And thus the world divided. After an act of the most savage, merciless and horrendous butchery since Srebrenica, followed by Israeli bombardment and blockade on Gaza, it is probable than not one person in the world has ‘changed sides’. Our preconceptions, our bias, conscious or not, endures. We make the events fit our own internal narrative, in line with our own sense of ‘morality’.

Jeremy Corbyn is a case in point. Possibly an extreme case but only in that he expresses his prejudices in public where most don’t. And he was one of the first on the bandwagon shouting about the ‘humanitarian crisis in Gaza’, understandable because it is definitely a crisis. Yet when asked about the 1400 people massacred by Hamas he was only concerned with the historical justification behind it. Thus for the ‘Gaza is apartheid!’ brigade, mass murder of a civilian population is NOT a humanitarian crisis. Killing of humans somehow doesn’t qualify. Tying up 20 children at Kibbutz Be’eri and burning them is not, for those of a Corbyn-type mind-set, a moral issue as much as the political issues ‘causing’ such a thing to occur.

All those people, worldwide, who actually celebrated the deaths of those 1400, from Sydney to Southwark, Wadi Rum to Westbourne Grove, are now screaming ‘humanitarian crisis’ too. Again, I have to wonder about the restrictive nature of their understanding of ‘humanity’. But they won’t change. As soon as ‘evidence’ appeared to upset the indignation about the alleged ‘Israeli airstrike on a hospital’, the message changed immediately to one of ‘FAKE NEWS!!!’, and American lies. Unlikely that those currently setting fire to Embassies in Cairo, Istanbul and Amman will suddenly start collecting funds for the IDF.

And I’m not likely to change mine either. I like a narrative which aligns with my undeniable prejudice, bias and beliefs. I see Israel as ‘the good guys’, I can’t help it. I know where their values lie, the national values, their version of ‘morality’ and it agrees with mine. I am not Israeli. I don’t agree with everything that nation does. Like I don’t agree with everything my nation does either. The difference is, I don’t get to vote there.

So why are ‘pro-Palestinians’ intending to have a protest march this evening in Golders Green? Protest all they like, the inhabitants of NW11 don’t get a say in what Israel does. Not the Poles who run the supermarkets there, not the Turks who have re-branded half the high street ‘Likya’ after their fab kebab restaurant. And not even the large population of Jews who have absolutely no influence on what our brothers in the middle east do. Is it once again conflating ‘Israel’ with ‘Jews’? If you hate one you should hate the other?

Yet its the others who intrigue me more. What those with no affiliation feel about the situation. And why anything ‘Israel’ is a red line with about 90% of people in Question Time audiences. Whether the wanton slaughter of 1400 innocents equates to the right to protect the remainder of your people. Whether the population of Gaza should be held to ransom for the release of 200 hostages. And more importantly, how big a part conscious or unconscious antisemitism plays in those decisions.

Happy Friday

A xxxx