While Palestine bleeds, Starmer bleats

The empty vessel that is Keir Starmer has decided that Israel’s destruction of Gaza, its genocide of the population and its deliberate starving of the Palestinian people, including babies and children, has suddenly become “intolerable”.

Or perhaps it was the sight of Israeli soldiers taking video game style pot shots at desperate Gazans queuing for food at supposedly safe aid hubs that tipped him over and led him to suggest he might recognise a Palestinian state. Or maybe Netanyahu’s brazen plan to occupy the Gaza strip was a step to far for Starmer.

It is frankly nauseating to listen to a man who initially defended the idea that it was ok for Israel to block food, water and fuel from the civilian population of Gaza in the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas attack now try and claim some moral high ground. Of course, his weasel words are not matched by any action. That is why the Israeli ambassador in London dismissed his parliamentary posturing and promised to continue to rain death on Palestinians.

Throughout the Israeli offensive Starmer and his wretched excuse for a Foreign Minister Lammy, have emphasised their uncritical support for Israel. It has the right to defend itself, they said. Its action was a justified response to the 7 October events they insisted. It is our ally, and we will continue to supply it with parts for the F-35 bombers needed to maintain its deliberate obliteration of buildings, hospitals, schools and homes throughout Gaza was their constant refrain.

Little wonder then that few believe the fake outrage Starmer and Lammy are now claiming. Israel’s genocide has been well documented, well proved and known by all since 7 October. Yet Starmer and Lammy only now claim that they will do something about it – but like King Lear on the Heath they know not what. And that is because they support Israel and its right to commit genocide because Palestinian lives don’t matter to them.

If they cared one jot about the lives of the malnourished babies now dying in the shells of hospitals that remain in Gaza, they would have acted months and months ago as the death toll rose and as Netanyahu’s expansionist war aims became clear. They would have owned up to the fact that this was not – and never has been – about Israel’s right to self-defence. It is and always has been about Israel’s right to create a Greater Israel fertilised by the bones of Palestinians crushed underfoot in both Gaza and the West Bank.

And while the macabre dance of death has wended its way through Gaza party members who expressed any support for the Palestinians were routinely suspended and expelled using alleged “antisemitism” – the carefully crafted Aaron’s Rod that was used to beat Corbyn with when he was leader – as the reason. It was a catch all accusation. It meant that you could not be pro-Palestinian or anti-Zionist without being labelled an antisemite. And it was a handy weapon to get rid of remaining leftists.

Indeed, rather than openly branding Israel as guilty of war crimes and state sponsored terrorism non-violent direct-action campaigns like Palestine Action, are proscribed by Starmer – and his Home Office Gauleiter Cooper is relishing the chance to lock up elderly pensioners for declaring support for Palestine Action.

Act against Britain’s wretched support for Israel and you are branded a terrorist in the same category as Isis. So much for Starmer’s reputation as a champion of human rights. The right to protest is being whittled away by his increasingly authoritarian government.

Any Labour MP with a shred of socialist decency needs to bang on Starmer’s door now to demand that he:

• Ban all military aid and trade with Israel
• That a complete boycott of Israeli goods be imposed
• That any British company with investment or involvement with Israel end it this minute
• That sanctions on a level equal if not surpassing those imposed on Russia be implemented against Israel now

There is another issue longer term and that is the legitimacy of the Israeli state itself. Starmer timidly suggests he may recognise a Palestinian state within the framework of a two-state solution.

 Ton anyone with half a brain – which excludes the toolmaker’s son – that option is long since dead in the water.

The time has come for all socialists and democrats to state openly that the region needs to see the establishment of a single Democratic, Secular Republic so that from the water to the sea Palestine can at last be free.