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April 4, 2024 - 7:00am
In 1847 David Pacifico, a British subject resident in Athens, had his home stormed by a mob. The group numbered several hundred, and they blamed Pacifico — who was Jewish — for the prohibition of a traditional Easter ritual which involved burning a portrait of Judas Iscariot. Not only was Pacifico’s house vandalised — and his wife, children and son-in-law assaulted — but vast sums of money were taken. As that happened, the Athenian police did nothing.
Pacifico immediately wrote to the British authorities in Greece to explain what had taken place. In turn they approached the Greek government asking Pacifico to be compensated. Athens refused to do anything — twice. As a result Lord Palmerston, then Foreign Secretary, instructed Sir William Parker, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, to impose a blockade of Athens and requisition the country’s navy. That blockade lasted two months, and eventually King Otto — then Greek sovereign — agreed to settle.
This caused a political fallout in London, with Palmerston having to explain his actions in Parliament. He proceeded to give the speech of his life. “As the Roman, in days of old, held himself free from indignity, when he could say Civis Romanus sum, so also a British subject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and the strong arm of England will protect him from injustice and wrong.” The government won the motion in defence of the Foreign Secretary.
Compare that to the cowardly responses of Rishi Sunak, David Cameron and Keir Starmer as news broke that three British nationals had been killed while working for an aid charity in Gaza. While Israel officially maintains that their deaths were accidental, what happened is hard to put down to bad luck.
A convoy of three vehicles had delivered food to a warehouse in Gaza, and was on its way back — heading south from Deir al-Balah along the Al-Rasheed Road. This route had been agreed with the IDF, was in a de-conflicted zone, and the roofs of all three vehicles prominently displayed “World Central Kitchen” logos. What is more, according to Haaretz, the convoy contacted the IDF after the first vehicle had been hit — and yet the remaining two were struck regardless.
In response to those deaths, Sunak said he was “appalled” and urged Israel to “take immediate steps” to protect aid workers in Gaza. He resisted calls to end arms sales to the country, however. Cameron, meanwhile, asked Israel to “immediately investigate and provide a full, transparent explanation of what happened”. Entrusted with the safety of British nationals overseas, our government appears content that a country which has killed three of them investigate itself. All the while, it will continue to receive British weapons — weapons which might add to the ongoing death toll of more than 200 aid workers in the strip since October.
More bizarre still was the response of Joe Biden, allegedly the world’s most powerful person. The death of a dual US citizen left the President “outraged and heartbroken”, while he demanded that any investigation into the seven deaths “be swift” and “bring accountability”. Biden can’t be that heartbroken, of course, since none of this appears to have any implications for a $14 billion aid package to Israel, nor a separate arms deal that would reportedly include F15 jets and is valued at $18 billion. Polish authorities, to their credit, have initiated their own investigation into the killing of Damian Sobol.
Such conspicuous impotence, in Britain at least, spans the political divide. When asked whether Britain should continue to sell weapons to Tel Aviv, Pat McFadden MP — a senior member of Labour Friends of Israel — had no issue with it. That same day Darren Jones, also a member of LFI, rejected the idea that arms exports should cease. Both men, as well as Starmer (naturally a member of LFI too — along with 72 of his Labour colleagues), found themselves outflanked by that Left-wing radical Nick Ferrari.
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SubscribeI guess you take a risk working in a war environment.
Deleted.
“Why won’t Britain stand up to Israel over aid worker deaths?“
Because ‘friendly fire’ deaths happen in war, all the time. How many ‘friendlies’ were killed by NATO bombs in our last little sojourn to Libya? And who was PM then? Oh, yes, our current foreign secretary.
Just wondering how the pro-Israel commentariat on UnHerd is going to respond to this one. On the one hand, there’s a strong current of Little Englander-ism in our ranks, for whom the idea of Blighty putting the foreigners in their place appeals.
On the other, the currents of right wing Zionism run deep in these streams. Israel can seemingly do no wrong – even to kill aid workers who are bringing food to starving refugees is treated with a shoulder-shrug and a, “I guess you take a risk working in a war environment.”
