Starmer is fixated on the contest with his political opponents over "Britishness". So he claimed it was "un-British" to protest against the Gaza war on the same day as the anniversary of the 2023 Hamas attacks.

    Maybe such a protest was insensitive to victims and their families. And perhaps more so, in the context of the Heaton Park Synagogue attack. But what has supporting the Palestinians got to do with being "un- British" - whatever that may mean?

    In fact wasn't it always considered a matter of pride that the "English" always supported the "underdog"? And in the conflict pitting the Israeli army - one of the strongest in the world, backed by US might - against a tiny guerilla army, but moreover, against a poverty-stricken unarmed population, who is the underdog?

    Was it Starmer's "great British values" that led him to support Netanyahu, tooth and nail, in his ruthless collective punishment against the Palestinians, giving weapons, logistical support and air and naval back-up, in the footsteps of Biden and then Trump? And to turn a blind eye to the death toll of civilians which hugely overshadows what happened on 7 October, let alone the monstrous destruction and displacement of over 90% of the population?

    And does he really think that his token "recognition of Palestine" is not seen for what it is? A way to get British business feet under the table when the rebuilding contracts are dealt out under the control of the Arab leaders - who all already pay lip service to a Palestinian state? If those are "British" values, who would want to have anything to do with them?

Starmer's "conflation" problem...

This Monday Starmer elaborated on his views in the Times newspaper. He wrote: "Over a thousand men, women and children brutally murdered and hostages still held all for one reason: because they were Jewish."

    "Because they were Jewish"? This is a deliberate distortion: they were killed because, in the eyes of Hamas, they represented the enemy: an oppressive, Zionist, supremacist apartheid state which dehumanises Palestinians and has done so for almost 80 years. Yes, it was an appalling undiscriminating attack, which Hamas leaders admitted, spiralled completely out of control, due to long-suppressed feelings of injustice. But no, it cannot be reduced to religious bigotry. And if hostages were taken, this is because one Israeli hostage has always been "worth" hundreds of Palestinian hostages, which in itself, is revealing!

    On the other hand, Netanyahu and his government have been killing Palestinians merely for being Palestinian. That was always clear. And what's also clear, is that the IDF could never have carried out such atrocities against the men, women and children of Gaza, if it regarded them as human beings. The far-right self- confessed fascists in Netanyahu's government explicitly call them "animals". Yes, the same government which Starmer supported... He and all of the other British politicians who go along with this, are soaked in the blood of the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza.

And his sectarian crusade

Starmer - wooden and robotic as he may be - is now trying to appear the great crusader against racism - but of only one kind: the anti-Semitism against Jewish people, which he says he will "root out" of this society, taking opportunity of the attack at Heaton Park Synagogue last Thursday.

    But does an attack by a lone knife-man mean that anti-Semitism is "deeply rooted", as he claims? Of course not. As members of the Heaton Park congregation themselves said, this attack was inevitable at some point, due to the horrific Gaza war, and due to the conflation of Zionism with Judaism - and they wished it had not chosen to come to their door.

    As for "conflation", Starmer is a master of it. He cleverly used the "official definition" of anti-Semitism as a weapon to discredit the hapless Corbyn, in order to rise to Labour Party leader and dispose of his rival. This definition says if you oppose Zionism, i.e., if you oppose the idea of a Jewish-only religious, supremacist state of Israel, which excludes Palestinian rights, then you are an anti-Semite. Full stop. So Corbyn was one, QED!

    Starmer has gone further in his Zionist crusade: not only are pro-Palestinians labelled anti-Semites and "hate marchers" (including Jewish anti-Zionists!), but the Palestine Action group is now proscribed as "terrorist" - and those who object to this publicly, are arrested as supporters of terrorism.

    If that wasn't absurd enough, now Home Secretary Mahmood says that "cumulative" protests - too often and on the same spot - will be restricted. Are we through the looking glass yet and into Trump-Land?

    Indeed, how far can this go? What about when the working class protests over the rising cost of living, precarious employment and cuts, and "British business", Starmer's bestie, objects? No doubt we'll be condemned as un-British and maybe even called terrorists, too, since our class is internationalist and against all forms of patriotic nationalism, British or otherwise. That said, if we strike terror into the hearts of the bosses and their government, all the better!