1 June 2024
The most effective anti-Semite is now proving to be Benjamin Netanyahu. This week, he excelled himself by killing about 50 people living in tents by bombing the Rafah refugee camp. He argued that Hamas terrorists could have been hiding there and what are a few innocent lives worth compared with the death of a terrorist. He didn’t put it in quite those words but the man is obviously bonkers.
His actions have even caused America, until now one of the biggest supporters of the state of Israel, to pull back and limit their support, particularly since reports have claimed the bombs used in the attack were made in America.
Even those of us who were appalled and horrified by Hamas’s unheralded and murderous attack on Israel in October have been even more horrified by Israel’s wholly disproportionate response that has been extended into a genocidal attack on everybody living in Gaza. People who have unwisely compared this with the Nazis’ holocaust are missing the point: no desire for racial purity is being claimed, just Netanyahu’s desire to delay his ending up in a criminal court.
We also heard this week that Israel has been using its intelligence agencies to “surveil (sic – how I hate that word, backformed from surveillance), hack, pressure, smear and allegedly threaten senior staff” of the International Criminal Court by intercepting phone calls, messages, emails and documents, for at least ten years, so Netanyahu had advance warning of what they were thinking.
Isarel also made it clear that “we know where you live”, sending pictures of their families to people who didn’t seem to believe the sun rises in Israel and were seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu himself.
It is no doubt coincidental that the governments of Ireland, Norway and Spain have decided to recognise the state of Palestine.
How long will it be before Netanyahu joins Donald Trump in having to offer a defence to a court? Perhaps he’ll do the decent thing and have heart failure first.
Trump himself has been found guilty of all 34 of the offences he was charged with after only 12 hours of deliberation by the jury. Even though his crimes were committed to hide things from voters deciding whether to elect him in 2016, he’s unlikely to be given a custodial sentence because telling lies in politics and falsifying business records are ‘white collar’ crimes, but he could have to report regularly to New York’s probation department. If he is – God forbid – re-elected as president, you can imagine it can’t you: “Sorry Benjie, I can’t meet you next Tuesday, I’ve got to report to my probation officer”.
What amazes me is that his poll ratings have hardly reacted to his exposure as a liar and a thief and devout Republications everywhere are claiming it’s a stitch-up. I wonder how many of them have read all the documents presented to the court and listened to all the arguments before making this judgement.
Worryingly, his conviction doesn’t prevent his becoming president again.
Which reminds me that the largest and most complete Stegosaurus fossil ever found is coming up for auction at Sothebys in the summer with an estimate of $4m-$6m. I haven’t seen any reference to the costs of posts and packing but perhaps it’s ‘buyer collects’.
Which reminds me Jeremy Hunt has promised that current tax thresholds will stay the same for six years, thereby forcing millions more to pay more tax, but he’s said wouldn’t increase taxes. Anybody else spot the self-contradiction?
The Labour party has been getting its knickers in a twist by refusing to let Diane Abbott, who said something stupid and apologised, stand as a Labour candidate but, luckily, commonsense has prevailed and they’ve changed their minds.
Whether Angela Rayner’s intervention, saying she couldn’t see any reason why Abbott shouldn’t stand for Labour, made any difference, we’ll never know, but it stopped Keir Starmer’s dithering.
Rayner had previously been accused by Tories of having dodged tax on the sale of her former council house but she was given absolute clearance this week by the police, the local council and HMRC. HMRC of course says it never comments on an individual’s tax matters but, somehow, what a surprise, its conclusions were made public and they stated categorically that she had done nothing wrong.
And a final apolitical thought: have you ever realised how banks have become less and less interested in securing the money they hold on trust for their customers? These ‘touch and go’ cards mean that anyone with somebody else’s card can use it to spend up to £100 without permission. Again and again, until their credit limit is reached (or the card’s owner realises and cancels the card).
Well, the banks will no doubt say, it’s just like cash, which anyone else can spend if you lose it. Except that it isn’t because the chances of dropping several hundreds of pounds in notes in a public place are very much less.
And, if your account is hacked and your money is transferred to an unknown account, will the banks chase it and refund it? Will they buggery. You should have had a second level of security, they say. Why? Because (they won’t say) their first level of security is grossly insufficient and they don’t have any control systems that pick up things like a first-ever cash transfer to Switzerland, or repeated payments to betting companies that you’ve never made before.
But why should they take care of the money you’ve entrusted to them? It’d just increase costs.
This has all happened to a friend of mine recently so, if you’re thinking of changing banks, avoid Barclays like the plague.
Lesser Mutterings 