Is it right that the West fails to condemn Israel for its genocidal war on Gaza and The West Bank, and the large scale killing and destruction of a once-proud nation. Is it right that 70% of the 43,000 killed in Gaza are women and children while Israel severely restricts the supply of food, water, power and medicines causing widespread hunger and disease? Is it right that Palestinian land and property has been stolen from Palestinians over many decades and that illegal Israeli settlements are encouraged by the country’s extreme right-wing government?

Is it right that the USA (primarily) and other countries continue to supply the most deadly of offensive weapons ultimately used on the innocent Gazan population, and now on the Lebanese? Is it right that over 100,000 Palestinians have been injured - many seriously - and thousands still lie buried underneath the rubble that was once Gaza?

With so many conflicts around the world and the effects of climate change creating poverty and starvation, is it right to condemn those wishing to leave their countries of birth for a more secure and prosperous life for their families? Is it right that the UK, its failure to provide safe and legal asylum entry routes, results in desperate people heading for the UK via criminal human traffickers and hazardous Channel crossings?

With Trump soon to be in the driving seat, many believe that his relationship with Russia’s Putin and Israel’s Netanyahu will lead to the negative effects of appeasement in relation to Ukraine and increased isolation and suffering for the Palestinians in Gaza and The West Bank. Is it right that Europe continues to rely on the USA for protection with Trump in charge? Is it right that the United Nations is ineffectual in promoting peace and prosperity around the world? Is it right that Russia and China are able to continually block majority decision resolutions in the Security Council? Is it right that many major western governments and the USA fails to condemn Israel’s blatant genocide and destruction?

It seems to me that politics rules over everything else, and has failed miserably. And so often it appears that judgements made by leaders are often in the face of popular disapproval. At the same time electoral victories by leaders such as Trump are based on false promises and outright lies, and the voters’ failure to discriminate lies from truth.

Terence Rattigan’s play represents a brilliant summation of where we are in 2024. For example, right up to the 1950s the death penalty in England was deemed just, regardless of the possibility of wrongful convictions. It was justice then but was it right? The death and injury to innocent Palestinians on massive scale is a million miles away from the Israel’s claim that its army (IDF) is the most moral in the world. The indiscriminate shelling and bombing of hospitals, schools, churches and homes and the killing of thousands with the aim of removing a single Hamas fighter or leader tells a different story.

I recently watched a documentary about the British army fighting in Helmand province, Afghanistan. It was deeply moving and something of a revelation. Soldiers described how they were instructed not to harm local residents, even if the Taliban was present (sometimes to the cost of one of their own). The order was entitled Courageous Restraint. In addition British soldiers trained Afghan soldiers and police in ways to avoid harming innocent civilians - Courageous Restraint. Another soldier questioned the legitimacy and morality of destroying a family home in order to kill two Taliban. One one point in the documentary a very young child was accidentally shot by an Afghan soldier. The British worked desperately to save the child’s life before she was airlifted. She survived. The British also tried to be friendly and helpful to inhabitants, even building a school for the children. But there’s one statistic which illustrates the inhumanity of Israel’s war on the Palestinian people, and especially on the children. Today is the 1,000th day of the Ukrainian/Russian conflict in which time 1,000 children have been killed. The Gaza conflict has lasted 365 days in which time between 8,000 and 13,000 children have been killed and thousands more seriously injured by Israeli forces. The killing and destruction continues unabated.

“The admiralty accepts the declaration of Ronald Winslow that he did not write the name on the postal order and that he did not take it. He was entirely innocent of the charges brought against him two years ago. I make that statement without any reservations, intending it to be a complete acceptance of the boy’s statement.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Winslow_Boy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupied_Palestinian_territories
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Ukrainian_War