over Gaza.
DeleteLots to criticise N S over. Your stupid and offensive comment trivialises the horrors of Gaza. Have a look at yourself.
Delete9.58am One of your fellow inmates tell you that story.
DeleteStarmer is a creature of the Security Service / Services (Thames House is an absolute given, and I’m fairly certain about Tel Aviv). Consider the recent stushie regarding his much missed Chief of Staff, Sue Gray.
ReplyDeleteGray comes from solidly working class, Irish diaspora stock, having grown up in London. Financial restraints prevented her going to university, and she joined the Civil Service straight from school.
How did she end up joined at the hip to Keir Starmer? Well, she resigned from the Civil Service in 2023 to take up the position as his Chief of Staff while he was leader of the opposition. By exercising this highly unusual move, she was found to have broken the Civil Service code.
Prior to this, her most high profile move was to produce the report into “Partygate” that was credited with bringing down Boris Johnson’s government. Johnson had exhausted his usefulness to the Permanent State by this point and was seen as an increasingly rogue and inept liability.
One curious note from Gray’s Wiki page; “Gray took a career break in the 1980s, a step described … as "strikingly unorthodox".During this time, she ran the Cove Bar, a pub in Newry … during The Troubles, … Peter Caldwell, a former special adviser to several ministers, said it had been speculated Gray was a spy at this time, though Gray denied it.”. The Cove Bar was a Republican / IRA haunt.
It’s touching how much loyalty these senior politicians show to their Chiefs of Staff (Handlers) when the going gets tough. All terribly redolent of Nicola Sturgeon’s visceral attachment to Liz Lloyd.
Lloyd is an agent of the British state. You can tell the way she presents herself when on the telly. Bold as brass - giving out the signal she is untouchable even though many people know who she is and what she has done.
ReplyDeleteShe's been in my house, should I be worried?
DeleteThe horrors of Gaza, the incompetence and dishonesty of labour, the hypocrisy and move towards outright fascism of the Tory party, and what is WOS currently obsessed with? Yep, same old same old. It keeps the mouth frothers happy.
ReplyDeleteWhat’s up anon 10.34am you and Nicola got shares in this merchandise - chest bands and willy hiders. You pervert.
DeleteYou seem very clued up on the detail. Shame you don’t understand what I was saying. There’s a surprise.
DeleteI've got a clicky pen
DeleteAgree. They have nothing to offer thinking people.
ReplyDeleteSilly post all people alive think.
DeleteEats shoots and leaves
DeleteEid proved otherwise
ReplyDeleteThe decreasing number of duggers have turned on each other particularly two of the more sensible ones. About Independence? No, Trump.
ReplyDeleteWhich one is the fan?
DeleteIfs- we see you.
DeleteShould have gone to Specsavers.
DeleteWhat's a dugger?
DeleteWhile I was using the term Ethnic Cleansing with respect to the Israeli Govt's behaviour in Gaza and Lebanon, because I saw clear parallels with Bosnia, I was reluctant to use the term genocide. However I didn't realise that Bosnia had in fact been declared a genocide. Bosnia is a far better and appropriate comparison than Nazi Germany in that it's not emotionally loaded and it's well within living and documented memory.
ReplyDeleteIndependence isn't difficult to achieve if you're prepared to do to others what they did to gain ownership of another's territory
ReplyDeleteZzzzz
ReplyDeleteWwwwww
ReplyDeleteYou come across as a bit of a thicko.
Delete