PETER HITCHENS: Only two views are allowed on Gaza... and both are simple-minded rubbish
The first view, popular among 'Right-wing' media, is that the hideous Hamas massacre of October 2023, and the seizure of hostages, justifies Israel 's actions – and that if you oppose them you must therefore be a Hamas sympathiser and an anti-Semite. And quite possibly a terrorist.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
16 minutes ago
- Telegraph
How Europe turned on Israel over Palestine
Europe's leaders rallied behind Benjamin Netanyahu after the October 7 terror attacks, backing Israel's right to defend itself from Hamas. 663 days of war later, their goodwill and support are running out fast. Britain is the latest European country to turn on Israel, joining many others in condemning the scenes of starvation from the Gaza Strip and the violence of settlers on the West Bank. Emmanuel Macron last week said France would formally recognise Palestine at a September UN meeting. Now Sir Keir Starmer has said Britain could follow suit. It's a policy shift from both Paris and London designed to rebuke Mr Netanyahu and salvage the idea of a two-state solution. There are other moves afoot in national capitals and at EU level, to force Mr Netanyahu to stop what some leaders call his 'genocide'. Donald Trump refuses to put pressure on Israel, telling reporters on Wednesday: 'You could make the case that you're rewarding Hamas if you do that.' Perhaps for that reason, Israel shows no sign of backing down. Mr Netanyahu promptly accused Sir Keir of 'rewarding terrorism' after already lashing out at Mr Macron. There has been a dramatic rise in anti-Semitism in Europe since October 7, but Israel still has friends in Europe. Europe's hard-Right has rallied to the Israeli Prime Minister, including Hungary's Viktor Orban and Marine Le Pen's National Rally, which was founded by her Holocaust denying father But their support does not carry weight compared to the backing from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has been instrumental in blocking EU-level action against Israel. Germany and France are the EU's two most influential countries, but are on opposite sides of the argument. Mr Macron's decision to join 130 countries in recognising Palestine, and become the first member of the UN Security Council to do so, could shift the dial in Brussels. But German support for Israel, a legacy of its role in the Holocaust, is ironclad because of its 'Staatsräson' principle, which means Israel's right to exist is Berlin's reason of state. Whether that holds amid accusations of genocide will be crucial in determining the strength of EU action against Israel. European Union The European Commission issued its harshest criticism of Israel this week, accusing Benjamin Netanyahu's government of presiding over a 'famine' and 'violating human rights' in Gaza. Plans were drawn up to exclude the Jewish state from the European Union's £80 billion Horizon Europe research programme as a way of punishment. But divides between member states over how to handle Israel meant a vote on the measure was kicked into the long grass. Berlin was blamed as the strongest hold-out by envoys in Brussels. Ahead of EU talks over a crackdown on Israel, the Jewish state's diplomatic mission in Brussels circulated a note defending its actions in Gaza. The memo insisted that Israel had 'begun implementing significant measures to facilitate humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip'. It accused those claiming there was a famine of supporting a 'false campaign promoted by Hamas and its allies'. A push by Ireland and Spain to suspend the EU-Israel association agreement, a bare bones trade deal, as punishment for human rights abuses in Gaza has also stalled amid EU divides. The EU was united in efforts to put Hamas under pressure. The bloc signed a declaration agreed in New York at a United Nations conference, alongside 17 other countries and the 22-member Arab League, which includes pro-Palestinian countries such as Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. It was a historic moment because the Arab and Muslim countries signed a declaration explicitly condemning the October 7 attack, many for the first time. It is arguably a shrewd tactical move designed to counter Israeli claims that by recognising Palestine, the West is rewarding Hamas, which does not believe in a two-state solution or recognise Israel's right to exist. France France's decision to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September after months of hesitation is a far cry from the 'unconditional' support for Israel it declared after October 7. