DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Shame on those who won’t stand with Israel
The sheer savagery of the unprovoked assault on Israel demonstrates beyond all doubt that Hamas does not belong to the civilised world.
Whatever Britain’s pro-Palestinian liberal elites might tell themselves, this was not a legitimate act of resistance by freedom fighters. It was mindless, pitiless carnage by ruthless terrorists.
Gunmen massacring innocent families in cold blood. Hostages – including women, children and the elderly – captured and shipped to Gaza. Bodies mutilated and paraded before cheering mobs.
It was an abomination which should be condemned by anyone with a shred of decency or compassion.
Hideous as it was in scale however, this is the latest in a long litany of cowardly attacks against the weak and vulnerable.
Israel has no choice but to meet force with force. The Middle East’s only democracy has every right to defend itself (Pictured: Gaza on Sunday)
The Hamas founding charter openly commits it not merely to the destruction of Israel but also to the elimination of Jews.
Given the UK has officially designated the group as a terrorist organisation, this makes it all the more reprehensible for the BBC to equivocate by insisting the mass murderers are simply ‘militants’.
Labour, meanwhile, also has questions to answer. Jeremy Corbyn, who Sir Keir Starmer enthusiastically backed to become prime minister at a time when Labour was shot through with anti-Semitism, once described Hamas as ‘friends’.
Sir Keir may condemn Hamas today and boast that he has rid the party of such abhorrent bigotry, but the job is clearly far from complete.
Yesterday, hard-Left MP Apsana Begum was pictured with a pro-Palestine group in the Labour conference centre hours after it defended the butchers of Gaza. Has Sir Keir the moral compass to finish the purge?
Israel has no choice but to meet force with force. The Middle East’s only democracy has every right to defend itself.
It may be bloody, but Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s forces will be targeting trained paramilitaries, not murdering civilians.
Israeli civilians were purportedly taken off the street and driven back into Gaza
This is a dangerous moment for the world. Was Hamas – Iran’s proxy – trying to scupper Israel-Arab peace talks by pushing Middle Eastern opinion back towards polarised extremes? And did US President Joe Biden embolden the assailants by being so pathetically appeasing to Iran on oil and cash transfers?
The answers will become clear in time. It is vital the UK and the West stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel as it restores order after this darkest of days.
Keir’s leaky logic
Discovering what Sir Keir truly thinks on any given policy is usually like drawing blood from a stone.
But as his party’s conference got under way, he at least gave an unequivocal answer on the vexed issue of illegal immigration.
In an extraordinary intervention, he vowed to scrap the Rwanda scheme even if the Supreme Court rules it legal – and even if it reduces illegal Channel crossings.
How on earth does that make sense? For someone who never stops reminding us that he was a top barrister, Sir Keir’s arguments are staggeringly feeble.
He claims sending asylum seekers to Rwanda for assessment has ‘failed’. How can he possibly know? We will find out whether this plan succeeds or not only when flights are finally allowed to take off.
Discovering what Sir Keir truly thinks on any given policy is usually like drawing blood from a stone
He also says the flagship policy is ‘hugely expensive’. Yes, the short-term costs may be high. But if it works, billions will be saved by not having to accommodate and feed those arriving in small boats.
Despite the Left’s indignation, the public is behind the Rwanda scheme as a means of deterring illegal cross-Channel migration.
The truth is, Sir Keir and the Left are fanatically opposed to border controls.
By pledging to scrap Rwanda flights even if they work, he is putting ideology firmly before the national interest.
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