I’ve tended to stop bothering posting on Israel-Palestine related articles for this reason. The boomer right is just temperamentally slavishly pro-Israel and dissenting against it here is basically pointless. It used to be more of an American malady, but it has taken a serious grip on the British right in the past decade or so, as if ‘my Israel right or wrong’ is somehow just a front in the campaign against Islamist extremism. It’ll take a few decades for this tendency to filter its way out, unfortunately.
I’ve largely given up commenting too. Mainly because nothing any of us do can make any difference.
I think it’s a mistake to imagine that there are only two polarised sides to this issue and that people are either always pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. I think it’s far more complicated than that. Equally, Israel and Palestine are not monolithic entitities.
It’s possible to believe that Israel has the right to pacify Gaza, while also believing that Netanyahu is a dangerous fool (he’s also still on trial for bribery). And recognising that Israel always go too far in military operations. And that there should be some sort of two state settlement. And that Israel should stop building in the West Bank. etc. But we have very little influence in making any of that happen. We shouldn’t delude oursleves that we do.
I don’t agree that there is nothing to be done or achieved through debate. Without the backing of the West, Bibi would be forced to the table overnight. The louder the voices of the people, the more the consensus on unconditional support for Israel breaks down towards the middle ground you mention.
That’s St.George flag beer swilling,white van driving fat wife with croydon facelift and ugly children chavs choosing to “stand with the Jews” because they’re not Muslim. The fact most Palestinians were Christian they don’t know. They think there sticking it to the Moslems by proxy. Their great grandmas and Dad’s were laughing at old Ally Sloper and his Ikey Mo.
Hmm, sounds a bit racist that Jane. Guess you have your own biasses it seems.
I’m sorry. Did you just say most Palestinians are Christian? You may want to verify that.
Well, your knowledge looks a bit deficient to me. A little bit of updating may help you see things from a different perspective.
What bigotry!
Put the gin down Jane.
A democracy surrounded by a sea of tyranny, some of whom have the extirpation of the state of Israel as an openly declared goal. Israel is in the right, almost irrespective of their behaviour. Also, it’s about time that they stopped pussyfooting around in Gaza.
It’s pretty much playing out in the comments, though I don’t really think it’s zionism, more just a determination to say the opposite of what the Guardian or BBC narrative is. Nuance seems to get lost, like you can agree that Israel needs to defeat Hamas but can also notice and acknowledge when they have done wrong?
I agree. Israel should acknowledge that it was wrong to kill the aid workers.
I thought they did that. Am I mistaken?
No, the problem is that the pro-Israel and the pro-Hamas sides disagree about what is right and what is wrong in this world. The refusal to distinguish between a military force which deliberately targets women and children using rape and torture, and a military force which goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid engaging women and children, is… telling? maddening? extraordinary? barbarous? terrifying?
And of course, the most terrifying fact of all… all the people here who see a moral equivalence between these two sides, get to vote in my local council election. <<shivers>>
May I perhaps suggest you take a look at Saving Private Ryan to understand what war is truly about. Anybody who thinks the IDF did this on purpose is quite simply a biased anti-semite. I’m not throwing that around lightly. Rather, I’m simply pointing out that the Israelis and the IDF are not stupid and anybody capable of adding 2+2 would know that such a strike would be a public relations disaster. War is horrific. It is beyond imagination. Until you’ve been subject to live fire (and I have not fortunately) you have no idea what you’re talking about. In war mistakes are made. Wrong places are targeted. Wrong intelligence is received, etc…. And that’s especially hard in the context of the current situation in Gaza given that Hamas uses civilians including aid workers as human shields.
Completely agree.
You only need to go paintballing to get an idea of how difficult and chaotic war must be. You never have complete and accurate information and you need to make split second decisions. Of course mistakes get made.
Surely it’s Bastani whose Little Englander credentials are on full display?
Also true.
