Pathetic Britain has sanctioned Ben-Gvir and Smotrich

When's the last time the government called on Hamas to surrender?

David Lammy delivers an energetic speech

In Britain’s latest act of betrayal, the government has sanctioned two Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom have made a name for themselves with inflammatory rhetoric about Gaza. Did Israel sanction Jeremy Corbyn back when he was leader of the opposition? It did not.

I’m not defending the pair. But it shows how profoundly the government – which has failed to proscribe Iran’s IRGC or ban the Muslim Brotherhood – has lost its way. Cast your mind back over Labour’s 11 months in power. How many times have Sir Keir Starmer or David Lammy called on Hamas to give up the hostages and surrender, the one measure that would actually end this war, and the only truly moral stance?

So far as I’m concerned, if your condemnation of Israel is not far outweighed by your demands for Hamas to give up the fight, you’ve lost it.

By all means, criticise the Jewish state. But how can it be ethically right to spend all your energy slinging mud at a democracy which is fighting a war of self-defence that it did not want, while barely mentioning the jihadis who set the region on fire in the first place? And who insist on keeping it ablaze?

Anybody would have thought that it was Israel who carried out the suicide attack on the Manchester Arena, or committed the atrocities at London Bridge or Westminster Bridge, rather than the Islamist fanatics to whom we are now lending our tacit sympathies. In recent years, we have been siding against our ally with as much enthusiasm as we side against ourselves.