Gerald Kaufman MP: ‘they are treated like dirt by the Israelis’
On Thursday 15th January in the House of Commons, Gerald Kaufman MP (Manchester, Gorton, Labour), gave an impassioned speech on the conflict in Gaza. We reproduce it in full here. A video of the debate is at the end.
I was brought up as an orthodox Jew and a Zionist. On a shelf in our kitchen, there was a tin box for the Jewish National Fund, into which we put coins to help the pioneers building a Jewish presence in Palestine.
I first went to Israel in 1961 and I have been there since more times than I can count. I had family in Israel and have friends in Israel. One of them fought in the wars of 1956, 1967 and 1973 and was wounded in two of them. The tie clip that I am wearing is made from a campaign decoration awarded to him, which he presented to me.
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We still need a coherent foreign policy
David Miliband’s sudden recalibration of British foreign policy has been widely – and rightly – interpreted as a make-over to match the more refined tastes of the Obama administration. By abandoning the brutish, unloved ‘war on terror’ and embracing complexity, pragmatism and an acceptance that our enemies can’t be thwarted by force alone, Miliband’s Guardian piece bore a striking resemblance to the language of ’smart power’ that Hillary Clinton promised in her appearance before the Senate.
However, the question of whether or not this is ‘change you can believe in’ is up for debate. James Hooper declares himself “reassured”, but Claude at Hagley Road catches a whiff of opportunism. Aaron just wants to know: what the hell took you so long?
There are some good points in each of these posts, but what I think’s been missed about Miliband’s rather blatant fawning is that he seems to think that by mirroring the rhetoric of the incoming administration, Britain will be the same kind of sidekick to President Obama as Tony Blair was to President Bush. In my view, that seems unlikely.
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Libdems want white phosphorous inquiry
Commenting on news reports that the headquarters of the UN aid agency in Gaza has been hit by white phosphorous fired by Israeli forces, Libdem Shadow Foreign Secretary Edward Davey called for the government to demand an explanation.
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Miliband: the re-invention
While I can’t be quite as optimistic as James has been below, I do appreciate the contrarian and positive take he has offered on David Miliband’s latest Op-Ed in The Guardian.
I think you have to also give some credit to David Miliband, for his sheer bloody cheek. He’s spent the last 5+ years toeing the party line over Iraq and the wider war on terror, only to abandon the policy the moment a more sane administration begins measuring the drapes in the Oval Office.
Is it time to boycott Israel?
The above is what the Palestinians of Gaza have now been living with for 17 days. Presumably a “bunker busting” bomb, which the United States only very recently sold Israel, the ostensible target is supposedly the smuggling tunnels out of Gaza into Egypt.
Those tunnels, which do smuggle weapons, were also helping to keep Gazans alive by bringing in fuel, food and other essential products which were either in short supply or blocked from entering the Strip by the Israelis. If the blockade is not lifted and the tunnels are successfully destroyed, the people of Gaza will suffer more once this is over than before.
There were around 60 air-strikes on the Strip on Monday night/Tuesday morning, not all probably of the same horrifying, shocking power as that one but undoubtedly more than enough to utterly destroy countless buildings and the humans that may well have been inside them. One such strike targeted a Christian Aid health clinic that contained hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of medical equipment, desperately needed in Gaza. The attack was not a mistake, but completely deliberate: the owners were telephoned 15 minutes before and told to get out, along with the family that lived above it. Why an ordinary home and clinic were methodically chosen and given the OK to be destroyed is a question that will probably never be answered.
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Resolving Israel/Palestine: philosophically
There is no point my pretending that what I write here will make any difference. But there are two things we can draw from moral philosophy that I believe are relevant to the current war in the Gaza Strip. The aim of this article is to think through the conflict neutrally and reasonably using the tools of political philosophy.
Impartially speaking, what we’re aiming to balance are the autonomy claims made by a tide of autonomous agents. Having an historic connection to a land obviously gives someone a claim to that land. However those actually living there have much stronger claims. Security and livelihood also strengthen an autonomy claim. What I think is interesting about thinking impartially in this way is that there is no necessary derivation from these autonomy claims of a requirement for a unitary state.
