Benjamin Netanyahu should not be Prime Minister of Israel. It is a stain on Israel’s political system that after the massacre of 7 October, the man whose entire selling point to voters was that he alone could keep Israel secure has been able to remain in power through a deal with extremist Israeli politicians.
But none of that changes the fact that Netanyahu’s response to this week’s appalling statement by the leaders of France, Canada and the UK was entirely correct.
To recap: earlier this week: Emmanuel Macron, Mark Carney and Keir Starmer issued a demand to Israel: do what we say or face ‘concrete actions…we will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions.’ Halt the ‘egregious’ expansion of military operations in Gaza, they ordered, or be treated as the villain of the piece.
No wonder Hamas then thanked them, because (as I wrote here earlier this week) the three supposed allies of Israel were doing Hamas’s bidding. As Hamas put it: ‘The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) welcomes the joint statement issued by the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, and Canada. Hamas considers this stance an important step in the right direction…’
In response, last night Netanyahu let rip.
By issuing their demand – replete with a threat of sanctions against Israel, against Israel, not Hamas – these three leaders effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power. They want Israel to stand down and accept that Hamas’s army of mass murderers will survive, rebuild and repeat the 7 October massacre again and again and again because that’s what Hamas has vowed to do. I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer: When mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you’re on the wrong side of justice. You’re on the wrong side of humanity and you’re on the wrong side of history.
Netanyahu may be a deeply flawed prime minister but every word of his response is correct. The démarche from the three leaders is a straightforward demand that Israel allow Hamas to regroup, with nothing in return for Israel. Stop fighting, Israel: wave the white flag.
It wasn’t Netanyahu who picked this fight. It was Starmer, Macron and Carney who went on the offensive, threatening sanctions on Israel (with the UK also suspending trade talks). When Israel is treated as some sort of colonial outpost by three western leaders and is ordered to wave the white flag to terrorists, any leader would respond as Netanyahu did.
Starmer has stood and watched as Jew hate has become normalised
While Starmer, Macron and Carney called for Hamas to release the hostages, they targeted none of their ire at Qatar. Qatar has such powerful links to Hamas that last week it was able to instruct the terrorist organisation to release Israeli-American hostage Eden Alexander immediately (as part of a side deal to coincide with President Trump’s trip to the Middle East) and he was then released within hours.
All of which begs a question: why is Starmer doing this? I have no idea, nor do I care, what he actually thinks. What matters is that he is another example of how politicians without principles are the most dangerous of all. Starmer issued a statement yesterday after the murder of two Israeli Embassy staff in Washington, telling us that ‘as always, I stand in solidarity with the Jewish community’, later adding that “anti-Semitism is pure hatred and we must confront it wherever it emerges’. Fine words, but pure drivel.
Starmer has stood and watched as Jew hate has become normalised on the streets of Britain, with support for intifada and ‘resistance’ trumpeted alongside praise for Hamas and Hezbollah on the regular hate marches. At a march in Manchester just days after 7 October, for example, an enormous banner reading ‘Manchester supports Palestinian resistance’ was not merely permitted, it was the centrepiece – with police standing alongside to ensure those holding it could march freely.
Politics is about numbers, and for Starmer and his party there is one set of numbers which count above all in this context. There are 37 constituencies with a Muslim population over 20 per cent, and in a further 73 seats the Muslim population is between 10 and 20 per cent. At last year’s election, Labour’s vote fell by over 14 per cent from 2019 in those constituencies where the Muslim population was above 15 per cent. The votes went to the so-called ‘Gaza independents’, with wins in Leicester South, Blackburn, Birmingham Perry Barr and Dewsbury and Batley. But it is not just those four victories that concern Labour. Their overall support shows that candidates running on their appeal to Muslims can secure enough votes in such seats to pose a real threat to Labour. Health Secretary Wes Streeting only held on in Ilford North by 528 votes, for example, from British-Palestinian independent candidate Leanne Mohamad; in Bethnal Green Rushanara Ali clung on narrowly; and in Birmingham Yardley Jess Phillips only just scraped home by 693 votes.
This is what drives Starmer’s inaction against open anti-Semitism in Britain, and it is why he has become increasingly publicly hostile to Israel. Expediency is the driving force – and if that means siding with Hamas over Israel, so be it.
Comments