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza – and in particular, the growing threat of famine – appears to have been a turning point for France, which is home to the largest Jewish community in Europe and the third largest in the world. It marks a significant shift for the country, which went as far as calling for an international coalition to eradicate Hamas after the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks in Israel. Last November, France refused to act on the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant against Mr Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, both accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In April, Mr Macron told journalists in his presidential plane returning from a visit to Egypt that France would recognise the state of Palestine 'in the coming months'. French conditions for recognition included the demilitarisation of Hamas, the release of Israeli hostages, and the reform of the Palestinian Authority. None of these conditions have been fully met. Hamas still controls Gaza and holds 49 hostages, 27 of whom the Israeli army has declared dead. Experts say Mr Macron continues to call for the 'demilitarisation' of Hamas but is no longer making it a prerequisite for recognition. Some analysts say France also changed its tune to align itself more with the Global South and counter claims of double standards in its hawkish stance on Ukraine and silence over Israel's actions in Gaza. They say the pledge of recognition was a strategic move by Mr Macron, who sensed an opportunity to become a playmaker and shift the current stalemate where neither Israel nor Hamas nor the United States appears to be seeking an end to the conflict. Germany Germany is one of Israel's strongest supporters in Europe. However, this week the German government hinted that it was considering a withdrawal from the association agreement with Israel, in a sign of its concern over famine in the Gaza Strip. Friedrich Merz, the German Chancellor, said on Monday that his country 'reserves the right' to pull out of the agreement, when asked by reporters if he was considering such a move. Berlin has not followed Britain in threatening to recognise a state of Palestine in order to increase pressure on the Israelis. Mr Merz's government considers the move to be premature. Germany will only recognise Palestine as part of a broader, long-term peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. 'The German government continues to view it as one of the final steps toward realising a two-state solution,' German officials said last week, following a phone call between Mr Merz and Mr Netanyahu. Ireland Ireland formally recognised Palestine in May 2024, which was hugely popular domestically in a country that draws parallels between its own struggle for independence and that of the Palestinians. The coordinated announcement with Norway and Spain drew a furious response from Israel, which recalled the Irish ambassador and accused Ireland of having a 'disproportionate obsession' with Israel. To Dublin's annoyance, the media in Jerusalem were allowed to film ambassador Sonya McGuinness being made to watch videos of female hostages being taken in Hamas's October 7 terror attack. In December, Israel closed its embassy in Dublin after Ireland supported South Africa's legal action against Israel in the International Court of Justice. Ireland has pushed for the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement. It is also pressing ahead with the Occupied Territories Bill, which will ban trade between Ireland and Israeli settlements on the West Bank. Spain Spain's socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez has, like his Irish allies, been calling for tougher EU action against Israel and insisting on the need for a two-state solution in the Middle East. Mr Sanchez said this week that the 'famine in Gaza is a shame for all of humanity.' On Monday, Madrid announced it would airdrop 12 tons of food into Gaza in a rare example of a European nation joining Middle Eastern countries in sending aid by air. Last month, Mr Sanchez became the most prominent European leader to describe Israel's war on Gaza as 'genocide'. The Israeli embassy in Spain accused him of 'demonising' Israel and declared Spain was on 'the wrong side of history'. Madrid called the statement 'unacceptable' and summoned the ambassador for a dressing down. Netherlands and Belgium The Dutch government imposed travel bans on Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, two far-Right Israeli cabinet ministers, after accusing them of demanding 'ethnic cleansing' in the Gaza Strip on Monday. It also summoned Israel's ambassador to denounce the 'unbearable and indefensible' situation in Gaza and is also supporting moves to impose trade sanctions on Israel. In November, it apologised after visiting Israeli football fans in Amsterdam were attacked in disorder branded a 'Jew Hunt' but it has hardened its position. The Netherlands has a caretaker government because Geert Wilders, the far-Right populist pulled his party out of the coalition, triggering snap elections in October. The fiercely anti-Islam Mr Wilders is a vocal and unapologetic supporter of Israel. As Prime Minister Dick Schoof announced Dutch support for suspending Israeli involvement in Horizon Europe and other measures, Mr Wilders told him: 'Hamas will be proud of you.' In neighbouring Belgium, King Philippe, took the unusual steps of delivering unusually direct criticism of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calling it 'a disgrace to humanity', in his National Day speech. Its government supports a two-state solution and has not ruled out taking action against Israel in the shape of sanctions, whether at domestic or EU levels.
