Palestine again

At long last a whole host of countries have acknowledged that the approximately 5.5 million people who live in Gaza and the West Bank have a right to self determination, and to some kind of equitable rule of law and order. 

It's no wonder that people react against what they are seeing on the news every night.  These are territories that Israel occupied through war, and all the displacement through settler invasion etc. cannot be excused just because some curlicued religious nut claims to believe a fairy story from thousands of years ago.  Such behaviour, and the obviously biased application of law and order by the Israeli authorities also happens to be both illegal under international law, and is quite obviously morally reprehensible to any reasonable person.  Neither does a plainly false ancient story excuse the genocide that is currently occurring in Gaza.  The world's reaction to the Israeli governments behaviour, (even though it has been somewhat delayed), should surprize no one.  The only surprising thing about it all is that a nation who's history and existence comes out of a genocide perpetrated against them should have such a attitude towards others.  In my time, I have met a few holocaust survivors, gentle people one and all, and I am certain that they would be ashamed of Israel's treatment of Gazan civilians.

Netanyahu, of course, claims that recognising Palestine's right to self government is a reward to the deplorable actions of Hamas, but what is the alternative?  Not recognising these rights is a reward to Israel's crimes, (and if you have read some of my earlier posts on this subject, you will know that I am far from certain that Israel's security forces didn't allow the7th October attack that started all this)!  Netanyahu also says a lot about getting the remaining Israeli hostages released, yet he had a ceasefire where this was happening, and he alone broke that deal.  If Israel truly wants a long lasting peace, then their has to be something in it for Palestinians other than a return to death, destruction, homelessness and a perpetual lack of citizenship.  Let the thirty odd years of the troubles here in Northern Ireland be an example.  Ex-terrorists can be allowed into the political process.  It's far from perfect here, but it is an improvement on what went before.  Recognising that one living human has the same rights as another is a necessity for peace, not some sort of political option.

We all must remember than one persons terrorist is another persons freedom fighter.  We did not call the French resistance in WW2, or Nelson Mandela's ANC party terrorists.  Even the USA had a period where individuals rose up against what they perceived to be oppression.  Was Washington a terrorist?

As an aside, when I look at US and Canadian politics today, I am not convinced that Washington et al, did the right thing.  We in the UK have hopefully had our bullshitting buffoon moment of government with Boris, but at least we didn't re-elect him again!  Watching Trump's address to the UN last night (23rd September), was cringeworthily bad.  The only thing that man excels at is ego.  Yet the world seems to be full of people like him, from Putin to Orban in Hungary, Farage to Argentina's Javier Milei.  Then there are the dangerous hangers on like Musk or Robert F Kennedy. These are people with both extreme greed with their own agenda.  It doesn't appear to include the freedoms that we have all accepted for many years now.

Could it be that just as Netanyahu is persecuting all those in Palestine for the crimes of a few, we are all to become the victims of our own version of right wing nationalist nutter as this madness spreads around the globe?