This is proof Keir Starmer has only incentivised Hamas to inflict more agony, says ALAN MENDOZA
In sickening video footage released by Hamas, David was shown close to death from starvation and torture, apparently being forced to dig his own grave.
However appalled we are at the images – also controlled and released by Hamas – of starving Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, it ought to be unthinkable that a British government rewards a terrorist organisation for the brutal mistreatment and exploitation of innocent hostages.
Yet that is what Sir Keir Starmer has done, by offering to recognise a Palestinian state next month if an immediate ceasefire is not agreed – by Israel alone.
In doing so, he has incentivised Hamas to inflict agonies on the hostages, while allowing its own civilian population to starve.
And he has placed himself in a seemingly impossible political situation. Both courses of action – either following through on his threat, or performing another U-turn – are likely to destroy his premiership.
Make no mistake, it is Hamas only that benefits from the hideous photographs of starvation in Gaza – the scale of which, it is important to note, remains unverified by international reporters who are not allowed into the territory. Hamas is one of the main reasons the flow of aid and distribution of food in Gaza has broken down.
The United Nations has been so infiltrated and compromised by Palestinian extremists that their aid workers refuse to co-operate with the Israeli army. The result is an impasse that leaves children dying from hunger while food rots at the Gaza border and while the terrorist leaders gloat that they're winning the propaganda war.
Proof of this came in the footage of Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas politician, crowing to Arab news station Al Jazeera about support from Britain, France and Canada.
With his jacket open over a well-fed stomach, Hamad sneered: 'The initiative by several countries to recognise a Palestinian state is one of the fruits of October 7.'
What an appalling indictment of British foreign policy: a terrorist militia, proscribed under our own laws, boasting of the successes brought about by their slaughter in cold blood of unarmed civilians, many of them women and even children.
How is it possible for our Prime Minister to be so naive and badly advised? What did he imagine would be the result of his statement last week? He has rewarded Hamas for everything they have done, and promised a bigger reward if they keep doing it.
His obscenely stupid decision is, of course, the result of panic in the Labour ranks. His MPs, including many in his Cabinet, are desperate to fend off the threat to their seats that comes from pro-Palestine Muslim voters in their own constituencies, as well as from the creation of a new, ultra-Left party by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has a majority of just 528, in an area where a third of the population are Muslim. The Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, represents a seat with a 53 per cent Muslim population, and a majority of 3,421. Even a small number among them would tip the balance.
In A craven attempt to placate anti-Israeli voters who could wipe out his government at the next General Election, Starmer has sacrificed British strategic interests as well as our moral standing. Our main ally, the US, is disgusted with us, and rightly so. He has removed all pretence that Britain can play a future role in the Middle East as any kind of honest broker.
This is a foreign policy designed for Bradford and Birmingham, not the international stage. And it won't work because only a fool would believe that extremists will do anything other than pocket this appeasement before demanding more.
To press ahead now with recognising a Palestinian state will do the UK irreparable harm. But to back out will be deeply unpopular with his backbenchers and with his Cabinet. If this proves Keir Starmer's downfall, it will be entirely self-inflicted
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