The Guardian
16 minutes ago
- The Guardian
We are Israeli human rights activists. Our country is committing genocide
The question keeps gnawing at me: Could this really be it? Could we be living through a genocide? Outside Israel, millions already know the answer. But many of us here can't – or won't – say it aloud. Perhaps because the truth threatens to unmake everything we believed about who we are, and who we wanted to be. To name it is to admit that the future will require reckoning – not just with our leaders, but with ourselves. But the cost of refusing to see is even higher. For Israelis of my generation, the word 'genocide' was supposed to remain a nightmare from another planet. A word tethered to our grandparents' photographs and the ghosts of European ghettoes, not to our own neighborhoods. We were the ones who asked, from a distance, about others: How could ordinary people go on with their lives while something like this happened? How could they let it happen? What would I have done in their place? In a grotesque twist of history, that question now circles back to us. For nearly two years, we've heard Israeli officials – politicians and generals alike – say out loud what they intend to do: to starve, flatten and erase Gaza. 'We will eliminate them.' 'We will make it uninhabitable.' 'We will cut off food, water, electricity.' These weren't slips of the tongue; they were the plan. And then, our military carried it out. By the textbook definition, this is genocide: the deliberate targeting of a population not for who they are as individuals, but because they belong to a group – an attack designed to destroy the group itself. We told ourselves other stories to survive the horror, stories that kept guilt and grief at bay. We convinced ourselves that every child in Gaza was Hamas, every apartment a terrorist cell. We became, without noticing, those 'ordinary people' who keep living their lives while 'it' is happening. I can still recall the first time reality cracked open for me. Two months into what I was still calling a 'war', three of my B'Tselem colleagues – Palestinian human rights workers we'd worked alongside for years – were trapped in Gaza with their families. They told me about relatives buried under rubble, about not being able to shield their children, about the paralyzing fear. In the frantic efforts to extract them from Gaza, I learned something that has seared itself into my mind: at that moment, a living Palestinian in Gaza could be 'ransomed' for roughly 20,000 shekels – the cost, at the time, of leaving. Children cost less. Life priced in cash, per head. These were not abstract statistics; these were people I knew. And that was when I understood: the rules had changed. Since then, the surreal has become routine. Cities reduced to ash. Entire neighborhoods flattened. Families displaced, then displaced again. Tens of thousands killed. Mass starvation engineered, with aid trucks turned away or bombed. Parents feeding animal fodder to their children, some of whom die waiting for flour. Others are shot – unarmed civilians, gunned down for approaching food convoys. Genocide does not happen without mass participation: a population that supports it, enables it or looks away. That is part of its tragedy. Almost no nation that has committed genocide understood, in real time, what it was doing. The story is always the same: self-defense, inevitability, the targets brought it on themselves. In Israel, the prevailing narrative insists this all began on 7 October, with Hamas's massacre of civilians in southern Israel. That day was a true horror, a grotesque burst of human cruelty: civilians slaughtered, raped, taken hostage. A concentrated national trauma that summoned, for many Israelis, a profound sense of existential threat. But 7 October, while catalytic, was not enough on its own. Genocide requires conditions – decades of apartheid and occupation, of separation and dehumanization, of policies designed to sever our capacity for empathy. Gaza, sealed off from the world, became the apex of this architecture. Its people became abstractions, perpetual hostages in our imagination, subjects to bomb every few years, to kill by the hundreds or thousands, with no accountability. We knew more than 2 million people were living under siege. We knew about Hamas. We knew about the tunnels. In hindsight, we knew everything. Yet somehow we were incapable of understanding that some of them might find a way to break out. What happened on 7 October was not only a military failure. It was a collapse of our social imagination: the delusion that we could corral all the violence and despair behind a fence and live peacefully on our side. That rupture arrived under the most extreme rightwing government in Israel's history, a coalition