Author: Richard

Have recent atrocities by Israel allowed discussion of the existence of it as a bona fide state to occur, without screams of racism shouting the discussion down. It may be that the premise for the establishment of the state of Israel was built not on logic or reasonable analysis, but on horror and sympathy. Other religeons have not had states created for them – indeed the west is fighting to prevent the establishment of ISIS (maybe a silly example – so what about a Sikh state?).

So should Israel exist as a state? It could be argued that its establishment has destablised the whole region?

Also why are arguments that state, that the atrocity initiated by Hamas last year, needs to be considered in the context of the treatment of Palestinians over the past 50 years, dismissed as irrelevant or even racist. Deprived of land, their water poisoned, their olive groves burnt, the Palestinians have a very real grievance. Ignored by the international community for, like forever, it was no surprise that their outburst of violence was severe. The governments of the west ralied round immediately and stated that the state of Israel had a right to defend itself, and are thus complicit in the violence and near genocide wreaked on Gaza and innocent women and children (and many males). There were, and are, no santions against the illegal occupation by the IDF and settlers on the West Bank.

What are the arguments for the existance of Israel per se?

Israel has been very successful in polarising opinions and countering the arguments that are pro-Palestine. With the majority of Western democracies ignoring Israeli attrocities in the West Bank it has manipulated their support skillfully so far. The attack by Hamas has been used to justify the obliteration of Palestinians in Gaza. Killing civilians was portrayed as unfortunate and inevitable collateral damage, rather than the callous genocide which the evidence points to as being nearer the truth.

Time has come to osterise Isreal diplomatically. This is essential if Western democracies are to continue with a pluralistic society. Anti-semitism must continue to be outlawed, but needs to be distinguished from anti-Israel. Israel to needs to develop a multi-ethnic society where all religeons and ethnic groups are respected and represented. Israel was created out of the horrors of the holocaust and must not become a mirror image of its parentage. A violent and cruel upbringing does not have to be followed by similar misdeeds.

So the Daily Shite headlines Angela Rayner for possibly avoiding a small amount of tax whilst they award a knighthood to a tory donor who gave them £5 million. Oh they do not like Angela – a working class lass with a difficult childhood who never graced a private school or had priveldge thrust upon her. Hopefully this latest culture war episode will backfire. They are getting desperate with videos of a NY subway station being used to highlight crime in London!

They have had 14 years and have nothing to celebrate! Their only recourse is to attack the opposition.

I am fairly certain I am no longer a racist – that sounds bad! I am 70 so was bought up in a white town in Essex. I watched “till death us do part” and thought it funny (although I was not an Alf Garnet fan, the Liverpudlian was my preference), I watched the “Black and white Minstrel Show’ without questioning its basis. I have never been overtly racist, but will admit to being slightly shocked when talking to a black Nigerian Professor and realising just how much cleverer than me, he was! By racist I think I mean the little things. Tamsin had a friend called Leon who was black and an ace skier – I asked him where he was from – my interest was the geography and not meant to be racist, although I realise it was (well Tamsin pointed this out to me rather bluntly! I think I have totally banished even the hidden covert racism now. Is anti-semitism racism?

I hate what the government of Israel is doing, and with that the actions of many Jews. I have been to Israel and found the people friendly. So I am not anti-Jewish – maybe some of the people I meet are Jewish? I do wonder about why the Jews have been persecuted throughout history though! I put them/that in the same category as persecution of catholics and protestants in this country in the 1600’s. Basically I suppose I think all religeon is rather peculiar and I would not die for it anymore than I would my football team. I do think that Israel is out of order in Gaza and understand why the Palestinians resorted to the massacre. I would like to believe in a single party state rather like that which hopefully Ulster is moving towards.

So i am lacking a term to describe myself. Is there a word to describe someone who is anti-bigotry? Is it WOKE? By definition people like me will not take to violence in our cause so are we always destined to be dominated by the bullies like Trump, Orlan, Putin, Farage, Johnson, etc.?

It seems that much of the racism and bigotry in this cpuntry is associated with priveledge and perceived entitlement. The likes of Sunak and Rees-Mogg believe that they are better than the rest of us – yuck!

I hope I am not racist?

The government of the UK has this week provided absolute proof that it is racist to the core.

This government is unbelievably still trying to find a lower level in their cess pit. Accepting £10 million from a racist who called for a sitting MP to be shot. Government ministers refuse to condemn. A government minister says she would have punched an OFSTED Inspector. And our press remains silent or rather concentrates on a meaningless photo by the royals. This country is truly fucked!

Racism is wrong. OK I am 70 and grew up with racism as the norm with ‘Till death us do part” and “The black and white minstrel show” and thought that society had moved on. However Anderson, Braverman and the Conservative Party seem to want to regress and encoursge the racist bigots who still lurk in the sewers of our society. James O’Brien had a phone in regarding Islamaphobia and yet some tory councillor had to phone in and complain that it was not about anti-semitism and accuse a Labour MP of making anti-semitic without offering any evidence. Both anti-semitism and islamaphobia are evil and should not be tolerated.

There still seems to be the problem between being anti-Israel and anti-semitism. Why is there a blurring of these definitions? Is a criticism of Saudi Arabia or Hamas anti-islam? Why will the government not use the term Islamaphobia to describe Andersons comments and why are they not kicking Braverman out of the party?

England is basically conservative with a small c as elections over the past century have shown. There has not been a swing to the left, only a swing away from corruption and incompetence. The shite papers ownwed by fascists are trying to drag society to the right. The Express this morning was supporting Anderson on its front page whilst the Torygraph and Mail churn out a daily recipe of hatred and bile. However, if the polls are to be believed, the vote at the next election will place the emphasis down the centre again.

Labour will need to sort the economy and the corruption out before it can implement much needed reforms of our public institutions like councils, education and the NHS – but it will not have much time to do this.