Azhar Ali is in the soup, big-time. If you don’t recognise the name, you soon will. He’s a Labour councillor and the Labour candidate in a coming Rochdale by-election. He was recently recorded as saying that Israel had “allowed” the October 7 incursion by Hamas into Israel, which resulted in some 1400 Israelis being killed, and that this slaughter gave Israel “the green light” to do what it wanted. The Jewish community in Britain have declared the remarks “warped” and “disgraceful”. Senior shadow frontbencher Pat McFadden declared Azhar Ali was “completely wrong” and noted that he has now issued a full apology and retraction. “I hope he learns a good lesson from it” McFadden said. The Labour Party are believed to be in some trepidation that an anti-Semitic label will again be tied around its neck. (The last one involved Jeremy Corbyn).
This charge by Ali certainly is an appalling notion. Outraged response has been swift and, you might think, merited. But before you join the general outcry, answer me this: how do you know Azhar Ali was indulging in “warped” and “disgraceful” comment?
Well, you may say, what state would look away while 1400 of its own citizens were slain? Least of all Israel. But has Israel or anyone else offered a credible explanation for Hamas’s successful breach of an ‘unbreachable’ defence wall? Has Israel or anyone else explained how Hamas could have been planning this incursion for some two years, and yet Israeli intelligence didn’t get a whiff of it?
No one has, so Azhar Ali’s claim is one man’s guess. But no one in their reaction to Ali’s comments has offered a convincing counter-narrative – the comments have simply been dismissed. And you can see why. For Israel to secretly sacrifice so many of its own citizens seems unthinkable.
But then it would have been unthinkable that innocent people would have been killed in response to the Hamas attack, but they have been. Israel’s defence forces have killed at least 28,000 Palestinians, including 8,300 women and over 12,000 children. And they’re not finished yet. They are preparing to go into Rafah, where over a million Palestinians are huddled and fearful, in an area approximately one-third the size of County Louth, Ireland’s smallest county.
So as the death-toll stands at present, for each innocent Israeli killed in Hamas’s attack, some twenty innocent Palestinians have been killed.
What does Israel plan for Gaza when they finally end their slaughter? Thousands of Israelis attended a ‘Settlement Brings Security’ conference in Jerusalem at the weekend. A map of Gaza was on display showing clusters of Jewish settlements and a Star of David placed on top of Gaza city. There were t-shirts and brochures inviting Israelis to plan early and be part of these settlements in Gaza.
So is it possible that Azhar Ali got it right first time? The answer is we don’t know, and neither does he. But a state that’s capable, in defiance of the UN and the world , of butchering over 28,000 innocent Palestinians, is capable of anything.
Very good jude free Palestine
Thank you, James. Ditto…
He has since apologised for his remarks, which I don’t understand. Either he believes what he said or he doesn’t, he can’t have it both ways. Personally I have always found the ease with which Hamas were able to infiltrate the Israeli security quite mind boggling. The PM of Israel is a crook so nothing would surprise me, 9-11 anyone?
Keir Starmer agreed that the Netanyahu administration had the right to restrict food, water, fuel and
other utilities to human being in need in Gaza. There was absolutely no ambiguity in his statement. I do not understand why some members of the Labour Party accepted his statement. The provision of basic
utilities and food to those in need in Gaza remains a problem. The death toll and evidence of serious
injuries suffered by Palestinians did not start in a vacuum on 7 October 2023. In a war,
one army fights another army. The war in Gaza provides evidence of a well equipped army, courtesy of American dollars, attacking a civilian population, hospitals, schools and mosques from land, sea and air using weapons of mass destruction. Settlers continue to attack Palestinians and occupy land illegally. The Netanyahu administration continues to demonstrate contempt for human rights and international law on a daily basis.
You speak, Jude, for every paid up member of the Human Race, Jew and Gentile.
The Israeli regime is determined to OUT-HEROD HEROD and OUT-HITLER HITLER.
I was born in 1941, on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, commemorating Herod’s victims.
Two weeks later the Nazis determined to murder every Jew in Europe.
Perhaps my bias is forgivable?