The German peoples needed a Germany; the Italian peoples needed an Italy; the Greek peoples needed a Greece. And, of course, the Jews needed a homeland. The problem with such a perspective, what some cultural theorists would call a binary perspective, is that it doesn’t settle competing autonomy claims over a disputed territory. The history of political self-determination is littered with the consequences of disputed realms: Northern Ireland, Kashmir and Israel being three bloody examples.
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Today’s London march for Palestine
Well, wow, is all I can say. I think over 50,000 – 70,000 people attended today’s march in London against the fighting in Gaza. Impressive, considering it was so cold I couldn’t feel my hands half the time.
This pic was taken once I was back safely in a coffeeshop. More pictures below the fold.
Blog coverage: septicisle and Jamie Sport have commentary and pics.
More: fridgemagnet, bigbluemeanie, lenin’s tomb,
Update: more coverage now also at: harpymarx, The Daily (Maybe), Though Cowards Flinch, Socialist Unity and I.R.
Gaza: an end to whataboutery
The tragic situation in Gaza is a very serious issue. But there is another place where a cessation of hostilities would do no harm – and could even help too. How about a cessation of ‘whatabouttery’ on the internet?
Yes, we mean you. If you can only see the humanity of one side and never the other, one side of the history, and one side of the suffering. If everything you say is to point the finger of blame at the baddies and exonerate the goodies. If you haven’t had a new point to make for five, ten or sixty years.
You are not part of the solution; you are part of the problem.
- if you are ordering pizza for the Israeli Defence Force,
- waving Hamas flags on peace rallies
- organising boycotts, blame and ostracism
- if you think that bombing Gaza will bring peace
- if you think Hamas are a bunch of valiant freedom fighters
- if all you can do is quote SWP or Conservative Friends of Israel talking points…
Peace is difficult because it will come when Palestinians and Israelis recognise the essential truth – that their peace and security is mutually inter-dependent.
That’s difficult for those at the centre of the conflict. But what’s your excuse?
Ever stop and wonder if you’re making it worse? Well, you are
Why not think before you post? Why not give peace a chance instead of just cheering one side?
Whatabout taking a few weeks off?
Please feel free to sign below and/or distribute it with the words changed.
Who’s picking up the tab?
(Click the image for the full version)
Guardian scoops: Obama will talk to Hamas
The Guardian’s front page story – headlined Obama camp ‘prepared to talk to Hamas’ - certainly heralds a significant shift in US foreign policy, but the report itself makes clear this is rather less dramatic than it at first sounds.
There is no talk of Obama approving direct diplomatic negotiations with Hamas early on in his administration, but he is being urged by advisers to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, and there is growing recognition in Washington that the policy of ostracising Hamas is counter-productive.
That this would be the likely direction of travel will not surprise foreign policy analysts. However, the move is much less a reaction to current events in Gaza than something which is likely to be complicated (and delayed) by them.
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MSF: ceasefire a ‘paltry response’
The military offensive in the Gaza Strip is affecting civilians indiscriminately, while medical teams continue to face serious obstacles to providing assistance, the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today.
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Clegg: Britain must halt arms exports to Israel
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg today called for Gordon Brown to halt all arms exports to Israel and condemn the unacceptable and counter-productive tactics which are bringing suffering to hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza.
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I want to march for Gaza, but I can’t
I would like to march against Israel, really. I don’t think that bombing campaigns like the one we currently see are the answer at all. I am appalled by its dead, especially the innocent victims within it.
I am a member of the Left Jewish bundle, and was a long standing supporter of parties such as left wing Israeli Peace party Meretz and organisations like the shared Arab / Jewish village Wahat al Salam ~ Neve Shalom. I have Palestinian and Israeli friends and they expect me to march.
However I will not march in London against the war. The reason is that inspite of my opposition, I feel highly uncomfortable amongst the demonstrating crowd, for it appears somewhat suspect to me. The burning of the Israeli flag as quoted here at end of a London demonstration and the atmosphere of unidirectional violence are just confirming this.
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What is Israel’s motivation?
Perhaps the most dispiriting aspect of the invasion of the Gaza Strip is the utter pointlessness of the exercise; while military victory is all but certain, at every other level, Israel can only be the loser.
