'Unease growing among Tories and Labour at plight of Palestinians in Gaza'
Growing unease in Britain over the horrific plight of Palestinians as Israel retaliates against Hamas aren’t reflected by the Prime Minister and the Labour leader.
Mainstream MPs I’ve spoken to in both parties fear the UK Conservative Government and official opposition aren’t forcefully enough urging restraint by Israeli forces as Gaza is pounded ahead of a ground invasion. Scotland’s SNP First Minister Humza Yousaf, whose in-laws are trapped in Gaza, spoke for many in the Conservative and Labour parties, as well as the country at large, by reiterating his call for a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor to allow vital supplies in and innocent people out.
“I’m increasingly uncomfortable with what we’re saying and what the Tories are doing,” a Labour frontbencher told me. “The mounting loss of Palestinian lives after the Hamas savagery was depressingly predictable but we mustn’t stay silent or we’ll be complicit in Gaza’s fate.”
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly did the Sunday TV rounds on behalf of the government (BBC/AFP via Getty Images)The united front between the two main parties was illustrated by Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and his Labour Shadow David Lammy embracing in the Sky News studios. Haunted by Jeremy Corbyn and anti-Semitism that stained Labour, Keir Starmer’s determined to hug Rishi Sunak as close politically as Lammy did Cleverly physically. Labour’s top team is under orders not to post Palestinian flags on social media, pose for photos with demonstrators or attend rallies that could turn nasty.
The strain will be over Israel, understandably and justifiably seeking revenge on Hamas, breaching international law – which activists claim it is doing by cutting off water, food and power, and ordering mass movements of civilians.
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Lammy rightly faced criticism for refusing to state whether Labour supports Israel’s order for one million people in Gaza to leave, replying it was “not a yes or no question” and “war is ugly”. The World Health Organisation, a UN body, said Israeli orders to evacuate hospitals in Gaza are a death sentence for the sick and injured.
Rishi Sunak is to give a statement to MPs in Parliament on Britain’s limited military backing for Israel, protecting civilians, keeping Britain’s small Jewish population safe and preventing the Israel-Hamas war spreading across the Middle East. Britain, a former colonial power in the region fought by the Jews who founded Israel in the aftermath of the Holocaust and historically resented by Palestinians, in reality has little clout with Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, never mind Hamas.
Telling uncomfortable truths is left to former British ambassador to the US and UK national security adviser Kim Darroch.
“I wish that the Israelis were not going to conduct this ground operation, I don’t think their objective of eliminating Hamas can be achieved,” observed Lord Darroch, now a peer. “I think the next generation of Hamas fighters are already being radicalised on the streets of Gaza,”
If only Sunak and Starmer would be so candid.
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