Israel and Gaza

On Saturday evening there normally is nothing on that is worth watching, so I looked at the TV listings with a sense of disdain. However there was one programme that I did want to see, a tribute to the television chef Keith Floyd who died recently. Following that was a repeat of a satirical show that I had missed and I needed to watch. Its from shows like that that I pinch all my best material from.

Following that was yet another history documentary about the Nazis. When ever TV does history half the time is is about the Nazis. While it is important that we don't forget what racism and twisted nationalism can bring about, so often these “Documentaries” seem to be no more than veiled praise, even admiration, for what the Nazis did. Oh they tell you about the bad things too, but as they seem to linger so much on the way that the county was unified and regained its pride... yes it looked unified as the opposition was arrested and killed.

The point is that that there really is nothing new that can be said about the Nazis. I realise that each new generation needs to learn what race hatred can lead to, but not a week passes without yet another programme about this despicable form of ideology.

Then when I checked my email, there was an urgent call to action from Amnesty International regarding the war crimes that were committed in the war in Gaza.

As much out of guilt when the state of Israel was created and recognised by the west, there was a moral duty that the Jewish people had a homeland. But what started out as a state for the Jews, has become a Jewish state. A subtle difference, but a land for the Jews is one where the Jewish people can live in freedom alongside it neighbours. While a Jewish state is one where religion dominates. Therefore no matter how much the state may say all its citizens are equal, just as in animal farm, some are more equal than others.

While any state has the right, both under international law and morally, to defend its self and its borders, it genuinely breaks my heart to see Israeli turn from being the oppressed to the oppressor. Not least because of my own Jewish ethnic heritage. But I can not support any nation or state that commits crimes against humanity in the way that Israel has done and is still doing so.

I have no love for nor do I support Hamas, the legally elected authority in Gaza. But with the constant oppression of the Palestinian peoples by Israel and indirectly by Britain and the US, then the election of Hamas was and is the logical result of that oppression. Since the 1960s Israel has been building not just settlements but whole towns and cities in occupied land. In breach of International Law and United Nations security council resolutions. Yet Britain and America continue to support Israel.

Over the years this has empowered Israel to continuously breach international law and become more brutal and oppressive. This injustice in the middle east is the root cause for all the Islamic terrorism in the world today. The terrorist threat will not ever go away unless and until the West treats Israel with an even hand and condemns the abuses of human rights and international law that the state of Israel executes. It is this injustice that is feeding the resentment of the west by the Moslem peoples.

Even though the events of the genocide that was perpetrated against the Jewish people was and remains a unique crime against humanity. However it does not justify in any way, shape or form, the Jewish people or the Jewish state committing crimes against humanity either. It is like a criminal who blames a dysfunctional childhood for their criminal behaviour. While that criminal should receive the help and support to get over the abuses of the past that shaped them, they also need to be punished for the crimes they commit.

The State of Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza and the western nations need to condemn this with the same vigour that we condemn the nations we disapprove of.