Paul Kirkley: Only an idiot would pick a side in this tragedy

In trying to organise my own thoughts over recent weeks, I’ve come to a lot of conclusions that might seem contradictory, but aren’t at all. Here are a few of them:

The atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 were a work of unspeakable horror – evil, even, if you want to get biblical about it. And on the whole, I’d say Western liberals need to be less timid about calling out not just these acts, but Islamic terrorism – and repressive Islamic regimes – more widely.

There’s nothing to be gained, for example, from pretending such terror has nothing to do with religion. And it’s certainly not Islamophobic because – guess what? The vast majority of victims of Islamic terrorism – between 82 and 97 per cent, according to estimates – are Muslims. Just as it’s ordinary Muslims who suffer most from hardline Islamic regimes like Iran, where brave women are being killed and jailed for showing their hair in public, and Afghanistan, where girls are no longer allowed to go to school. It’s Muslim women who are being stoned to death for the crime of being raped, and Muslim men risking death for being gay, or unbelievers. If we want to help Muslims, we need to call out this fanatical ideology being carried out in their name. (As for the recent Queers for Palestine marches… do you want to tell them, or shall I?)

But none of that makes it any less true that the Palestinian people are the victims of a historic injustice, subjected to decades of oppression and squalid degradation since having their land stolen from them, with the Western world’s full approval. Equally, that doesn’t make it any less true that the Jewish people, subjected to centuries of persecution – resulting in an actual Holocaust – needed a homeland sanctuary of their own. Indeed, there’s something almost noble about the Western powers coming together to create one for them, after the horrors of the Second World War. Except, of course, they didn’t offer them their own land. Don’t be ridiculous. No, let the brown people in a faraway place give up theirs instead.

Today, the reality of the situation is no less muddy. Yes, the de facto government of Gaza is a brutal terrorist organisation. But yes, Israel’s hardline right-wing government still insists on illegally occupying even the small scraps of land left to the Palestinians after its various land grabs. But yes, the events of October 7 were barbaric. But yes, Israel’s response, that fails to distinguish between terrorists and besieged civilian children, is also barbaric. And so on, and so on.

From all this horror, the only certainty is that both the Hamas atrocities and Israel’s scorched Earth response will make life worse for everyone: from the Jewish diaspora who are experiencing a terrifying rise in anti-semitic threats and abuse, to the innocents across the world who will die in the inevitable terrorist reprisals. Above all, of course, it will make life worse for the people of Israel and Gaza themselves: their lives rendered more intolerable and less secure by the reckless actions of their respective leaders.

The only thing we can say with any confidence about this wretched situation, then, is that anyone claiming moral certainty one way or the other is either a liar, or an idiot.

Up to 1,000 people are estimated to have taken part in Saturday’s (October 28) ‘Protest for Gaza’ march in Cambridge – the fifth such protest in the city in recent weeks.

Some critics have asked, not unreasonably, why there has been no comparable outcry against, for example, Bashar al-Assad’s ongoing massacre of the Syrian people, or Iran’s brutal crackdown on women. To which the answer, I guess, might be that those atrocities aren’t being committed with the support of our own government. But the point about selective outrage still stands.

Meanwhile, others – including a leading British newspaper columnist at the weekend – are asking: “Would any other country but Israel be chided for hitting back at terrorism?”

To which the answer is surely: yes. A million of us – myself included – marched against our own government’s illegal and counterproductive ‘war on terror’. It didn’t make the events of 9/11 any less terrible, but international law still needs to apply.

Oh, and having marched against the invasion of Iraq, I also happen to believe it’s a disgrace that the West didn’t intervene in Syria. Why? Because, it bears repeating, it’s possible to hold more than one idea in your head at the same time. Or at least it ought to be, in a saner, less divided world.

If only my own MP were capable of such basic critical thinking. Amidst the carnage, it has been sickening to witness Tory ministers and their cheerleaders in the right-wing press using the deaths of thousands of innocent people as fuel for their pathetic war on the BBC.

In the absence of of anything intelligent to contribute, defence secretary Grant Shapps decided to use an appearance on Radio 4’s Today to have a go at the corporation for not referring to Hamas as terrorists – only to be comprehensively owned by presenter Mishal Husain, who pointed out they were simply following the same Ofcom guidelines as all the other broadcasters.

Sadly, that didn’t stop culture secretary and South East Cambs MP Lucy Frazer weighing in with an ill-conceived hatchet job in the Daily Mail. After the ignominy of the Nadine Dorries years, I had hoped Ms Frazer might exercise a little more caution in her office of state. But no, it seems we still have someone in post who’s less interested in being a culture secretary than a culture war secretary.

Sorry, not many jokes this month. But if you think this column was bad, wait until next time, when we get into the really divisive issue of when it’s acceptable to put your Christmas decorations up.

Read more from Paul every month in the Cambridge Independent.