The call came as I was leaving Twickenham after an England rugby international in March 2003. My old friend Terry Lloyd, the brilliant ITN correspondent, had been killed in Iraq.
He was on the outskirts of Basra, traveling in a 4×4 clearly marked “TV.” When the fog of war cleared, it was determined that the fatal shot had been fired by an American soldier, who has never been identified. Terry’s translator also died and his French cameraman was missing, presumed dead.
A subsequent investigation ruled that Terry had been unlawfully killed by US troops and his lawyer said he had been the victim of a “very serious war crime”. No one was ever charged.
The shock of his death was as traumatic for his family and friends as it was for those of the three brave British aid workers killed by Israeli forces in Gaza this week.
But no one at the time demanded that the US-led Coalition, which included 46,000 British military personnel, immediately withdraw from Iraq, allow Saddam Hussein to remain in power, and abandon the search for what turned out to be non-existent weapons of mass destruction. .
ITN correspondent Terry Lloyd was killed in Iraq in 2003 after a US soldier shot at the 4×4 vehicle he was traveling in, which was clearly marked “TV”.
World Central Kitchen employees died after being caught in an Israeli airstrike amid the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel.
An estimated 300,000 Iraqi civilians died after the 2003 Anglo-American invasion, and although there was widespread opposition to the war, I don’t recall anyone credibly accusing the British or American governments of committing “genocide.”
In 2011, a bombing campaign in Libya led by NATO and enthusiastically supported by then-Prime Minister David Cameron claimed countless innocent lives. After the fall of Colonel Gaddafi, Call Me Dave even participated in a victory parade in Tripoli.
However, today Lord Cameron condemns Israel for its actions in Gaza and demands a “full and transparent explanation”.
Joe Biden was first a senator and then vice president during the US war in Afghanistan, where the number of civilian deaths is officially estimated at more than 45,000. He also says he is “outraged” by the deaths of aid workers in Gaza and is pressuring Israel to cease hostilities.
Both Cameron and Biden can legitimately be accused of self-serving hypocrisy, aimed at restoring their own tarnished wartime reputations and, in the case of the US president, of seeking electoral advantage by flattering Muslim voters in swing states like Michigan. .
When British or American troops accidentally kill innocent civilians, journalists or aid workers, it is “friendly fire” in the heat of battle. When Israel does the same, it is a deliberate war crime. The double standards are nauseating.
As is the circular letter to the Prime Minister pointing out the virtues of 600 retired lawyers, academics and senior judges, including Baroness Hale, of Boris spider brooch fame, during the Brexit wars. Several of them strutted on the airwaves yesterday, demanding that the Government stop selling weapons to Israel.
Part of the letter calls for sanctions against “individuals and entities that have made statements inciting genocide against Palestinians.”
Lord Cameron condemns Israel for its actions in Gaza and demands a ‘full and transparent explanation’
President Joe Biden also says he is “outraged” by the deaths of aid workers in Gaza and is pressing Israel to cease hostilities.
What is that supposed to mean: that anyone who supports Israel’s right to self-defense is guilty of inciting genocide? Sounds suspiciously to me like the ridiculous “hate speech” law that came into force in Scotland this week. This is gratuitous compassion, designed primarily to make the signatories feel good about themselves.
I have no doubt that many of them are sincere and horrified (as are all of us, Israel supporters and Palestinian sympathizers alike) at the carnage unfolding in Gaza. But by focusing their disdain on Israel, they are acting like Hamas’ useful idiots.
In some ways they are providing aid to the ‘River to the Sea’ crowd who peddle Jew hatred on the streets of London and elsewhere every weekend.
By parroting Hamas propaganda and repeating uncorroborated claims about the number of civilians killed, they are doing the terrorists’ dirty work. One of these distinguished lawyers appeared on Sky News yesterday claiming, without a shred of evidence, that Israeli troops were deliberately targeting children and had lined up doctors and nurses against a wall and shot them.
Also on Sky, a veteran journalist who should know better repeated Hamas’s claim that Israel had killed 35,000 “mostly women and children.” So there are no terrorists?
The latest calls for a ceasefire focus on the battle at Al-Shifa hospital, used as a base by both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the groups behind the October 7 massacre. In fact, there is evidence that some of the hostages had been dragged there.
The hospital is in ruins after two weeks of intense fighting, or as Sky would say: “Israeli bombing.” But who the hell does anyone think Israelis have been fighting against: cancer patients, maternity nurses, orthopedic surgeons?
It’s as if Hamas had been written out of the script entirely and Israel had simply decided to massacre as many sick Palestinians and innocent hospital staff as possible.
If Israel were bent on committing “genocide,” there would not be a single Palestinian alive today. Instead, it has taken extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties, which are entirely the fault of Hamas.
The construction of tunnels under schools, mosques and hospitals, from which to launch missiles and cross-border attacks against Israel, demonstrates the terrorist group’s callous disregard for human life.
The quickest way to end the killing would be for Hamas to surrender and release all hostages immediately. But there is no evidence of that happening, nor any pressure from Arab states for this to happen.
Interim peace talks always seem to hinge on a disproportionate ten-to-one prisoner swap in favor of Hamas, which Israel cannot accept. A ceasefire would simply allow Hamas to regroup and rearm in preparation for another October 7-style assault.
Hamas has made no secret of the fact that it wants to massacre the Jews and wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. However, it is absurd for him to accuse Israel of genocide.
To those who demand that Israel give in and allow Hamas to continue occupying its tunnels, I say this: imagine that the Islamist terrorist who attacked the Manchester Arena, killing 22 people and wounding 1,017 more, had not put on a suicide vest but instead He would have planted his bombs before making a quick escape.
Then, after escaping, he moved to Manchester Royal Infirmary, where he took refuge in the basement with a few dozen other jihadists and a deadly arsenal. Should the anti-terrorist squad simply shrug their shoulders and leave them alone, so that some time later they would be free to emerge under the cover of darkness and blow up Old Trafford or launch into a shootout at the Arndale Centre?
Look, I don’t want to sound flippant, but Israel is fighting for its very existence against a fanatical Islamist death cult.
It can do without posturing and Western politicians, lawyers and activists who insert themselves into the narrative. It is not about them, but about the very survival of a people and a democratic nation.
Hamas are our enemies too, the kissing cousins of the madmen who blew up the Manchester Arena, London’s transport network and have committed countless other terrorist atrocities in Europe. Supporting Israel is not, as my scholarly friends claimed this week, “inciting genocide.” Quite the opposite, in fact.
War is hell and there will always be, to use that horrible euphemism, “collateral damage.”
Terry Lloyd and the brave aid workers killed in Gaza this week understood this.
They knew the risks, but they were willing to risk their lives to seek, in Terry’s case, the truth and, on the part of aid workers, to bring food and comfort to those in danger.
Their untimely deaths are undoubtedly tragic, but aid workers would still be alive if it had not been for the massacre of 1,200 innocents on October 7.
Israel is blamed, but Hamas has blood on its hands. Sadly, despite the best efforts of brave journalists like Terry Lloyd and others over the years, truth remains the first casualty of war.