JULIA HARTLEY-BREWER
Sometimes things ARE black and white… like backing Israel rather than the terrorists of Hamas & Hezbollah
Scroll to read the bizarre reason a £1billion train fleet is being held in storage
SOMETIMES it’s hard to know which side to take in a heated debate.
Whether it’s a General Election, a referendum or a debate on an issue like assisted dying, I think most reasonable people can see there are strong arguments on both sides.
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But sometimes there just isn’t any grey area.
Sometimes the dividing line is the darkest black on one side and the brightest white on the other.
That’s precisely where we are right now with the Middle East.
Everyone has to pick a side. And what has amazed me over the past year is just how many people living in Britain have chosen the WRONG side.
READ MORE ON HAMAS
On Monday we will mark the first anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas terrorists in which 1,200 men, women and children were massacred in southern Israel and 250 hostages were seized.
It was the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust and it left the nation stunned and scared.
Yet within hours of the slaughter, hundreds of people were cheering and dancing on the streets of Britain to celebrate the attack and, twice a month ever since, many tens of thousands have marched through our cities in what they claim is solidarity with Gaza but is now a blatantly anti-Israel protest.
Far from being on the fringes, all this time they have been buoyed up by the many left-wing politicians, social commentators and even journalists working at the BBC and other broadcasters who, in seeking to sympathise with the cause of the Palestinian people, have pushed the narrative that Israel is not the victim but the perpetrator, that they brought the attack on themselves by their own actions, and that it is THEY, not the Hamas terrorists, who are the mass murderers, the perpetrators of genocide and the root of all evil.
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Again, in the past week, when Israel finally retaliated against Hezbollah militants and their Iranian backers after a YEAR of daily rocket attacks from Lebanon into northern Israel, it was — surprise, surprise — Israel that was condemned as the aggressor.
This sick rewriting of reality is beyond belief.
Day after day, much of our mainstream and social media tell us that Israel is the oppressor while the “freedom fighters” of Hamas and Hezbollah are acting on behalf of the oppressed Palestinians.
Hezbollah were going to JOIN Hamas in Oct 7 massacre, ex-spy reveals as Israel fears second cross-border slaughter plot
No wonder, then, that millions of my fellow Brits now believe that defending anyone who attacks Israel is the only righteous and moral thing to do.
Yet they are, of course, completely and utterly wrong
Of course we should all care about the innocent civilians of Gaza and Lebanon.
But Israel has gone beyond anything any other military has done to minimise casualties.
In fact, the only people who DON’T care about children being bombed are the terrorists who deliberately place them in harm’s way by building their networks of tunnels and weapons caches beneath homes, schools and hospitals.
How can anyone choose the side of Hamas and Hezbollah when they are no different to their Islamist terrorist cousins in al-Qaeda and IS, whose only aim is to kill and subjugate anyone who resists the creation of a worldwide Islamist caliphate?
If you think they’re the good guys, then maybe you should think again.
If you’re on the same side as those who celebrate rocket attacks on innocents, maybe you need to readjust your moral compass.
If you find yourself supporting the same cause as the Iranian mullahs, who murder women for the crime of not wearing a headscarf, perhaps you haven’t really thought things through.
Because you’re not just taking the side of the terrorists, you are taking sides against the TRUTH.
There may be two sides to every argument but only one side can ultimately be right. I know which side I’m on.
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You’ve rear-ly done it this time, Schofield
LIKE many viewers, I was left gobsmacked by the Channel 5 show Cast Away, featuring Phillip Schofield stranded alone on a desert island for ten days to fend for himself, with only a video camera for company.
It wasn’t the sight of his buttocks as he ran naked into the sea that stunned me, but his shocking lack of understanding about his fall from grace.
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Schofield was sacked 16 months ago over his relationship with a much younger man working on ITV’s This Morning show.
Yet in Cast Away he showed not a shred of self-awareness, humility or remorse – instead blaming everyone from his TV co-stars and producers to ITV bosses and even his own brother (now a convicted paedophile) for the untimely ending of his stellar career.