…equally predictable, the Anti-Semitic Left can’t wait to line up with the Genocidaires of Hamas…
Thank you for posting this. Spiked has today published an article calling criticism of the attack on the World Central Kitchen workers “the new blood libel.” This level of denialism seems to me to be a form of pathological irrationality. I’m glad to know that not everyone has succumbed to it.
I’m not sure Aaron Bastani understands that there is a war going on in Gaza, not a football match. In what war ever were mistakes not made? His idea that the U.K. military should ‘guarantee the safe passage of aid convoys inside Gaza” is typical of progressive intellectuals who deal with theoretical constructs, and not with the reality of a war zone.
He thinks of it like a football match and we know which is his team.
Aaron Bastani doesn’t understand anything because he’s a Marxist. It’s like building a house on sand. If your foundations are sh*t everything above it is also.
Two glaring errors Russel. He is neither progressive nor intellectual
Unless the author can demonstrate that Israel killed the aid workers intentionally – or even provide a plausible explanation why they would – there is no point to this essay. It’s just another in a long line of hit jobs on Israel. Where’s the wailing about foreign nationals still held hostage by Hamas? Good people die in the fog of war.
So they’re in fully branded cars, travelling along a route agreed with the IDF, and alerted them after the first car was hit, yet they still murdered the others? Either they were targeted or the IDF is incredibly incompetent.
The fact this is simply the latest in a long line of poor IDF behaviour (the young girl on the phone for hours in the car who died along with the ambulance sent to rescue her, the escaped Israeli hostages carrying white flags, the recent shooting of Palestinian civilians on the sand) means I think Britain would be entirely justified in cancelling arms exports to the country. If this was happening in some banana republic their leaders would be in The Hague by now
.. or, it’s an AI doing the targeting.
Give me a break. No one gives a crap about anything going on anywhere in the world, other than Israel. No one gives a crap about Sudan or Armenia or Haiti.
Just because you don’t like Israel doesn’t make the killings intentional. You need evidence. A bunch of nut jobs were ranting a week ago about a boat running into a bridge in Baltimore. How could that possibly happen? It must be some kind d of plot. Not so much in reality.
Is it not interesting that in completely burned out vehicles the branding is barely damaged?
You really believe the IDF deliberately would target NGO con-combatants? I’d think there would be many more of these if that were the case…. one can easily imagine an operator being told that the WCK cars were Hamas cover vehicles. Jim is correct — wait for the evidence.
The IDF has a long history of incompetence, supporting or turning a blind eye to the murders of Palestinians by illegal ‘settlers’, as well as torture of Arab prisoners. It is currently fighting without clear war aims apart from aiming to eliminate Hamas. But as Israël effectively created Hamas by its ethnic cleansing and refusal to treat the Palestinians as just as entitled to recognition as a people as the Jews are, it can’t win this fight. The moral failure of Israel as a state is creating the conditions for a war without end and certainly without victory.
Mistakes happen in war. When Israel mistakenly butchers people the world erupts. When Hamas deliberately butcher people they chant from the river to the sea.
How is shooting fish in a barrel a “war”. How is slaughtering women and babies a.”war” .Who legally declared this War. When. Where. By what legal statute is this a War. It’s time to drop that victim schtick it no longer appeals. Tragic but proof that the abused go on to become those same abusers. And by so doing blacken everyone who shares their identity but is innocent and appalled.
That will be Hamas, when they murdered and raped 1,200 innocent people during a ceasefire.
Not only raped but cut off breasts, fired into genitals, burnt children, beheaded adults and took their heads as trophies back to Gaza where they hid themselves amongst civilians, fired rockets from hospitals, playgrounds – and said proudly that they’d do it all again.
Perhaps a better thought experiment would be to imagine how we would have responded if the IRA had done that in Britain. Did our army kill any innocents, mistakenly, carelessly or deliberately? Not that many perhaps but the threat wasn’t the same.
Could the Americans justify napalming the countryside in Vietnam? Not that 80% of Vietnamese civilians slaughtered were women and children unlike in Gaza, apparently. Did the US give warnings and provide safe passage when possible?
