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As the Guardian has noted this morning, Keir Starmer said this yesterday to the Scottish Labour conference:
I have just returned from the Munich security conference, where every conversation I had came back to the situation in Israel and Gaza and the question of what we can do practically to deliver what we all want to see – a return of all the hostages taken on 7 October, an end to the killing of innocent Palestinians, a huge scaling-up of humanitarian relief and an end to the fighting. Not just for now, not just for a pause, but permanently. A ceasefire that lasts. That is what must happen now. The fighting must stop now.
It’s a shame it has taken tens of thousands of deaths of innocent people and the displacement of almost every person in Gaza for this point to have been reached. Starmer’s delay in understanding the situation in Gaza is inexplicable, and unforgivable.
This week he has a chance to vote on a demand for peace in Gaza. The SNP is tabling a motion on Wednesday in parliament demanding it. He could let, or even demand, that Labour MPs vote for that motion. Last time the SNP tabled such a motion he blocked that.
Of course it would look better if Labour had tabled such a motion. but it didn’t.
Of course that makes it look like Starmer has been dithering, again.
And, of course there will be a political price to pay for doing the right thing and voting for this motion.
But Starmer has to finally do what both the leaders of Ireland and Scotland did long ago, and stand up and share a broader call for a ceasefire.
Will he? I hope so for Gaza’s sake.
But I also hope so for our sake. We need leadership with some ethical comprehension.
I even hope so for his own sake. Won’t he, one day, want to sleep at night?
But, I will believe it only when it happens. Labour’s tribalism makes it a profoundly small minded party. And small-mindedness is the enemy of most things of value, including peace.
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