Here’s a good one. Replying to a pro Hamas nut job on – surprise! surprise! – the Guardian’s Facebook page, someone who accused Labour leader Keir Starmer as being funded by Zionists, and presumably under their direct control, this person referred to me as having a “genocidal mindset”. All I said was “Fuck off, racist.” Such a snowflake. Having carried out a cursory social media inspection of this person, who may well be a bot, I note that he, if he is really a he and not a she, is actually the racist in the room, proudly showing off his pro Hamas credentials by displaying the anti-semitic “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” slogan, so proudly chanted by those who wish to extinguish Israel and kill all Jews. Oh the irony of it all.
I cannot condone the over-the-top reaction of Benjamin Netanyahu’s right wing to the Hamas mass murder of innocent civilians at the 7th October massacre, although I fully accept Israel’s right to defend itself, but oddly I haven’t seen a great deal of condemnation of the massacre by the Pro Palestine/pro Hamas (I know there can be a difference but sometimes it’s hard to tell what it is), the deadliest attack against Jews since – oh, let’s think – the genocidal maniacs of the Third Reich who gave the world the Holocaust.
Sure, the war in the Middle East needs to end, which isn’t very easy since the highly influential Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and that Netanyahu is not known for his willingness to negotiate or even just talk. Why, Israel is currently opposed to the so-called two or twin state solution, whereby Israel and Palestine could run their own business side by side, living happily ever after.
I don’t mind being accused of having a “genocidal mindset” by a racist – your daily reminder: anti-semitism is racism, although some people don’t regard it as racist as some other racisms: I do – but this is what you get these days if you have the brass neck to stand up for Jews and Israel.
In recent weeks, we have seen diners in McDonalds and Starbucks abused for eating and drinking coffee because both companies are funding Israel, or some such other nonsense. Shoppers in Zara have been abused by people who don’t even know why, although it was something to do with an item which some people curiously concluded it was taking the piss out of Palestinians. I haven’t personally been abused yet, apart from when I crossed a Pro Palestine picket line outside of Sports Direct a year or so a go and bought a Puma T shirt, just to annoy the demonstrators who object to Puma sponsoring Israeli sports teams
All this death and destruction has to end and as ever if it does it will come down to the will of the people. The late journalist Simon Hoggart used to say that “the people of Northern Ireland would do anything for peace except vote for it”. Is that what we are facing in Israel and Gaza, where the extremes of Netanyahu and Hamas are locked in seemingly permanent and mortal combat?
Refer to my “genocidal mindset” by any means, but I really don’t have one. I just want peace and if I lived in the Middle East, I’d always vote for it.