Clearly there are some nasty Israeli extremists and wild warriors, unlike the pacific Palestinians. We have them too in the UK and across Europe, USA, Russia, etc. and they seem to be gaining in numbers.
Pause the fighting and release the hostages (it’s a war crime to hold them isn’t it?) but Hamas must be stopped from fulfilling their commitment to slaughtering Israelis and using human shields.
Not just Hamas.
Israel accepted the 1948 partition, which gave Jews a tiny sliver of land, while handing over the major part (and urban areas) of “Palestine” to the Arabs.
The muslims refused, decided to exterminate the Jews. And failed. And lost more land. Again and again.
Even now, it’s not about land or independence, as the “river to the sea” chants show. It’s about doing to the Jews in Israel what muslims did to Jews elsewhere in the middle East, to Christians in Iraq, to Armenians in Turkey and to Hindus in Pakistan.
and took 250+ hostages in contravention of all known international law-It’s time to drop that victim schtick it no longer appeals…damn right-but I’m talking about the Hamas supporting Gazans
Unfortunately, Jane Baker calls that “victim schtick”. You know, like the Holocaust. It takes all the fun out of pogroms if the survivors keep on tiresomely complaining about it, eh Jane?
Hamas fish hide in hospitals, not barrels, and they shoot back. And the practice of formally declaring war went out of fashion more than half a century ago.
You are an idiot
Hamas declared it War, when it raped and murdered innocents, mutilated bodies as well as the living and stole civilians as hostages.
You have heard of Hamas, right? The rulers of Gaza who have spent years if not decades – and most of its budget – building up its capability to attack Israel including a vast network of tunnels who have fired thousands of rockets indiscriminately rockets attacking Israel civilians and launched numerous suicide attacks. The one that launched a brutal series of rapes murders torture and abduction of Israeli civilians some of whom were to music festival. You’ve heard of that organization right?
There was a ceasefire on October the 6th. Hamas broke it in the most brutal possible way. What planet must you live on to think that any state that was attacked this way would not respond militarily? The wood have been no deaths either of israelis or Palestinians had a mass not decided to launch this attack.
I’m sorry but you must be some kind of moral cretin not to see the fundamental difference between the military action which is Israel is carrying out in response to a totally unprovoked assault, and the kind of murderous anti-semitic activities of Hamas. Of course it is a well known that her mass policy is to embed its military among civilians and it cares not a wet about amongst the lives of its own martyrs anymore than it does about the Jewish people that it slaughters
Intentionality matters in morality which is why we don’t treat people who inadvertently for example kill others through accident the same as murderers.
I wonder if you think that the Allies into the second world war should have gone out of their way to avoid killing German civilians? And if not, why not? Any such policy would almost certainly have at least prolonged the war or even given Hitler’s regime a lifeline.
What an appalling post. Plays angels on head of pin over the word ‘war’. To hell with your ‘legally’, Hamas morally declared war.
And the 33,000 victims in Gaza? The IDF is out of control
Whose numbers ? Hamas >?
If you have other figures then please provide them, otherwise we’ll go with the internationally accepted ones. If they were that far out Israel would be publishing the true ones
Well, Israel does point out that over 12,000 of the dead were Hamas fighters, so why do you pretend that the dead are all civilians? “Internationally accepted” figures touted by those who are far from the scene and have their own agendas—that plus two bucks will get you a cup of coffee.
Hamas’s whole strategy depends on claiming as many civilian deaths as possible. The reality is that no other army in the world could achieve such a low noncombatant to combatant ratio, and no other country would go to such lengths to minimize civilian casualties, especially after Hamas’s genocidal rampage and medieval savagery.
It’s Hamas and the international solidarity community that revels in death, not Israel.
And apparently every last one was a civilian.
It seems that Israeli bullets are programmed to evade terrorists and hit only women and children—just ask Hamas.
