Managed To Eliminate?

And now, the Greek Orthodox Cultural Centre in Gaza. No one could have mistaken it for anything else. That particular Patriarch of Jerusalem is always a Greek. The present one is also a Castleman; if you know, you know. But like those of all the other bearers of that and similar titles, his flock of hundreds of thousands is Palestinian. Go on. Ask how long there have been Christians in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, the BBC may refer to a mere "explosion", as if the Jabalia refugee camp had blown itself up, but the IDF admits on television, in a Glaswegian accent, that it has killed at least 120 people in the hope that one of them might have been a particular Hamas commander. The view of the neoconservative media is that Glaswegians cannot possibly understand such matters. Clearly, it depends which ones.

He encouraged this war crime, so Keir Starmer is also a war criminal. If this utterly inexperienced politician really is just an opportunist, then who is advising him? Three quarters of people want a ceasefire. Israel has never, ever been a popular cause in Britain, from the circumstances of its creation onwards. Menachem Begin, anyone? A Conservative Government refused to arm it during the Yom Kippur War, while Begin's Government armed Argentina during the Falklands War.

Israel's base in Britain is the majority, but by no means the whole, of a tiny ethnic minority, half of one per cent of the population, few of whom had an ancestor in these Islands 150 years ago, and almost none of whom had one 50 years before that. This evening's demonstration at Liverpool Street station was organised by Jews. The ones who now denounce immigration, "multiculturalism", identity politics, and allegiance to foreign states or transnational communities, are unwittingly hilarious in their lack of self-awareness.

By alienating the unions and by greatly reducing the membership, Starmer has brought the Labour Party to the brink of bankruptcy, so its policy is now probably for sale on the open market. Here we are. But when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not.