From the river to the water park

“Right, so we all want a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine – I want it, you want it, and Ed Miliband wants it too,” writes former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the Mail on Sunday. “Let’s suppose for a moment that the Israelis are so appalled by the ridiculous and shameful sanctions announced this week that they decide to humour the British Foreign Secretary. Let’s imagine that the Labour government gets what it wants and somehow manages to persuade Israel to start dismantling all the recent settlements in the West Bank. It will never happen, not in the real world; but let us think this through. Suppose the Israelis bring out the bulldozers, evict the settlers (using force if necessary) and then pass the entire responsibility on to the Palestinians. That is what Miliband claims to want; that is the aim of his sanctions, is it not? A new, self-governing Palestinian state. And what do you think would happen then? Well, as it happens, we know exactly, because this experiment has already been carried out. In 2005, the Israeli government bowed to international pressure and withdrew all Jewish settlers from Gaza – and when I say ‘withdrew’, I mean that in some cases they were literally dragged out by their hair. They uprooted some 8,500 Israelis, demolished their homes and then handed over full control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians – or, more precisely, to Hamas. One might have expected Gaza to offer, in many ways, a promising prospect for urban development. It has a young and dynamic population; it has marvellous beaches in a stunning Mediterranean setting; and it has enough offshore gas to generate billions in revenue for decades. When Hamas took control of Gaza, it could have been reasonable and pragmatic. It could have focused on the needs of its own electorate, on keeping the streets clean and free from crime, and on setting up a good public transport system. Did they emulate most decent local politicians and focus on jobs and growth? Not a chance. If you want to understand why the Israelis will never accept, under current conditions, a two-state solution, and why Miliband’s sanctions are a tragic waste of time, look at what has happened in Gaza. The whole tragedy, for me, is summed up by the story of the Crazy Water Aqua Fun Park. Only a few years had passed since the Israelis left when a Gazan entrepreneur—actually a former Hamas minister—decided to use part of the huge sums of development aid that were flooding into the enclave. In 2010, he built a water park, one of those delightful places full of giant tube slides through which the human body is propelled like a bolus through the digestive system until it plops, screaming, into some pool. We all know and love them, and we’ve all taken our families there. They are universal scenes of joy and fun, where the sexes mingle in appropriate swimwear. The Crazy Water Aqua Fun Park was no exception. It was a hit. Soon the park was employing over a hundred people, and it might still be there today – were it not for Hamas’s hatred and jealousy. The fanatics took issue with the semi-nudity. They shuddered at the proximity between the sexes. They deemed the entire venture anti-Islamic and blasphemous, and one day they shut it down—shortly before forty masked men appeared in the dead of night and set it alight. This incident serves as a metaphor for the way Hamas has managed Gaza’s economy. Instead of unleashing its potential, they have incinerated it. They have squandered billions in foreign aid, from the EU, from Britain, from all over the world. They either pocketed it or used it to buy weapons; and instead of using the money to build proper sewers or public transport systems, they spent all their time digging tunnels – from which to attack Israel. On 7 October 2023, as we all know, they swarmed out of their hideouts, on motorbikes or hang-gliders, and committed the greatest and most horrific atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. This is what occurred in Gaza when the Israelis withdrew, dismantled the settlements, and placed the Palestinians in charge of their own security. As a result, no one in Israel is currently interested in applying the same approach to the West Bank. No one with any chance of forming a government in the forthcoming Israeli elections – neither Benjamin Netanyahu nor the opposition – is considering a two-state solution – if by ‘state’ one means an armed Palestinian political entity responsible for its own security. Of course, those Israeli attitudes might change if they felt there was no risk of attack. If Hamas were to genuinely renounce violence and disarm, it could mark the beginning of a dialogue that might lead to a lasting peace. Such an outcome is not entirely implausible. However, where is the British pressure on Hamas? Why does the focus continue to be on Israel? This is the seventh package of sanctions imposed by Labour since the 7 October attack, all directed against Israel. And we all know the reason – because whatever Ed Miliband may say, Labour is now a Corbynist party pursuing radical and sectarian policies designed to consolidate the far-left vote. They are introducing desperate and unenforceable legislation on so-called ‘Islamophobia’ – and since the term literally means ‘fear of Islam’, we can only conclude that the greatest Islamophobes are to be found within the Labour Party. They fear Islam, in the sense that they fear being seen – like Keir Starmer – as being too soft on Israel. Andy Burnham fears the moralistic backlash in the mosques and in the 57 Labour constituencies where the Muslim minority exceeds fifteen per cent. These sanctions have little to do with promoting a two-state solution or advancing peace; instead, they appear designed to appeal to a growing left-wing sentiment critical of Israel and to fend off challenges from the Green Party and other left-wing groups. That strategy is unlikely to succeed. As with all acts of appeasement, Miliband’s gesture is likely to encourage demands for further concessions from a movement that will not be satisfied until the Jewish people’s homeland has been eliminated, as they put it, ‘from the river to the sea’. The next step could well be an announcement, not just by the Labour Party but by a Labour government, that Israel is guilty of ‘genocide’. It is an abuse of the term and an insult to those who died in the Holocaust. These sanctions will not help a single Palestinian farmer; they will not support a single Palestinian business – quite the opposite, in fact. If they have any effect at all in the Occupied Territories, they will cost jobs to those who need them most. The only impact they will have on Israeli politics will be to strengthen the far right and reinforce the impression, even amongst moderates, that the UK can no longer be trusted. The inept and inconsistent Burnham has pushed Britain to the very fringes of the debate – and for what? To feed the Corbynist crocodile. All of this is shameful.”