Reading only slightly between the lines of US foreign policy on Israel/Gaza, I detect that its most urgent aim is to get rid of Benjamin Netanyahu. The same goes for the Foreign Office and Lord Cameron. The shocking killing of the World Central Kitchen workers is being pressed into the service of this cause by London and Washington. Obviously there are lots of reasons – corruption accusations, alleged divisiveness, Anno Domini – why it might soon be time for the Israeli Prime Minister to depart, but why is that a decision for Israel’s western allies? Don’t we normally allow fellow democracies to make up their own minds who leads them, especially in a war? Undermining Netanyahu is a displacement activity, damaging our aim of upholding Israel’s right to defend itself. If Joe Biden prevents Israel moving against Rafah, he stymies victory. Israel is fighting a war which we say we want it to win, yet we are interfering in a way which suggests we want it to lose. As we have seen in other situations – Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria – the West weakens its global standing by supporting X or Y and then shying off when things get tougher. Its enemies therefore win by playing a long game. If Biden eases out Netanyahu, how long before he makes comparable moves against President Zelensky?
Can one commit an offence under the new Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act in England? Probably the answer is: ‘No, but tread carefully.’ An email sent from England is ‘outwith’, as Scots say, the Scottish jurisdiction. Nevertheless, something done in England can contribute evidentially to a prosecution in the Scottish courts.
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