Lindsey German on war, Russia and the WASPI campaign

Now that Israeli-made famine in Gaza is commonly acknowledged there is a scramble by those governments who have cheered on Israel in its brutal assault to distance themselves from it. Now they say that there should be a ceasefire (conditional on Israeli agreement and the release of hostages) and food, water and medicine let in to Gaza. The US also declared that Israel should not invade Rafah, an admonition instantly rejected by Benjamin Netanyahu, who no doubt feels that after close on 6 months getting away with murder in Gaza he has little to fear from western political disapproval.

This is now creating big problems for Joe Biden and his allies. The US president has spent his time since October 7th providing Israel with moral, financial, and military support, and has justified war crimes in the name of ‘self-defence’. This is now apparent to the world as not only morally abhorrent but enabling of genocide, as Israel pursues its goals with no concern whatever for the fate of the people of Gaza.

It is also harming Biden electorally, as considerable numbers of US voters say they will not cast a vote for the president in November’s election because of his position on Gaza. The conjuncture of events led the US to put a motion to the UN security council which fell short of calling for a permanent ceasefire but indicated that one would be a good thing. This was vetoed by two other permanent members of the security council, Russia and China, since it was a manoeuvre to make the US look good while not doing too much to hold Israel to account.

The US resolution did mark a considerable shift in the US position and was a sign of how desperate Biden is getting in the face of deliberate genocide in Gaza by Israel. It follows, after all, from three occasions since October 7th when the US vetoed resolutions calling for a ceasefire. But it was still on Israel’s terms, for a limited time and only with the Israeli government agreement. It was very far from a full permanent ceasefire without conditions.  However it did reflect the growing pressure on the US (and the EU, which also put out a statement on similar lines) from world public opinion, embodied especially in the huge solidarity movement with Gaza. That’s important, because it means that the protests, debates, demos, boycotts, fundraisers, are all having an impact. At the very least, politicians fear they are losing support. So they should.

The question of Palestine is impacting on western politics, especially in the US and Britain. Sunak and Starmer here have carried out a series of manoeuvres to avoid accountability for their support for Israel. Sunak is pressing on with his ‘extremism’ agenda where he tries to brand left wing activists and the whole Muslim community as ‘the enemy within’. Meanwhile Starmer is still forcing out pro Palestine activists, including Jewish ones, for daring to criticise Israel, and is still falling far short of calling for ceasefire.

The British government and opposition must treat Israel as the pariah it is. We need to stop arming Israel to prevent it killing Palestinians, whether through bullets, bombs, or man-made famine. All the terminology and remedies reserved for those our governments don’t like should be applied to Israel: war crimes, genocide, and ethnic cleansing are taking place before our eyes. And the need for boycott, divestment and sanctions has never been stronger. 

Two tales of terrorism

A friend asked me at the weekend why there was little outpouring of grief and condemnation from politicians and celebrities on social media over the terrible terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall in Moscow where at least 133 people have been killed. It’s a good question. I’m afraid one has to conclude the answer is that Putin and by extension Russia have been so demonised by the west that even when a horrible atrocity like this happens, the normal sympathy is put on hold.  

There will be many people who of course empathise with the families of those dead and injured but the signals from government and media are very different from those over attacks in western capitals. So no lighting up buildings in the national colours, no flying of flags, no politicians expressing solidarity, no changing statuses on Facebook. It was the same in January when Iran was hit by major terrorist attacks, also from Islamic State. Terrorism is seen as a dreadful plight affecting the west, aimed at ‘our way of life’.

So when there are bombings in Pakistan or Afghanistan, or IS attacks in Nigeria, they merit little handwringing let alone state sponsored empathy. It’s worth remembering this when we are repeatedly lectured about a ‘rules based international order,’ or told that those our governments designate terrorists must be destroyed, that there is a lot more ideological slant in this than they would have us believe.

Robbery in the name of equality

The theft of women’s pension rights is one of the biggest scandals of our time. The WASPI women who have fought for recognition and compensation have waged a tremendous campaign on this and deserve our support.

Those of my generation were told we would retire at 60 and many planned for that eventuality. Many women were married to people slightly older than them, so it fitted with men retiring at 65, and was a recognition that women’s working lives were more likely to be disrupted by childbirth, caring and so on. Many women even so didn’t get a proper pension, since they paid the ‘married women’s stamp’ when they worked so were not entitled to one.

This was on top of a lifetime of inequality in pay, the value of our jobs, and opportunities to join better paid ‘male work’. Successive Tory governments decided to hike the retirement age for women – in the name of equality no less, when men’s retirement age could have been lowered. This has forced women to work for much longer or survive on much lower incomes or both.

Now we’re told it’s not fair that we weren’t warned about this rise in the retirement age. That is of course true – but the bigger iniquity is the robbing of those years of retirement. Many women of that generation left school at 15, so can have been working and paying towards a pension for 50 years. The government doesn’t want to pay them even the most miserly compensation – and clearly nor does Labour. Cutting pensions or raising the retirement age is wage theft.

This week: I have a meeting on Palestine in Wembley on Monday, the big demonstration in London on Saturday, and then the following week I will be speaking at the Stop the War fringe at the National Education Union conference on Wednesday 3rd April. I am looking forward to seeing the play Nye at the National Theatre. I hope everyone gets a bit of a break over the holiday weekend photo: and my Briefing will be back the week after.