So you believe in conspiracy theories now Jude? Perhaps Hamas were aided by the UNRWA. After all, an underground Hamas data centre has just been uncovered beneath the headquarters of the UNRWA in the last couple of days.
A UN agency is now implicated in the murder, rape and kidnapping of 1200 people. But you don’t seem to care?
says who? This is also a conspiracy theory,one believed by imbeciles.
Nothing I have seen on my TV Screen has shown any hostages released by Hamas showing signs of
ill-treatment nor has there been a single accusation of rape, or the murder of children by Hamas
levelled by any of the released hostages,
I am no expert but I am not afraid to put my name to any opinion I give.
I DO KNOW that Governments sometimes lie and have had a complaint of mine against THE TIMES
upheld by Britain’s Press Council upheld in 1982. The night following the release of the Council adjudication, I turned on the TV to see TIMES Editor Harold Evans proclaimed EDITOR OF THE
YEAR by his fellow Editors, including OBSERVER Editor in Chief, Conor Cruise O’Brien,
A few months later the LIES OF THE TIMES were reprinted verbatim in THE DAILY EXPRESS,
THE DAILY EXPRESS and THE DAILY MAIL. A gentleman in Birmingham contacted me and
complained about the EXPRESS and the STAR. The PRESS COUNCIL took another 9 months
to uphold his complaint. I complained about THE DAILY MAIL piece to the PRESS COUNCIL,
which dodged its responsibility because the lie went out over the name of Northern Ireland Secretary
HUMPHREY ATKINS.
The PRESS COUNCIL Changed its name to the PRESS COMPLAINTS COMMISSION.
ATKINS DISAPPEARED and reappeared under a new name as a PEER OF THE REALM.
And was appointed a PRESS COMPLAINTS COMMISSIONER.
Why cannot you “SURVEYOR” summon the courage to reveal who you are?
Surely you cannot be a slippery a “witness” as HUMPHREY ATKINS and the liars in British
politics and media?
I remain an optimist and hope you can redeem yourself by coming out of hiding so that your evidence
can be calmly assessed?
The Labour Party has been getting it’s undergarments in a twist over ceasefire calls. All they (and indeed the Tory party) had to do was leave any decision in the hands of individual members. How can any Jewish MP support the Palestinians when they have murdered Jews and how can Muslim MPs support Israel when they have killed their fellow Muslims? Problem solved.
I am by nationality Irish, by religion Catholic, and by politics a republican.
My species is Human , supposedly endowed with rationality and moral judgement.
I expect I am no better and no worse than my fellow humans.
This is my sixtieth year living peacefully in England with friends, neighboursand workmates of all
races, nations, colours, politics and philosophies.
Many, many Jews deplore the injustices visited on Arab Catholics, Arab Protestants, Arab Moslems
and Arab Atheists, even when some of those inflicting the injustices have been fellow Jews. I well
remember the dishonest alliance of Britain, France and Israel over Suez in 1956, for instance.
I have been wonderfully treated by Jewish and Moslem and Hindu Doctors, Dentists, Nurses etc
over many years.
Moslems generally live by their creed which teaches hospitality and charity to all humanity.
Unfortunately Keir Starmer is incapable of recognising the human rights of Palestinians and
his Shadow Foreign Secretary gives me the impression that he was scouted and groomed
by the State Department and the CIA when studying at Harvard.
Labour Bigwigs, such as Gordon Brown have such contempt for the United Nations that they have air-brushed out the name of the Heroic Count Folke Bernadotte, who saved many Jews from the Holocaust, because, as UN Mediator in Palestine, he was murdered in September 1948 in Jerusalem, on the orders of a future Prime Minister of Israel
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada stated correctly that a hospital ought to be a place for treatment and care.
He made his statement in the context of his criticism of a large protest in Toronto (12 February 2024) about Mr Netanyahu’s war against the civilian population of Gaza.
It would appear that Mr Trudeau has no problem with hospitals in Gaza being bombed with weapons of mass destruction and patients being executed by members of the Israeli Defence Forces.
Towards the end of the troubles, the IRA was so infiltrated by the state that they were unable to operate. However what they did in the attack on Downing Street and Canary Wharf was to use people who were uncompromised. Hamas could have done that.