Imprisoning two million people, half of whom are children, in such conditions as are imposed on Gaza, killing innocents in retaliation again and again, for decades. And then killing again because, those men, women and children clearly support Hamas which, in turn, wants the genocide of Israelis. It’s all good. And then, on October 7, the unthinkable happened, wiping all those earlier deaths from the slate and bringing a new justification for fire and fury. 

According to the World Health Authority, one child is killed every ten minutes in Gaza. That’s 144 a day, or 4,300 a month… how long would it take to get them all – probably too long but, maybe, before then, Palestinians would have got the message and accepted that they just need to move on. Hamas is to blame for the dead children in Gaza. And, by voting for Hamas back in 2005, those children – or their parents at least – must take some responsibility. Since then it’s been nothing but tit-for-tat rocket strikes – some Israelis killed, and some Palestinians. Okay, the balance of numbers is somewhat asymmetrical. A tragic 2,500 Israelis have been killed since 2000 according to WHO figures, and that includes 177 children. (If anyone interested, 21,500 Palestinians were killed, 6,500 of which were children.) The figures might look skewed, but that’s not down to Isreal. Hamas has expressed a desire to crush Israel, which kind of amounts to “asking for it”.  Hamas carried out that unspeakably savage attack on October 7, killing innocent Israelis – roughly 1,400, a quarter of them IDF soldiers, and taking more than 200 hostages. So, it’s understandable that Israel should want to kill their own share – ten thousand and rising, including more than 4,000 children – all gloves are off. 

Antisemitism vs genocide
It’s Hamas that wants genocide, not Isreal (even if it kind of looks that way). Okay, labels come cheap. It’s what’s in your heart that counts. And sometimes it’s hard to see what’s really in your heart, deep down. Is it antisemitic to weep for dead children call for the savagery to cease… to ask our politicians to stop supplying bombs and put all of their efforts, instead, into brokering peace – not just a ceasefire, but a lasting peace? Is it hateful to march in the streets of Europe or the US demanding that the savagery stop? Our own Home Secretary would say that it is (the same one that believes sleeping on the streets of London is a “life choice”). But, in what universe is it hateful to call for peace? We don’t really think for ourselves any more – we choose a side and close our ears and eyes to both compassion for those deemed our enemies, and objective truth outside approved sources.

Silencing the “hate marchers”
Criticising Israel for murdering civilians for being in the wrong place is not antisemitic. Calling for freedom for Palestinians is not supporting terrorism. It’s important to see what’s going on here – not just be blinded by outrage handed down to us. Israel is and should be a strong ally of the West, for so many cultural, democratic and historical reasons. But Israel doesn’t get a free pass. Just as the US and Britain were rightly held to account by their own citizens for lying about WMD to justify razing Iraq to the ground in pursuit of oil, weapons sales or other strategic or economic advantage. George W Bush told the American people and the world, after the September 11 attacks in 2001, that you’re either “with us or against us”. And the world took that to heart, dividing into an Axis of Evil and the Forces of Righteousness. It’s clear which side we’re on… isn’t it? Questioning our own morality or the truths upon which we embrace war, is seen as some kind of treachery, anti-American flag-burning hatred, siding with murderers and religious (Islamic) fanatics. Tony Blair bought (well, spread, at least) the lie – how many thousands of deaths of innocent people are a direct result of that lie, not to mention the destabilisation of the region and destruction of a beautiful and ancient culture.

Something deeply immoral is going on here, but Netanyahu and his unflinching supporters – in Israel, in Europe and in the US – can live with that. Because Hamas is to blame. Hamas is inhuman… savage. Obliterating neighbourhoods, displacing the population, destroying families and killing children in their thousands is justified because Netanyahu says so. Hamas is to blame for the dead children in Gaza.