“victims”???..noble Islamic warriors I thought-who is deciding what proportion of those killed are innocent civilians-you seem to be implying all “33,000” unverified dead are -so no Islamic jihadists then?
Well, you can do your bit and boycott the Eurovision Song Contest.
It is fascinating that even the Russia Ukraine conflict has just fallen out of any interest or even consciousness. Far more civilians have died in that conflict than in Gaza.
I am sorry, but war is hell for everybody involved and many civilians will get killed in a modern war, especially when what are the size deliberately stations it’s military facilities and personnel amongst those very civilians and their infrastructure. What is however deeply suspect why the only country that seems to ever be taken to account over this at least in such a systematic and relentless manner is Israel.
So Aaron Bastani is a closet Liberal Imperialist ! I wonder if he knows that Palmerston started out as a Tory ?
And he apparently believes that Israel is going to let British troops on the ground in Gaza to investigate. Show me any precedent for that.
While missing the obvious – that his new hero Palmerston – could never have allowed any foreign country to investigate in such circumstances.
Bastani’s self-awareness remains as pitifully low as ever.
In Palmerston’s day, we had the good sense not to get involved where our own interests were not at stake. I’d suggest we have no strong national interest in what’s happening in Israel and Gaza.
I would have thought that successful jihadist aggression would be very relevant to British interests, even more so in view of its internal jihadist problem.
These were precision strikes, not collateral damage. Possible explanations.
Israel is trying to induce starvation of the Gaza population and willing to block aid efforts militarily. (As aid efforts mount up this must mean more killings of its allies citizens.)
The drone operator mis- identified the vehicles, possibly a Hebrew speaker who couldn’t read the roof writing.
Israel received intelligence indicating the vehicles were being used by Hamas. Either an error or a bad actor instigating a media war coup.
The explanation you prefer is already set by your position on the war and will not change whoever investigates it.
The USA snake oil voiced representative talking to Rachel on 5live this morning explained how the high tech incredible precision of the weapons they are using in the unholy land are so precise that they only surgically remove the bad guys and he can’t explain what went wrong this time.
Tech never goes wrong…….or glitches……….
Human error?
Deliberate – to what end and how is it even in their favour to do so?
Are we even talking about a war?
Why are certain members of the west so up in arms about Israel and yet there has been not a peep about other massive atrocities of war and terrorism in previous years. Syria comes to mind…..
And China was responsible for a boat running into a bridge in Baltimore. Crap happens.
If you criticise the IDF you tend to get called anti semetic or other playground insults. It’s not worth debating as comments about the value of the lives of the courageous and unarmed aid workers, killed by trigger happy drone operators, just get drowned out in the noise of self justification.
How do you know the drone operators are “trigger happy” ? Or even want to be doing that job ?
If they weren’t trigger happy they would have gotten permission from their higher ups to destroy the targets. It’s a perennial issue with the IDF and has been for decades, dating back as far as the Liberty incident.
They’re God’s Own People. They OWN your house. It says so in the Title Deeds the Bible. They can do no wrong. But look,back in the 1930s they,like us now,waited,didn’t rise up,hoped for last minute salvation,it didn’t come so why would the survivors not be as proactive.as all get out for it never to.be done again..It’s so tragic and I get it. But it creates a horrific situation in which no one is right. Really we are all being manipulated,emotionally,intellectually, politically and both sides are right and both sides are wrong and someone else is taking all the money.
Duly noted, Jane thinks the Jews “own your house”. Oh, and she thinks British children are ugly. Kind of poisons the rest of her message.
Artie Ziff in the Simpsons thinks that everyone hates him because of anti-semitism. Marge had to explain to him at one stage that everyone hates Artie Ziff because he is a jerk. The IDF is Artie Ziff but on a larger scale. When you starve 2 million people to the point of famine and bomb aid-workers delivering food, everyone hates you because you are… a jerk.
