The PM, just back in the Commons after meeting Netanyahu, had only vain hopes to offer in the search for peace between Israel and Hamas
all it war fatigue. So soon. Last week it was standing room only on both sides of the house for Rishi Sunak’s statement on Israel and Gaza. For the update on Monday there were plenty of gaps on the green benches. Especially on the Tory side. Already the Middle East has been filed under something too difficult, too unbearable and too far away. Mostno longer have the bandwidth for the conflict. They are too busy contemplating their own more immediate eternity. Losing the next general election.
Where the script diverged slightly was in Rishi’s attempts to put himself centre stage. The tetchy school prefect sending himself out to cosplay the global statesman. You could hardly blame him, I suppose. His trip last week to the Middle East had to mean something more than a self-seeking photo opportunity. For his own self-worth at least. So what we got was Rish! as a Zelig character, squeezing himself into different moments of history..
But Sunak wouldn’t consider it. Not even as a possibility for the future. Israel had a right to defend itself.had forfeited whatever rights it may have had with its massacre of Israeli civilians. And as long as Hamas continued to keep hostages and launch rocket attacks on Israel, Israel could send down airstrikes on Gaza. Any Palestinian civilian casualties were the fault of Hamas. For embedding terrorists among an innocent population.
Nor is Israel and Gaza an issue that splits along simple party lines. Everyone agrees that what Hamas has done is barbaric and unforgivable, but MPs on both sides were concerned that the government appeared to be giving the Israelis carte blanche to exact a collective punishment on the Palestinians in Gaza. Tory Vicky Ford wondered who was policing the Israeli response to make sure it was within international law.
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