| Topic: | An ageing student writes | |
| Posted by: | David Ainsworth | |
| Date/Time: | 10/09/25 14:46:00 |
| Gdn today:- "Starmer defends engaging with Israel, saying refusing to do so would be student politics Stephen Flynn (SNP) asked why the Israeli president was being invited to Downing Street. He said Isaac Herzog was someone who “called for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people and who signed the artillery shells that destroyed their homes, their families and their friends”. Starmer replied: We have suspended arms that could be used in Gaza. We have sanctioned extremists. We suspended trade talks. But the point he raised is a very serious one. We all want an outcome that ensures peace, that the hostages get out, that aid gets in under a two-state outcome. It is the only way we will get peace in a region that has suffered conflict for a very, very long time. I will not give up on diplomacy – that is the politics of students."" -------------------------------- Peter Oborne:-"In October 2023 he [Herzog] claimed that all Palestinians in Gaza were "unequivocally" responsible for the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel. "It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved," he said in remarks that South Africa submitted to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) during its genocide case against Israel." --------------------- "The Netanyahu government’s handling of the war in Gaza is “leading Israel to pariah status,” Health Secretary Wes Streeting warned Tuesday, ahead of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to the U.K. Herzog is set to visit Britain this week “to show solidarity with the Jewish community, which is under severe attack and facing a wave of antisemitism,” according to his office. But, Streeting, who narrowly held his north London constituency last year against a challenge from a pro-Palestinian candidate, said the Israeli president must be held accountable for the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza. “He needs to answer the allegations of war crimes, of ethnic cleansing and of genocide that are being levelled at the government of Israel,” Streeting told Times Radio on Tuesday. “He needs to explain how, when we have seen so much evidence of the atrocities being perpetrated by the Israeli army, how he can possibly claim that the IDF is the most moral army in the world.” The health secretary stressed while Hamas’ attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 “united the world in condemnation,” they could not “be answered with a level of civilian innocent loss and suffering that we’re seeing in Gaza.” Streeting added: “This Israeli government is leading Israel to pariah status and finding itself increasingly isolated on the international stage.”" (Politico 9/9/25) |