So far, the IDF haven’t been holding babies in their hands and decapitating them. Not to mention the r*p*s (betcha you were big on Me Too back a few years ago? But that’s only when the b*t*hes didn’t deserve it eh?). That’s the difference in style between them and your rapey jihadi heroes. I assume you’ve taken sides on the different military approaches of the two sides, because you don’t seem to find fault with Hamas, only the IDF. Perhaps the IDF should imitate Hamas’s c*ck and knife methods, and then you’d approve. Weird how sanctimony works.
The predicted playground insults. How’s life in your IDF troll bunker?
I can’t believe the level of hatred there is for the people in Gaza, for me its the same as blaming all the Irish when the IRA were bombing and murdering; thank God the US were our allies or Dublin could have been taken out by their 500lb bombs.
Yeah I blame the Gazans. All available evidence is that they support Hamas’ goal of eradicating Israel and support its violent technique to achieving the goal.
There’s a very old saying, “a people get the government they deserve.” Gazans got the govt they elected.
What about the lives of the hostages still being raped & tortured in Gaza?
Probably similar to the hundreds of Palestinians who are getting a kicking while locked up in Israeli prisons without charge
So to be clear you are accusing the Israelis of holding children against their will and likely committing sexual crimes against them?
Not sexual crimes no, but violence yes. The average is around 500 Palestinian children are detained in Israeli prisons each year
The Hamas definition of “children” includes those who shave, just as its definition of “women and children” includes over 12,000 gun-toting Hamas fighters.
The Palestinians who have been locked up in Israel were all committing violent acts against Israel, most of whom are Hamas or other Palestinian militants. Have you any evidence whatsoever that they have been “given a kicking” or was just something you’ve made up?
This is entirely different from civilians many of whom has attended a music festival simply being killed, tortured, raped or abducted. That is certainly an illegal act of war – and yet we never hear any screams of about this illegality from “progressive” leftists.
1) Would we happily allow a foreign police force investigate a death of one of their nationals in the UK?
2) Do we have Hebrew speaking personnel better equipped to investigate whether the strike was an understandable error, a negligent error, a deliberate but unauthorised strike or a policy strike than Israel?
3) Don Pacifico received compensation as a result of Palmerston’s gunboat diplomacy. Apparently Israel has already offered compensation for the deaths.
4) Is the author not simply seizing on the incident to achieve the pro-Hamas policy changes he desires to see?
Excellent response.
Why won’t Palestine stand up to Hamas over Israeli deaths?
The Palestinians are unbelievably stupid,have been so for the last 80 years,so thick they can’t negotiate a good deal while the Israeli-Jews are too clever by half and we know what happens to tall poppies. They can run rings round us stupids in their Find The Lady method. This situation was always going to happen. After decades of great minds trying to work out how to humanely fit a pint into a half pint jug and failing,a criminal mind has decided to use Alexanders Gordian method and discard the other half of the pint,then it fits. If the other half hadnt been so obdurately stupid for decades they could have taken a not so good situation and been as crafty as the other side and worked into a better position ,instead of dwelling on the original injustice.
“A useful thought experiment is to imagine what Israel would do were the situation reversed”. Indeed. So here: it would probably accept Rishi Sunak’s explanation that it was a horrible mistake and accept his apologies. Everyone in Israel sees this for what it is: a terrible tragedy, of the kind that should not happen, but that do happen in war situations (tens of Israeli soldiers were killed by friendly fire in Gaza as well). Nobody intended or is happy with the killing of innocent civilians, all the more so in this case since the WCK workers are seen as courageous people with purely humanitarian goals.
Regarding Biden’s “outrage”, while his being upset at this tragedy is understandable, the use of “outrage” is unfortunate, as it is usually reserved for intentional acts. Besides, when a US drone killed 10 civilians – the family of an aid worker, including 7 children – in Kabul in 2021, Biden didn’t call it an outrage. In fact, AFAIK, he never mentioned it, but rather let the Secretary of Defense provide the explanations. When outrage becomes selective, it loses its moral power.
How dare you? This is an entirely too reasonable explanation.
What leg does the British government have to stand upon having exacted US neocon policy in Iraq, Libya and partly Syria according to the objectives of Washington’s State Department?