His cack-handed attempt at redemption and rehabilitation came far too soon and will, I fear, have done him more harm than good.
Amy's Lame job done
LONDON’S “Night Tsar” has quit.
I know, it is devastating news for all of us – well, at least for the half-dozen people who knew that job even existed in our capital city.
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Amy Lame, an LGBT campaigner and broadcaster, was appointed by her mate, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, despite seemingly having zero qualifications for the role.
And during her eight years supposedly promoting London’s night-time economy, she oversaw a collapse in the capital’s nightlife greater than any other city in England post-lockdown.
Lame did, though, manage to find the time for 12 glamorous trips abroad on expenses while being paid a whopping £132,000 taxpayer-funded salary.
Frankly, Ms Lame, we Londoners would like our money back.
BoJo's book squirm
THE BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg had to cancel a primetime TV interview with Boris Johnson about his new memoirs, Unleashed, after she accidentally included the man himself in a message to her producers about her planned line of questioning. Oops!
Ironically that’s precisely the sort of thing that the former PM would do himself . . . if he ever bothered to do any preparation for anything.
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His memoirs are just like the man himself – witty and engaging but also chaotic, frustrating and self-serving.
Most telling is what he has to say about his handling of the Covid pandemic, where he happily blames everyone else, from the scientists and civil servants to the media and trade unions, for his decisions over lockdowns.
The truth is that Boris Johnson was too lazy to do his own homework and he allowed himself to be bamboozled into damaging policies that will blight this nation for decades to come.
He forgot the crucial fact that advisers are there to advise.
But we elect Prime Ministers to DECIDE.
Island strife
KEIR STARMER has just handed over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The territory has been disputed for many decades amid claims they’re the last remaining “British colony in Africa”.
But as we all know – after a quick check on Google Maps, anyway – the Chagos Islands are slap bang in the middle of the Indian Ocean and include the strategically vital US naval base of Diego Garcia.
So why on Earth would the UK give up the islands to Mauritius, a failing and corrupt state with strong links to China, a hostile nation?
What’s he going to give away next? The Falklands? Gibraltar?
Did Starmer just want to curry favour with his leftie chums obsessed with fighting our colonial legacy?
My guess is Mauritius offered him some free designer suits and he just couldn’t resist.
Gio got bashed by Beeb
ACTRESS Amanda Abbington says she has been vindicated over her allegations of bullying on Strictly after the BBC’s report into her claims against a pro dancer was published.
The actress accused Giovanni Pernice of “inappropriate, mean, nasty bullying” when they were partnered up for last year’s series, and says she suffered PTSD.
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But the BBC report upheld only six of her 17 allegations, and threw out ALL of the most serious claims, including those of threatening behaviour and physical aggression.
Yet Pernice’s career at the BBC is over, his reputation shattered.
I’m Team Gio all the way.
Yes, he may have pushed his celeb partner beyond her abilities and there were bust-ups, but does that merit the end of his career?
Maybe some celebs just aren’t cut out for the show.
As the indomitable ex-Strictly star Ann Widdecombe remarked in astonishment about Amanda’s claims: “PTSD? After a dance show?”
Nest of wipers
FIRST we had the wrong kind of leaves on the line causing train delays, then the wrong kind of snow.
Now it’s the wrong kind of windscreen wipers.
A shiny new £1billion fleet of passenger trains has been sitting in storage for years after rail unions objected to the size of the windscreen wipers.
South Western Railway bought 90 Arterio trains to replace its 40-year-old carriages but the unions said the wipers meant train drivers couldn’t see signals easily.
Why this couldn’t have been sorted out years ago is anyone’s guess.
But miraculously, after long-suffering commuters spent years packed into creaking carriages, the unions decided the wipers were in fact safe – landing after a 15 per cent wage rise.
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What a coincidence!
The real problem is that we have the wrong kind of train company bosses and the wrong kind of trade union chiefs.
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