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Was catching up on the overnight posts and thinking about the shear number about Israel/Gaza.

I can’t think of any other event that causes so much split and trouble in the Uk. We don’t see weekly marches in favour of free school meals, increasing tax on the wealthiest, there weren’t weekly marches about Northern Ireland during the troubles.

Yet with Gaza/Israel we see protest, violence, hatred, laws being changed. It’s possibly the subject on here that causes the most rancour and unpleasantness on here that I can think of.

And yet it has absolutely zero real role in British life. It’s not a neighbour, neither Gaza nor Israel are a potential military threat, they are not great economic powers where the outcome majorly affects our country. The foundations of the argument are in religions that are minorities in our country.

I don’t know where I meant to go with this post but I just find it deeply depressing how the situation has dug so deep into British life and discourse, there are plenty of other stories with such hellish death and destruction that get nothing as we have mentioned here. The polarisation and anger here though is crazy though and I am not even certain the weekly marches and protests will stop even if there is a peace deal when all they do is entrench division and cost this country a fortune in policing etc.

Anyway, ramble/rant over. I blame my meds.

In terms of split, it's a pretty firm majority in favour of Palestine/against Netanyahu whichever way you cut it. For Palestine statehood it's more than 2:1; nearly 2:1 for the Palestinians on the "what side" question (with lots of both sides too). 3:1 against what the IDF is doing in Gaza. About 50% of people think it amounts to genocide.

I think the key difference is how the UK Government is responding to such public opinion. The protests are as much against our government as the Israeli one - and the sense that we are abdicating our responsbilities under the Genocide Convention. People often ask why there aren't such protests against what Russia is doing in Ukraine. Well, we are actually funding and arming the Ukrainians...

There is far more clearly a right side and a wrong side in Ukraine than there in Israel/Gaza. Netanyahu’s government and Hamas are both very unsympathetic.

The UK can do something worthwhile, in relation to Ukraine. There is very little worthwhile that we can do, in relation to Gaza, however.

To the protestors, the blame lies wholly with Israel, a stance which no British government will endorse.

Was catching up on the overnight posts and thinking about the shear number about Israel/Gaza.

I can’t think of any other event that causes so much split and trouble in the Uk. We don’t see weekly marches in favour of free school meals, increasing tax on the wealthiest, there weren’t weekly marches about Northern Ireland during the troubles.

Yet with Gaza/Israel we see protest, violence, hatred, laws being changed. It’s possibly the subject on here that causes the most rancour and unpleasantness on here that I can think of.

And yet it has absolutely zero real role in British life. It’s not a neighbour, neither Gaza nor Israel are a potential military threat, they are not great economic powers where the outcome majorly affects our country. The foundations of the argument are in religions that are minorities in our country.

I don’t know where I meant to go with this post but I just find it deeply depressing how the situation has dug so deep into British life and discourse, there are plenty of other stories with such hellish death and destruction that get nothing as we have mentioned here. The polarisation and anger here though is crazy though and I am not even certain the weekly marches and protests will stop even if there is a peace deal when all they do is entrench division and cost this country a fortune in policing etc.

Anyway, ramble/rant over. I blame my meds.

BBC News - Police to get broader powers to restrict repeated protests
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c24rmdngrrjo

Labour in government habit of going all authorian showing through again. It's only 2 mins since the Tories attempt to curtail JSO blocking all the roads on a daily basis was met with outrage by Labour.

Also whatever happened to the tradition of not announcing things during party conferences. They are all at these these days shouting over on another when each other conferences are on.

I can see the need; if you lived somewhere that these anti-Jewish shits turned out every other week, you might be more than a little peeved. They don't care anything about the fear they cause in the Jewish community, or the disruption they cause to the lives of their fellow citizens.

It is, however, a law change that could easily be exploited by bad regimes.

As for your last paragraph: remember how Starmer and Labour lambasted Conservative governments for announcing things outside parliament? Now they're in power, they're doing exactly the same thing.

Your language doesn't help you or your cause, or would you like it if I called you a pro genocide/pro Tommy Robinson shill.

The vast majority at these protests aren't anti Jewish, they are anti genocide, my friend's mother was arrested yesterday for the first time in her life at 80, which amused her son, given she's over the last 40 years protested against inter alia South Africa/apartheid, China/Tibet, Sudan, Russia, and Yugoslavia.

From what I gather her crime, holding a Palestine flag, which according to others, will see no further action in a few weeks time.

Daily Mail confirms he's an Islamist, and he apparently shouted Allahu Akhbar before the attack

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15157191/Suicide-belt-Manchester-attacker-Islamist-terrorist.html

We must grasp the nettle. Voting Reform might not even be enough

Oh God. You are going to be insufferably over excited at discovering the petp was an Islamist terrorist. Did it come as a complete surprise to you after seeing the video and photos at lunchtime?

I am very worried where this is going and what may follow

We may even find ourselves in a national emergency where all protest marches are banned no matter by whom

This would be extreme but I fear this is a dangerous moment

However, I am rather reassured by the fact that right after reading your comment, and other more shrill left or right ones - that the next one in the list was about Airfix kits. Britain will muddle through.