We will all feel very anxious about the horrendous scenes from Israel and Palestine this morning and for what might happen as a result.
The Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Layla Moran has condemned the attacks and called for an end to the violence:
I am horrified to wake up to such dreadful scenes of violence in Israel and Palestine this morning.
Last year, I met with Israelis living in villages on the Gaza border. I am mortified to learn that these places are facing terrorist attacks as we speak.
My thoughts are with those I met, and their safety, and all those others impacted by this awful violence.
Liberal Democrats fully condemn the terrorism of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This violence must cease. I am profoundly worried about the prospect for broader escalation.
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13 Comments
It’s around the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war. Shouldn’t Israel have been expecting something like this? Intelligence foul-up?
America stands with Israel, as Joe Biden has just announced. This is not news. America has been supporting Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians for 75 years.
The Liberal Democrat Party cannot condone an attack which has cost so many lives, and will probably cost many more, but is it remotely conceivable that it could have happened if Israel’s leaders weren’t in the process of annexing the West Bank and hadn’t been imprisoning two million Gazans – for eighteen years – under conditions resembling a medieval siege?
Hamas will have known that Israeli retribution would be harsh, so what did they hope to achieve? World opinion was on their side in 2021, when their rockets were a response to Israeli aggression, but this could have the opposite effect. Commentators are struggling. An attempt to stall negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia? Is Iran involved? Is Hamas trying to show up Fatah and the ironically named ‘Palestinian Authority’ ?
One thing it has done is shake the Israeli public. The Iron Dome has been shown to be a myth.
Israel could emerge more aware that oppressing the Palestinians does nobody any good. Or they might think more brutal oppression is needed. Hamas have rolled the dice – a dangerous gamble. Perhaps we should be asking ourselves why the international community has put them in that position, by ignoring their plight for so long.
Israel has been distracted by internal shenanigans over the constitution just like in the UK, where the government has been distracted from vital work by the disruption of Brexit.
Might the encouragement of conciliation be an appropriate approach to reduce and, hopefully, end this continuing conflict?
Israel takes Palestinian hostages every day. Men, women and children. They are held and abused without charge or trial.
That has always been abhorrent and illegal under international law, yet nothing changes and Israel has continued with impunity. The same for the killing and maiming of Palestinian civilians on an almost daily basis. The odd verbal condemnation from the UK or USA,, but nothing more.
Why are those under occupation, oppression and ethnic cleansing expected to behave better than those occupying, oppressing and murdering them?
In the news, the context is included more, but the fear of the Israelis with their safe places and freedom to leave, is broadcast widely, with much less about the fact that in Gaza there is no safe place and no nowhere to go and in the West Bank road blocks and armed groups of Israelis continually attack innocent Palestinians who also have nowhere to go as the boundaries are all set and policed by Israel.
I too am appalled by the suffering of innocent Palestinian and Israeli civilians but I am also deeply upset by statements of support for Israel’s right to defend itself from UK and US governments with no acknowledgement that Palestinians also have the right to defend themselves against a long term illegal occupation.
In the West Bank the increased incidence of settler violence towards Palestinians, and repeated incursions into refugee camps resulting in civilian deaths are, along with a lack of hope for any future improvement for residents in Gaza, the trigger for this latest attack from Hamas. These young men have nothing to lose except their lives on what is a suicide mission.
In 2005, Israel began the siege of Gaza, depriving two million people of clean water, electricity, cement, access to health care, the right to enter or leave, and almost every other commodity needed for normal life.
There is no plan to end it, and the unbearable conditions have gradually made it a breeding ground for Islamic extremism – but who could have foreseen that ?
The answer, Mr Netanyahu, is everyone in the world except you.
Lib Dems are right to condemn the atrocities in southern Israel and Gaza this weekend.
We’ve seen far too little robust condemnation by Western governments, including our own and that of the USA, of the atrocities committed against Palestinians throughout #Nakba75 (illegal occupation, violence, collective punishment and apartheid). Of course two wrongs will never make a right; so where is the understanding of the background, and the nuanced and wise response needed to underpin a Western drive for de-escalation?
Lib Dem policy is very clear on recognition of Palestine (motion 39 at autumn ‘21) – undoubtedly a prerequisite for peace in the region and therefore more important now than for a very long time.
It’s entirely possible that this “intelligence foul-up” was deliberate, i.e. the Netanyahu regime let the Hamas attacks happen. There are elements in his coalition that wanted a confrontation to happen. It’s also likely that Hamas prefers someone like Netanyahu in power so that it has more of an “excuse” to provoke. Neither side wants peace, both want continued conflict, they are two sides of the same coin. There’s talk of “normalizing” relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. It makes sense, as the Saudi regime’s values are very similar to the religious conservatives in Netanyahu’s coalition.
Having made contact with a soldier who sent us a message from Israel. No it appears nothing was expected. My heart goes out to the parents of the young woman who came to such a brutal end. May her memory be an eternal blessing.
I pray for those taken prisoner.
To be celebrating in London is cruel and it should be prevented.
As a British citizen I most certainly find it so upsetting. As someone who believes in Judaism I find it unforgiving.
The coverage of this ghastly event seems almost to ignore the position of the occupied people of Palestine who have been deprived of their right to their own state by an occupying power for the last 75 years with the full support of America and Britain. Between 1939 and 1945 Britain supported the occupied people of France and other nations because they were assumed to be on our side, although in many cases they actively collaborated with the occupying power. Like the Palestinians we used all the resources at our disposal to defeat the forces of occupation. We must not be hypocritical about this although most people, myself included, find the actions of Hamas to be utterly deplorable.
There is another side to this issue but the British and US media does not want to know and only represents the views of one side, presumably because it is in our interest to do so.
Any support for the Palestinians will have gone.Massacre of concert goers has seen to that. Only a PLO condemnation of Hama’s might reverse this and I cannot see that happening.