[Philip Marlow]

The title's now been changed.

I know writers don’t usually pick their own headlines, but I suspect the original might’ve been a truer representation of her feelings on the matter.

Meanwhile in Germany…

[The Weeping Angel]

Bastards.

[kreuzberger]

People in a systematically starved area emerge with Riviera beach bodies. No shit.

[Bones McCoy]

They're bound to lose the Evangelical right after this.

Hopes of motherhood crushed after IVF embryos destroyed in Israel's Gaza offensive

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c15npnzpd08o

[Boiler]

Doubt it.

[Samanfur]

They're not going to be from white, God-bothering, Christian, American parents. The evangelicals won't care.

[Abernathy]

I find myself in a degree of congruence with Mr. John Baine (aka “Attila the Stockbroker”) :

This is why Israeli policies are so utterly incomprehensible. For me there was only ever one justification for some kind of (not this) Israeli state, and it was an incredibly powerful one - the establishment of a place of safety after the unspeakable fact of the Holocaust.

Before the rise of the Nazis Herzl’s Zionist creed was a minority sect, dwarfed by the Bundists’ vision of a Jewish culture celebrated and strengthened in the diaspora where they lived. But the Holocaust wiped out Bundism to the point where most people who express an opinion on the current conflict appear to be unaware of its historical existence - and Zionism came into its own as a literal creed for survival.

Millions of Europeans could relate to that in some form. Some of us went to kibbutz as a statement of solidarity. But the justification for the state became less powerful as its brutality increased and now most people recoil in disgust. Revisionism and Kahanism have spat on the compassion felt by millions post Holocaust, and that is an utter tragedy not just for the brutalised Palestinians but for Jewish people throughout the world.

Antisemitism is a hate crime. When Netanyahu uses ‘antisemite’ as a description of literally anyone who opposes his actions in Gaza, the word loses its power and its meaning. And that is a double tragedy.

[davidjay]

I do sometimes feel that Mr B is the ultimate student politician who never grew up, but his heart's undoubtedly in the right place and that's a good piece of analysis.

[Abernathy]

Mad Mel’s been a bit quiet lately.

[Rosvanian]

Mad Mel’s been a bit quiet lately.

Kill 'em All says Mel. God is on our side.

Mel spend many years as a voice of authority on R4's The Moral Maze and is still, somehow, a Times columnist despite the fact that she is a unapologetic extremist with more in common with Hamas than the rest of us.

[Bones McCoy]

I think somebody might have done an undeclared act of war last night.

[mattomac]

At this point he is putting his own people at harm.

Another populist loon

[Boiler]

I know international rules don't apply because "U-S-A! U-S-A!", but... isn't this just a tad illegal?

Trump says no plans to kill Iran's leader 'for now', before calling for 'unconditional surrender'

[kreuzberger]

We are at the stage of geopolitical football. Watford Vs Celtic : I hope that they both lose and sustain career-ending injuries.

[Spoonman]

Meanwhile in Newry...



...apparently the dissies (in this case, Saoradh, whom are not known for being intellectual heavyweights) say that this is them showing solidarity with Iran.

[Abernathy]

On socialmedia this morning, the usual assortment of Trots, Tankies, and Corbynites are desperately scrabbling around to find whatever "evidence" they can, from UK defence contractors supplying spare cogs and widgets for Israeli fighter planes to an imagined permission from Starmer for Trump to unleash his bunker-busters, that Starmer's government is somehow actively "complicit in genocide".

On Kuenssberg this morning, none other than cerebrally-challenged former Labour MP Zarah Sultana, whose contribution to the discussion I could easily have scripted before she even began to speak: UK government must not support the imperialist ambitions of the USA (it doesn't), still some uncancelled Israeli defence contactor contracts un-cancelled so UK complicit in genocide, repeat of 2003, yadda yadda yadda. You could set your fucking watch by her. But she is such a bloody simpleton. Nuance, subtlety, and Realpolitik are utterly alien concepts to her.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Did she say we're "training the IDF" and "doing reconnaissance for Israel" too? Because if there's one thing everybody knows about Israel, it's completely unmilitarised and doesn't have any planes.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Lots of the anti-Starmer people are attacking him from a pro-EU position. They'll ignore the EU being on the same page as Starmer though.

At least your Jez types are open that they hate the EU.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Encouragingly, quite a few people on Bluesky are pushing back against the idea that Starmer "endorsed" the attacks.

[The Weeping Angel]

Or they just shift the goalposts.