Kfar Aza and the cycle of violence

I want to be able to attend a rally which wants a just peace for both sides in the Holy Land. I mean one which does not involve Israel stealing land for settlers & one where Palestinians have the same Human Rights from their governments that Israelis have from theirs.

I do not know if that is possible.  Protestors in Australia apparently have been anti-semitic.  I know that many who want a just peace, do not want anything to do with people who make such chants. 

What I do know is that the way that Hamas has killed Israeli civilians is at a level worse than that which has happened to Palestinian civilians.  Not just murdering someone and posting the murder on their own Facebook account, but the cold blooded murder of children and babies.  Many are describing this as terrorism, but it is wrong to do so.  The government of the Gaza Strip have declared war on Israel by these actions, and they have taken part in war crimes worse than what Israel has done before.  Civilians are to be killed in the Gaza Strip as Israel will retaliate, that is sadly the nature of war.  The refusal of Israel to allow the population of Gaza to flee means that a massacre may result, one that would have less casualties if people are allowed to escape.  

Yesterday morning, I heard an Israeli civilian talking in a manner that means that they have fallen for the half truths told about how Palestinians are treated.  Truth is said by many to be the first casualty of war, and that casualty was wounded decades ago.      

It will be interesting to see how outlets such as Novara media respond to the atrocities inflicted upon Israeli civilians.  I hope that even if they do not modify their message (I am sure that they will), they will not end up banned by Cruella. 

The COVID inquiry

 

Listening to this brought back memories.  The anxiety that I have about seeing patients who are ill is better, still present in that I am one of two people at work who use face masks in the building.  But I have noted that I do not enjoy my job as much as before.  I do not think that I have PTSD, but the pandemic and the stress it caused me has affected me.  It is good to know that I am not alone.

Israel and Hamas are both in the wrong

There is no justification for the attacks by Hamas into Israel, but the same applies to the murder of Labib Dumaidi, a Palestinian killed in Israeli settler attack on the West Bank town of Huwara.

I hate it how this discussion has become a binary one for many.

I disagree with how Israel has been taking more and more Palestinian land in the West Bank.  I do not like how it seems that settlers there can kill Palestinians and get away with it.

I also disagree with the way that Palestinians treat their own people.  If you are Muslim or Christian and are Israeli, you have more rights than the Palestinian authorities give Palestinians!  Women's rights in Gaza have been restricted since Hamas took control.  Being straight is essentially the only option if you are Palestinian.  

Murdering civilians because of the deaths of civilians on your own is just collective punishment and neither side should be carrying this out.

I pray that this can be resolved in a just manner, but considering the hatred on both sides, I doubt it.

An exhausting weekend

We are back from seeing Sally, Tony and their son this weekend.  It is to be his 50th this month hence a meet up.  We were to meet David as well, but he felt that he had to pull out of the meet.  We did miss him, but we still had a great time.  We arrived on Friday, I was more exhausted than normal having had my COVID and influenza vaccinations the day before.  However, I was well enough to partake in the general merriment and was back to normal for Saturday when we had a cook come round to prepare what I felt was an amazing meal.  And of course, today we left. 

We do not meet up with them often enough.  Hopefully we will be able to do so next year.

Smoking kills

As those who follow this blog know, I am not a Conservative.  I have disagreed with much which has been said in the Conservative party conference.  What I do agree with, are the plans to follow New Zealand and gradually ban smoking. There are those who argue that this is a blow against freedom of choice and that the government should not be banning things.  But the fact is that if tobacco was discovered now, it would be banned.

Of course, this does put me in a situation where I think that tobacco should be banned, but we should look at legalising and regulating the sale of drugs!

Suella Braverman and making the toxicity of the Conservatives more acceptable

 

Suella Braverman has made another speech.  The video is one that is her best/worst bits. Let me address many of her issues one by one.

Her claim to stop the boats.  This is an issue that has come into place under the Conservatives.  A decision not to stop them was made in 2021.France urged our government to open a safe and legal route for asylum seekers, they were willing to allow claims to be processed by applicants in France.  We refused.  If we had a decent system of processing applications for those in safe third nations, like we had for those refugees from Ukraine, we would not be housing loads in hotels (and other places).  This issue has been weaponised and people have a view that we are housing refugees at the expense of housing the homeless.  I do not see why this should be an either or issue.  If we can house refugees (and we should) we can house the homeless (and we should).  Processing applications quickly for those here will help, but it would be better to process them quicker for those abroad.

She then moves onto the European Convention on Human Rights.  My view on this is simple.  Do we deserve the same or less rights than those living in the EU?  If we take a holiday in Spain or France, should we have more rights there which we lose when we return home?

Next is the allegation about racism.  Yes, the Conservatives have had the first leader of a major UK political party and Prime Minister of colour.  In addition to this, they have the most ethnically representative  But look at how they categorise asylum seekers.  I would argue that Islamophobia is more of an issue with them than racism.  Sadiq Khan has faced the brunt of this, both in the current campaign and in past ones.

  

Yes, Labour cares about the planet.  Many Conservatives do as well.   It was a headline grabber to bring up grooming gangs, considering the lies she told about them before.  She then claims that PREVENT, a strategy to prevent radicalisation, should focus on extremist Muslims, again ignoring the facts on this that the Far Right is a huge threat.

She claims that politically correct critics of the Conservatives have privilege.  That is an interesting take on things considering how the Conservatives are funded! 

She brings up how patriotism is embarrassing to many on the left.  Sadly, for many it is and the right and the media that back them focus on that, not on the many on the left (including myself) who are proud of our great nation.  She is also correct about how Starmer is viewed.  Personally, I would sell the boring side of him, the man who gets the job done.  Sadly, he has allowed the Conservatives to say that he has flipped on many promises, and as those who follow my blog know, I do not like the way he threw Sadiq Khan under the ULEZ bus.

If the Conservatives do let Farage back into the party, he will help to retain the Red Wall seats that Labour need to win back.            

  

This speech shows that Labour needs to do more to fight the battles it can win, and move the battle to ground it can win on with other issues.  I do not think that Labour will have as eye catching a speech as hers next week.

House of ill (again)

The family are unwell.  Well, Leia (our dog) and I am not.  Yet.  My son has been the latest to fall to the viral illness.  My son, daughter and wife are to rest at home today and are all hoping that they should be better tomorrow.  I am hoping that I do not come down with what they have.  Yesterday, I was exhausted and did my best to recharge my batteries after vaccinating so many (I have just found out that I vaccinated the most on Saturday).  My energy levels are not back to normal, but are better than before.  I just hope that the rest of the family are feeling better soon.  We think that it is probably COVID, but they have tested negative so far, but the same happened when I was unwell when I returned from Greece.  I am negative as well, my latest test just being a few minutes ago.

On to other things, it was Leia's third birthday yesterday and she was puzzled when she was given steak as her birthday dinner.  The rest of the family have bought her toys (they do not know that I have bought her one as well).  Overall, she was spoilt for the day.  While she has to live a dog's life, I think that she has a good one, and she is as lucky to have us as owners as we are to have her.  

On a lighter note, I did get time to watch the Arsenal highlights yesterday, but it was quite one sided game, but the reason that the game was not covered in more depth was because of the loss of The Team That Rhymes With City losing to Wolves, and the loss of Liverpool to VAR along with other results being much more dramatic.  It is great that we are so high up in the table, it is annoying that the Scum are above us still.