More recently, they have sponsored the pointless war that’s destroyed the Ukraine as a viable country. The aid industry is simply a political tool of the enemies of Israel to prevent the completion of military operations and maintain governance of their latest intifada.
Israel would certainly not deliberately kill humanitarian aid workers. It was a tragic accident of war.
USA would.
Not even the US would on purpose.
The idea that Britain should be “standing up” to Israel over this unfortunate incident is the height of residual imperial hubris.
With the possible exception of Iran, no single country bears greater responsibility for Gaza’s senseless tragedy than Britain does.
After Israel left Gaza in 2005, the BBC and the British public helped Hamas sustain the fiction that keeping Gaza mired in conflict was still a legitimate form of resistance. Without British propaganda support, Hamas’s apocalyptic vision for Gaza never would have been viable.
Whenever I encounter British sanctimony these days, my reaction is that your sanctimony helped Hamas do Gaza in.
For 20 years, all we could hear was that ‘Gaza is the world’s largest open-air prison’, that ‘Israel is ”occupying” Gaza’. Facts had nothing to do with it ….
Exactly! It was an orchestrated propaganda effort. The world’s largest open air prison…with posh beachside villas, esplanades, and 24 miles of coastline. Meanwhile, these same propagandists cheerfully ignored what Hamas did to journalists and dissidents in its literal prisons.
When those living there can’t leave Gaza, and Israel controls everything going in and out of the territory, how is that any different to an open prison?
Interestingly, it’s the US that now insists that the Gazans must remain in Gaza, even if they want to leave.
The idea of the author that this was anything but a very unfortunate accident/mistake is just nonsense. Does the author really think that the IDF was purposefully targeting an NGO carrying food? To what end given that anybody with the brain of a mouse would know that such an action would lead to international uproar. Look: war is not a video game; it’s not nintendo or X-box; it is always horrific; and mistakes are always made. Just look at how many US soldiers were killed in friendly fire incidents in Iraq, for example.
As for the idea of having the UK military guarantee safe passage, is the author insane. Does he really want to put British soldiers in harms way in a conflict that doesn’t involve the UK or its national security. The aid workers know the risks just as war journalists know the risks. Go into a combat zone, and there is a high probability of something bad happening, whether that is being bombed by the IDF or kidnapped and held hostage or worse by Hamas.
“Why won’t Britain stand up to Israel over aid worker deaths?”
Better question: why won’t Britain stop their citizens from driving around in a Noddy car in the middle of an active battlefield?
And why doesn’t Hamas get all their civilians out of the way? They had wanted Israel to “bring it on” — they’d planned their paraglider attacks, GoPro cameras and so on — so why didn’t they also have a plan for moving their civilians out of the way? Actually, we know the answer to that one: the ensuing carnage was the entire point.
And why are Brits running around there anyway? Why haven’t Arab nations opened their borders to their fellow Arabs, to evacuate the battlefield, clothe, feed and secure these non combatants while Hamas gets on with the jihad? Why is it expected that Westerners should run around carrying water for Hamas’s wars of choice?
To be fair all talk about military precision is bs. The other day an Israeli told me that 20% of Israel casualties since October were caused by friendly fire
Aaron, we all know you’re getting more and more redpilled by the day, but that you’re terrified of admitting this to your commie colleagues.
Contrived pieces like this don’t convince those of us who see the change that’s taking place in you.
Unless and until hard evidence arises that Israel’s actions were deliberate it should be treated as a mistake – albeit a tragic one. If proof were needed that these things happen one needs only look at the examples of “friendly fire” incidents that occurred during the NATO led Libya intervention of 2011. However, it appears that to the Left establishment Israel should be held to a higher standard whilst fighting a war for its survival against a terrorist group that recognises no rules of war.
…
I suggest that we wait until AFTER the investigation has been completed. No point jumping to conclusions and analyzing later.
War is a messy disorganised business. If you declare war on a country and massacre their people- and threaten to do it again -dont be amazed if they retaliate.
