Labour’s Faustian pact: Its soul for… well, what exactly?

I would like to return briefly to the outrageous hypocrisy of our government – the UK govt, that is – and in particular the grandstanding and showboating of the Foreign Secretary at the Despatch Box that would have made a circus ringmaster blush.

In another blog, I showed that the allegation that Israel was “ethnically cleansing” the Palestinian-Arab population of Judea and Samaria (AKA The West Bank) was pernicious and utterly false since the Palestinian population has seen exponential growth since Israel acquired the territory in 1967.  I also offered  an actual example of “ethnic cleansing” in the region; of Jews rather than by them – when Jordan kicked out every Jew from Judea and Samaria (AKA The West Bank) making the territory judenrein for two decades until 1967.

Now I would like us to look at the Foreign Secretary’s main point: the alleged “Settler violence” that is allegedly so egregious that it takes precedence over every other international issue that might have been in the in-tray of the new Foreign Secretary when he arrived at the FCO just days before his grandstanding and showboating in the Commons.

For example, the violence, torture, murder, and suppression of 12 million Uygur in China (including allegations of forced sterilisation); widespread famine and almost 4,000 civilians killed between January and June 2026 in Sudan; documented ethnic killing in Darfur; long-running sectarian bloodshed in Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria – a “Christian genocide” according to some; the torture, imprisonment-without-trial, and up to 40,000 protestors slaughtered in Iran; the systematic oppression of women and girls under the Taliban… I could go on.

But none of it is as pressing as “Settler violence” which, according to Wikipedia includes Settlers “frequently stoning and shooting at Palestinian cars” – at tyres and bodywork mostly. Oh yes, and according to Wikipedia Settlers  also regularly “abuse Palestinians”.  And amid all of the allegedly shocking “Settler” violence, the toll of  Palestinian deaths in the past year has been four – yes, you read that right, four. And yes, I know, every death is a tragedy. But really, Foreign Secretary, four deaths in a volatile region and in a situation where – as  you well know – sections of the Palestinian population were being openly inflamed and incited to violence against Israelis, and probably incentivised to violence as well. To me that suggests restraint by Jews.

But nevertheless, despite the violence and killing in Sudan, Somalia, Darfur, China, Iran and Nigeria, you stood at the Despatch box disgracefully invoking your tenuous Jewish affiliation to demonise and libel the world’s one Jewish state defending itself from enemies who (again, as you well know) have been trying to annihilate it for 80 years and have been trying even harder after Oct 7th.

So how did “Settler violence” get to be at the very top of the FCO agenda demanding the denouncement of Israel in parliament when the Palestinian death-toll of four suggests that “Settler violence” is in reality barely a blip on the conflict seismograph – especially  when compared with Sudan, Nigeria, Darfur, etc.

Well, of course, it’s because the BBC, The Guardian and other news outlets put it there. (Precisely what motivated them to do so, is a subject for another time.) They report it often and, of course, Louis Theroux has gleefully brought it to our attention in not one but two documentaries, and because it is a “talking point” on social media. And it helps that the Israeli Left is vociferous in its condemnation of “Settlers” because, as we also know, they hate Bibi Netanyahu and his pro-Settler coalition almost as much as they hate Jihadists.

And because well, everyone says it’s happening, so it must be, right? Who will look at the West Bank allegations and say: “The emperor has no clothes.”?

So maybe the perception of the West Bank created by the BBC, The Guardian, etc – and eagerly and exponentially amplified by our Foreign Secretary in the House last week – is nothing like the reality. Allegedly, sheep on Israeli farms have been deliberately poisoned; allegedly nine times in two years. But, of course, that is the kind of low-level violence that can easily go unreported. Is it possible, therefore, that that exact same ugly, unpleasant low-level violence is being perpetrated against Israelis, but is never reported rather like the situation in April 2024 when deadly rockets were raining down on Israel almost daily but were never reported at all. Yet the BBC (and other media) bombarded viewers with new angles on Gaza almost daily, thus increasing the perception of Palestinians as victims and diminishing the very tangible threat to Israelis and Jews.

And then we have far more serious violence against Israelis which is reported, but is easily forgotten: in January of this year an Israeli teenager hiking in the Judean hills was lynched by a Palestinian mob. Actually, I’m not sure that was reported outside Israel  And of course there have been incidents of shooting at Israeli cars – and definitely not at tyres. In April 2023 British-born rabbi’s wife Lucy Dee and one of her daughters were shot dead by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank. Her other daughter was seriously wounded but survived. We should also remember the long, bloody history of terrorist violence by West Bank Palestinians against Israel, including murders, kidnappings and suicide-bombings,

It seems likely that the picture of the West Bank painted in the media in which Palestinians are the victims of Israel, is not accurate. Perhaps the real victims are the Jews and Israelis. Or perhaps both sides are equally culpable. But certainly there are no sane, objective grounds for “Settler violence” being at the top of the FCO agenda.

We might also ask why the focus of the anti-Israel campaign has suddenly shifted to “Settler violence”? Could it be that those behind the eye-wateringly costly Israel Disinformation campaign have seen that the “genocide” and “famine” illusions are crumbling – at least for all but the most fanatical and delusional – and felt they need to push a new hot-button topic. And “Settler violence” is already out there, and just needed a little refresh, which Mr Milliband so kindly gave it in the Commons.

Also, “Settler violence” is a cause celebre that everyone can get behind – it even plays well with some Zionist Jews. And it seems somehow less anti-Jewish more anti-Settler, so it might also be welcomed by some Left-wingers who must be realising that overt Jew-hate is not a good look.

The question which still requires an answer, is the one I posed earlier. What makes The West Bank take precedence over every other international issue that might have detained our appalling, craven new Foreign Secretary? And I think we can find the answer here. While Jews and decent folk expressed outrage and disgust for the government’s duplicity and the Foreign Secretary’s mendacious showboating, the Islamist terrorists and slaughterers – and their funders – expressed gratitude to the Labour government. A senior member of Hamas’s political bureau and Iran immediately sent congratulations to our government. This means Labour, has now won the approval of the Jihadists, terrorists, rapists and butchers (and  their backers) for the second time. The first – arguably even more shamefully – was when the Labour government “recognised” a Palestinian “State” while the Israeli hostages – snatched in the unprovoked invasion and slaughter of Oct 7th – were still being held in Gaza’s subterranean hell.

So we know that this Labour government is not just willing to go along with the pitchfork-wielding mob screaming their Jew-hating slogans, but that Mr Ed is most shamefully willing to inflame the mob from the Despatch Box.

We also know they are prepared to put the NHS budget at risk, and UK security in jeopardy. So if this completely indefensible prioritising of the West Bank is some kind of Faustian pact, let us hope that as some kind of return for its soul the government has watertight guarantees from the Islamists on terror, and that there is a firm promise of shed-loads if Qatari or Iranian cash for the NHS