Decades of refusal to allow Palestinians their legitimate political rights has not left it even marginally more secure, and its current savage actions will only serve further to galvanise support for Hamas.
The brutalities that the Israel Defense Forces are perpetrating right now guarantee the rocket launchers and the suicide bombers more recruits then they will know what to do with, for a generation and more to come.
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Labour MPs letter over Gaza crisis
Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East and 53 Labour politicians have written a letter to Foreign Secretary David Miliband, calling for action to stop the bombing of civilians in Palestine. The letter is signed by 53 MPs, MEPs, peers and members of the Welsh Assembly, London Assembly and Scottish Parliament.
The Letter and list of endorsers can be found below.
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Why Obama is silent on Israel
As Israeli tanks thunder into Gaza towards an outcome where the only certainty is the loss of yet more innocent life, the demands for Obama to publicly address the crisis get louder and more numerous, as do the interpretations of his silence. Is he implicitly condoning Israel’s actions? Is it a sign that he’s reluctant to criticise Israel until he’s in office? Or is it an example of what some critics have long thought to be a fence-straddling cautiousness that his soaring rhetoric manages to disguise as unifying leadership?
My hunch, which is based partly on observing his positions for the past two years and partly on the methods of the Clinton era, is that a President Obama would’ve supported limited, intelligence-based air assaults on known military targets, most probably Hamas’ rocket-launching sites. That would’ve been too hawkish for my liking, particularly as the civilian casualties involved would’ve been considerable and the chances of destroying Hamas’ rocket-launching capability from the air would’ve been slim.
Spurious ways to justify Israel’s behaviour
As a denizen of the blogopolis I’ve found the pro-Israel comments offered, from the blogs I tend to avoid and on most of the ones I try not to, intriguing. Although there have doubtless been some hamfisted arguments made “pro-Palestine” the loyalist Zionist commenteers seem to have collectively tried to take things a bridge too far, and lost all semblance of rational coherence. The facts have changed but their opinions remain firm.
This is not a tendency I am alone in noting, on this site Dave Osler stated: “Even its strongest supporters must be finding it difficult to mount a positive case.” and it is this I will explore today.
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Jewish Voice for Peace statement on Gaza attacks
Statement taken from the JVP site which is here. Jewish Voice for Peace is an organisation seeking to build cross-border solidarity for peace in Israel and Palestine. Amongst other activities they have organised support for the Shministim, young Israelis who were prepared to refuse to fulfil their military service in the occupied territories (thus several were jailed), who are latter day heroes in my view.
Jewish Voice for Peace joins millions around the world, including the 1,000 Israelis who protested in the streets of Tel Aviv this weekend, in condemning ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza. We call for an immediate end to attacks on all civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli.
Israel’s slow strangulation of Gaza through blockade has caused widespread suffering to the 1.5 million people of Gaza due to lack of food, electricity, water treatment supplies and medical equipment. It is a violation of humanitarian law and has been widely condemned around the world. continue reading… »
Not concealing their enjoyment of the bombing
One thing I’ve noticed over the last couple of days is that despite the predictable calls for revenge from ordinary Gazans, none have been openly celebratory about the prospect, or felt that such actions would be completely praiseworthy, let alone worth cheering. If anyone has, drop them in the comments.
How different this seems to be to quite a few Israelis quoted, not to mention some newspaper editorials. We’ve had the woman from Sderot who said what was happening in Gaza was “fantastic”, the civil defence official that said he would “play music and celebrate what is happening” and Yoei Marcus in Haaretz who writes:
I will not conceal my enjoyment of the flames and smoke rising from Gaza that have poured from our television screens. The time has finally come for their bellies to quiver and for them to understand that there is a price for their bloody provocations against Israel.
Gaza invasion: today’s press coverage
The Guardian
Gaza and long-term goals divide Israeli analysts
Islamists urge pro-western regimes to act
Independent
Five sisters killed while they slept
Sami Abdel-Shafi: Israel puts security before peace
Mary Dejevsky: Don’t overlook Israel’s vulnerability
BBC News
Israel pounds Gaza for fourth day
US tacitly backs Israeli action
Rockets plague Israeli towns
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