Enough of virtue signalling politicians

In a couple of weeks, Britain will have a new prime minister. Andy Burnham will be elected by his politicians via what could be seen as a left-wing coup from within his party.

He and his comrades have been plotting his return to power – he wasn’t even a Member of Parliament a few weeks ago – for at least a year. That is, they have been plotting almost exactly since Labour won a landslide election.

One of the first things he has done, before telling us about his plans for the UK, is attack his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer’s actions on Israel. Stopping the sale of arms, recognising a Palestinian state, funding UNWRA and insisting that Benjamin Netanyahu would be arrested if he stepped on British soil was not enough for Burnham. He wants to hurt Israel more and more.

This is an easy win to shore up the far left and sections of the Muslim community who left Labour in droves because it was seen as too soft on Israel. So-called ‘progressives’ – that is, people who appear to prefer the politics of Islamist terrorists to democratic allies – are obsessed with Israel. It has dominated our politics to such an extent that Israel is discussed more than our failing national health service (NHS) in the House of Commons.

This is despite – or perhaps because – the fact that whatever the UK does or says about Israel will really have very little impact on the reality of attempting to fight Hamas. Sometimes we appear to forget we are no longer the colonialist superpower which once told a quarter of the world how to run things.

The Graham Platner case in America has shown how, if you attack Israel enough, you will be forgiven almost anything: a Nazi tattoo, a history of racist comments, even an alleged rape of a Republican activist. It was only when he was also exposed as attacking a Democratic woman that a few people opened their eyes and dared to say what had been obvious to many for some time: ‘Guys, this SS Nazi tattoo guy is bad news.’

As a Brit, I am concerned by Burnham and his politics because I am tired of being ruled by stupid binary virtue-signalling politics. The worldview of too many on the left when it comes to Israel is framed purely in the victim vs aggressor narrative.

In this simplistic re-telling, yes, Hamas did a really bad thing on 7 October, but one can hardly blame them. And since then, Hamas, in their eyes, have disappeared from view. When you ignore Hamas’s presence, then it is easy to rail at Israel for killing too many people, at them attacking hospitals and schools.

Burnham first called for a ceasefire a mere 20 days after the October 7 attack. There appears to have been no understanding that if a terrorist state attacks you by slaughtering more than 1200 of your people and taking 251 of them hostage, they have started a war, and it is a war you must fight if you want to stop further attacks.

When you ignore Hamas’s presence, then it is easy to rail at Israel for killing too many people, at them attacking hospitals and schools.

In his latest statement, apart from the mention of 7 October, Hamas is entirely missing, even though they still effectively rule the parts of Gaza not currently under direct Israeli control. Anyone who wants to talk properly about the region will one day have to grapple with the Hamas problem. Why mention Hamas when it is far more popular to attack Israel? But if you fail to recognise that Hamas is still refusing to lay down its weapons, prolonging the agony of the Palestinians, you are only telling half the story.

Tackling Islamist extremism is difficult. It is why, even in the UK, which has been subject to a number of terrorist attacks and a greater number of thwarted ones, trying to discuss the subject leads inevitably to accusations of Islamophobia. Andy must, surely, have his eyes open to this: the Manchester Arena bombing had a huge impact on the city, and just in the last year in Manchester we saw one terrorist attack on a synagogue and several people jailed for a plot to carry out what was intended to be one of the most deadly terror attacks this country would have ever seen, on the Manchester Jewish community.

But instead, he caves in to their supporters. And this is what is concerning. Britain has a problem of people being radicalised into hating not just Israel and Jews but the West over the Hamas war. And until we have a politician grown up enough to explain why this is a problem, things will only become more dangerous.

Of course, the pro-Palestine obsessives won’t see Burnham’s comments as going far enough. They want him to say the Gaza war is a genocide, even though it patently and obviously isn’t. They also want to boycott Israel entirely and stop giving it parts for the F-35 stealth fighter jet programme, which both countries are part of.

Let me be clear here: this is the work of people who want to weaken Britain, both fundamentally and militarily. The way the F-35 system is designed means that the only way to ensure Britain does not give Israel F-35 parts is to walk away from being part of the programme entirely.

As a Brit, I am tired of stupid student politics dominating the House of Commons when our country has so many real issues it should be dealing with, such as national debt, a soaring social security bill, a crumbling NHS, and illegal immigration.

Focusing on the Jews has long been used as an excuse or a diversion tactic for nations in trouble. It is hard not to feel that some of that is happening here.

As a Jewish Brit, I am even more concerned. If you don’t explain what Israel is fighting (however imperfectly and cruelly, because wars are cruel and democracies aren’t pure), then, whether you intend to or not, you are agreeing with the narrative that there is a genocide and Jews somehow enjoy killing babies.

From our primary school playgrounds to our university campuses to our streets and workplaces, Jews are being demonised for being ‘genocide lovers’ and ‘baby killers’, and if no senior government politician dares tackle these libels head-on, then there will be more attacks on us.

This article was originally published on Nicole Lampert’s Substack, Diary from the Diaspora.