whose ministers openly fantasize about Gaza's erasure. And so, in October 2023, every star in our darkest nightmare aligned. This week, B'Tselem released a report, Our Genocide, compiled by Palestinian and Jewish-Israeli researchers together. It is divided into two parts. The first documents how this genocide is being carried out: mass killings, destruction of living conditions, social collapse and engineered starvation, all fueled by incitement from Israeli leaders and amplified through media. The second part of the report traces the path that led here: decades of systemic inequality, military rule and policies of separation that normalized Palestinian disposability. To confront genocide, we must first understand it. And in order to do so, we – Jewish-Israelis and Palestinians – had to look at reality together, through the perspective of the human beings living on this land. Our moral and human obligation is to amplify the voices of the victims. Our political and historical responsibility is also to turn our gaze to the perpetrators, and to testify, in real time, to how a society transforms into one capable of committing genocide. Recognizing this truth is not easy. Even for us, people who have spent years documenting state violence against Palestinians, the mind resists it. It rejects the facts like poison, tries to spit them out. But the poison is here. It floods the bodies of those who live between the river and the sea – Palestinians and Israelis alike – with fear and unfathomable loss. The Israeli state is committing genocide. And once you accept that, the question we have asked ourselves all our lives rematerializes with urgency: What would I have done, back then, on that other planet? Except the answer is not rhetorical. It is now. It is us. And there is only one right answer: We must do everything in our power to stop it. Yuli Novak is the executive director of B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
The Herald Scotland
27 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Why Starmer missed the mark with Palestine recognition
Starmer's conditions include a ceasefire from both sides, while Israel must commit to long-term peace that delivers a two-state solution and no annexation in the West Bank. Conditions on Hamas include immediately releasing Israeli hostages and an acceptance that they will play no part in governing Gaza. This is progress and a major shift in the UK's foreign policy. Previously, the UK Government's stance was that a long-term peace plan had to be in place before recognition could be on the table. Starmer now says that the plan is to work towards a 'two-state solution', where an independent state of Palestine is established alongside Israel. Read more: Realistically, this is not a genuine attempt to recognise the state of Palestine. This, simply, is politics. It is an attempt to appease both sides while attempting to force Israel's hand to put an end to the suffering in Gaza. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is amongst the highest profile voices arguing that doing so would reward Hamas for the devastating October 7 attacks in 2023. Hamas are also unlikely to back a deal that diminishes their political power. This is a conflict that has been raging in the Middle East since the early 20th century. There is, clearly, no easy solution to the Israel and Palestine tensions. Britain's imperialist role in Palestine undoubtably influenced the conflict. It had control over the region between 1917 and 1948 before withdrawing and leaving a bitter and lasting war. The Balfour declaration helped create the Jewish homeland of Israel, but the UK equally promised Palestinians the right to their own land and peace. So what could be behind Starmer's change of policy, and why now? Read more: The internal pressure is growing on Starmer to act on the Gaza crisis. More than 250 MPs – over a third of the House of Commons - have signed a cross-party letter to pressure the Prime Minister into the move. These conditions are unlikely to be agreed by either the Israeli government or Hamas and any internal win Starmer gets from this move could be short-lived. By placing conditions on Palestine's recognition, Starmer looks weak. On Tuesday, a UN-backed organisation warned there was mounting evidence of famine in Gaza. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said: "Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City." That tells us that there are innocent children in Gaza who do not have until September for Starmer to make up his mind. Starmer is giving decision makers around 60 days to act on his conditions - if they don't, where will we be then? The recognition of Gaza cannot become a political game and Starmer must be decisive in his action. But for now, he missed the mark.
