‘I judge a man by one thing’, said the early 20th-century English Liberal MP Isaac Foot: ‘Which side would he have liked his ancestors to fight on at Marston Moor?’ He was referring to the Battle of Marston Moor of 1644, during the English Civil War, in which the Parliamentarian side under the command of the radical Lord Fairfax roundly defeated the Royalist side. It was the military victory that propelled these isles towards democracy. I’m starting to feel similarly about the Battle of Gaza City – that you can judge a person by which side they’re taking in this clash between the army of Israel and the neo-fascists of Hamas.
As the 98th and 162nd divisions of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) roll into Gaza City to confront the 3,000 armed anti-Semites of Hamas, a burning question confronts us all: which side are we on? You can say ‘I just want the war to stop’ until you’re blue in the face. You can carry a handbag saying ‘Cease Fire!’ like one of the turbo-smug celebs at the Emmys did. You can call the IDF ‘reckless and appalling’, as did Britain’s new foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, in an act of snivelling moral perfidy that heaps shame on our nation. None of it will make a blind bit of difference. This battle is as unstoppable as the sunrise tomorrow. Neither the IDF nor Hamas is backing down. So only one question remains: whose victory do you wish for?
The Battle of Gaza City is already one of the most maligned clashes of modern times. Much of the media coverage leaves one with the wholly post-truth impression that the IDF is raiding Gaza City for sport. Or for land. Or in further, feverish pursuit of its curiously unsuccessful ‘genocide’ of the Palestinian people. The other side in the battle – Hamas’s army of apocalyptic Jew-haters – has been virtually invisibilised. We rarely hear of them. It’s as bizarre as if newspapers had reported on the Battle of Raqqa without mentioning ISIS, or the Battle of Berlin without ever saying the word ‘Nazi’.
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