And if you dont want to get bombed stay out of the war zone.
Gaza folk didnt have to vote for Hamas. They chose them to run Gaza.
“Why won’t Britain stand up to Isr*el over aid worker de*ths?”
Better question: why won’t Britain stop their citizens from driving around in a Noddy car in the middle of an active battlefield?
And why doesn’t H*m*s get all their civilians out of the way? They had wanted Isr*el to “bring it on” — they’d planned their p*r*glider att*cks, G*Pro cameras and so on — so why didn’t they also have a plan for moving their civilians out of the way? Actually, we know the answer to that one: the ensuing c*rn*ge was the entire point.
And why are Brits running around there anyway? Why haven’t Ar*b nations opened their borders to their fellow Ar*bs, to evacuate the b*ttlef*eld, clothe, feed and secure these non comb*t*nts while H*m*s gets on with the j*h*d? Why is it expected that Westerners should run around carrying water for H*mas’s w*rs of choice?
*Asterisks to mollify UnHerd naughty words editorial policy.
Why wont you stand up for the innocent British Jews masacred by the sick monsters and rapists of Hamas on October 7th??
Unbelievable biased and absurd. Such killings are clearly not in Israel’s interest. If they were intentional they were clearly the deed of rogue servicemen. These obviously should be severely punished. Using them as a stick to smear the whole country is shameful. Were US and Britain shamed, or punished, when the abuses in Iraq were revealed? The question arises as to why Israel is treated differently.
Exactly. There’s something absurd about the overreaction. You could almost forget that the whole Hamas strategy is based on human sacrifice. It’s such a bizarre situation: it’s taken for granted that Hamas is allowed to use its civilians as a disposable resource, while Israel is endlessly and sanctimoniously criticized for not doing enough to protect the lives that Hamas cannot dispose of quickly enough.
The West is at war with Islamists…in that War, Israel represents our most isolated forward outpost…so we should not be undermining them, not least because Hamas have made extensive use of both aid and indeed hospitals to sustain their offensive…clearly with the support of many “innocent?” Palestinians, and the active collusion of Western-backed “aid” providers…we might well have felt sorry for any Swiss Red Cross staff caught up in the Dresden Firestorm, but the bombing would have continued…and any of our own people willingly there would in due course have been hanged as traitors.
This is an existential war for Israel, as it will be for us in due course. Time to pick a side…
Grow up and join the real world. War is terrible, and civilians always are killed and maimed. This was a war zone, the folks killed knew the risks but went anyway. I am truly sorry they were killed but this is real life and I respect their dedication and sacrifice for humanity.
The thing is, Hamas and their very loyal and vocal supporters in Gaza (the ‘civilians’ spitting on the corpses of recently raped and murdered Israelis dragged through the streets on 7th October) are to blame for the deaths of the aid workers, and the ‘30,000’ Palestinian dead. They brought this upon themselves. Israel has made many mistakes- but destroying Hamas isn’t one of them. Sadly, commentators like Bastani I feel welcome events such as this – they don’t have a mask to slip as they don’t try and conceal their anti ‘Israel’ bile.
Did the author speak so eloquently about the 14 British citizens murdered by hamas on 7th October?
I see UnHerd have reset the votes here back to zero. Why does UnHerd do that?
ive never read so much spaff in my entire life. he should have just written “we should be shooting those Juden bastards”.
What utter purblind tosh
Oh dear, the hard left are showing their bias here. No Mr Bastani, it is not astonishing. If UK people go off to a war site they take risks and we all know of friendly fire. There’s no way this country’s support for Israel should be stopped as a result and only the hard left (and few are more hard left than the author) would call for it. Disappointing that UNHERD allow themselves to be used as an extension to the weekend marches.
Civilians in war zones are killed in every war. The Allies bombed German cities knowingly killing men, women and children and destroying hospitals, and supplies of food and water. They did so until the Germans gave up. Thank goodness. And Israel must proceed in the same way.