As the tanks roll in, remember there are no guilty kids in war
AS the Israeli tanks roll into Gaza and a full ground war seems imminent, you can’t help but think about what is happening right now to all those children who were stolen from their families on October 7.
Where I live in North West London, you see a lot of heartbreaking posters put up on walls, showing kidnapped Israeli children.
And you see the same posters torn down, ripped up and lying in the gutter.
It is profoundly shocking — all of it.
The smiling faces of those lost children.
Recalling the sadistic brutality of the terrorists who kidnapped them.
And, most shocking of all, the tragic fact that in tolerant, diverse, civilised London, there are plenty of people who tear those posters down and laugh as they are doing it.
Or snarl with unhinged rage.
For the life of me, I can’t comprehend how someone can tear down a poster of a kidnapped child. I just don’t get it.
What is in the mind of someone who rips down the image of a kidnapped child?
Do they think the kidnappings did not really happen? Is it all just wicked Israeli propaganda?
Or are they in denial? Is it that they just can’t face the sickening reality of the crimes of Hamas?
The only human response is to feel pity for children stolen from their homes by Hamas, just as anyone who has anything resembling a heart feels pity for the Palestinian children who are currently having their names written on their bodies by their parents, so that they can be identified if they are blown to bits by a bomb.
As the tanks roll in, we do well to remember that there are no guilty children in a war.
There are no children — Israeli or Palestinian — who deserve what they get.
Whatever their enemies may say, the leaders of our two main political parties are doing their best to demonstrate human compassion for both sides of this ancient conflict as it enters a new and terrible phase.
Rishi Sunak is clearly appalled by the Hamas atrocities of October 7 and backs Israel, even as he announces the UK’s £20million aid package for Gaza.
Keir Starmer is furiously berated within his own party for backing Israel’s right to defend itself, yet demands desperately needed aid reaches the innocent civilians of Gaza. And that’s not hypocrisy.
That’s basic humanity.
Historic grievance
The lives of those kidnapped Israeli children matter and the lives of those Palestinian children having their names scrawled on their arms matter.
They are all the innocent victims of Hamas. They are all the victims of terrorism that is psychopathic in its inhumanity.
And it was a total absence of anything resembling humanity that inspired the Hamas atrocities of October 7.
It is to be profoundly hoped that — enraged by these crimes against humanity — Israel does not punish the innocent as well as the guilty.
Even in a world where we so recently witnessed I.S. in all its nihilistic cruelty, the mind reels with what Hamas did that day.
Families burned alive. Torture, rape, mass murder. Beheadings.
And hundreds kidnapped from their homes, half of them children.
The mind struggles to comprehend the world we are living in.
A world where you see the smiling faces of kidnapped children on posters — they are always smiling — and those same posters destroyed in the gutter.
As though kidnapping children can somehow be justified by some sacred cause or historic grievance.
And it can’t.
As though tearing down those tragic posters somehow helps the Palestinian people achieve freedom and justice.
And it doesn’t.
Nobody ever murdered, raped and kidnapped their way to freedom.
Palestinian-born Queen Rania of Jordan told CNN: “I just want to emphasise that this conflict did not begin on October 7, although it has been portrayed as that.
“This is a problem that far precedes Hamas and will continue after Hamas.”
Yes, this conflict goes back through 75 years of war and conflict since the formation of Israel in 1948 and two peoples claiming the same land as their home.
And it goes back beyond 1948 to the gas chambers of the Holocaust, and further back still to the pogroms of Eastern Europe, and all the way back to the Jewish diaspora in the Bible.
Queen Rania is right. The conflict won’t end when Hamas is destroyed, just as I.S. was destroyed before them.
This conflict did not begin on October 7 and it is impossible to see how it will end within our lifetimes.
Because when there are fools who can laugh as they rip down posters of kidnapped children, how can there ever be peace?
ICONS’ PLAIN GENIUS
LOOKING at the old photographs of the late Bobby Charlton, I am struck by the classic beauty of his kit.
No sponsor on the front.
No name on the back. Not even a club crest.
I saw Charlton play when Manchester United (who were immaculate in pristine white shirts, white shorts and red socks) beat West Ham 6-1 at Upton Park on May 6, 1967, and clinched the First Division title.
A domestic English game with five World Cup winners on the pitch – plus George Best and Denis Law! Who both scored!
I have a postcard of the two captains, Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton, shaking hands just before kick-off.
Neither Bobby has even their club crest on their shirts.
They did not need their names printed on the back.
When we watched these legends, we knew who they were.
IN the Rugby World Cup semi-final between England and South Africa, did Boks hooker Bongi Mbonambi call Tom Curry a “white c***” – or was Bongi innocently talking tactics in Afrikaans, shouting, “Wit kant!” – “white side!” – or “watter kant?” – “which side?” Beats me.
But to the casual rugby fan, the most shocking thing of all was what Tom, called the referee.
Which was, “Sir.”
You don’t get that in the Premier League!
IN the gloriously over-the-top trailer for the final season of The Crown, Imelda Staunton’s Queen says of Elizabeth Debicki’s Diana: “All one wants is for that girl to find peace!”
Really? It is a high-camp drama dressed up as historical fact.
But one wonders if the Queen ever said something so pompous and patronising in her life.
One seriously doubts it.
Will Travis measure up for Taylor?
WE are so accustomed to seeing Taylor Swift on the arm of some sensitive-looking Brit – Harry Styles, Tom Hiddleston, Joe Alwyn, Calvin Harris – that it is a bit of a shock to see her stepping out with Travis Kelce, a 6ft 5in American footballer who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs.
We are told that Taylor – 5ft 11in in her bare feet – feels suddenly liberated now she is dating this hulking great jock, and can finally start wearing high heels.
But in fact, all of Taylor’s Brits have been height appropriate.
It’s just not true that Swift dated “short fellas” before Kelce.
Joe Alwyn and Tom Hiddleston are both 6ft 2in, while Harry Styles is around the same height as Swift.
DJ Calvin Harris, a Scot, is 6ft 5in – exactly the same height as this NFL hunk.
It was only when Taylor dated Joe Jonas (a tiny American) that she had to stoop, bend her knees and wear flats in photographs.
If Taylor wore flat shoes with Styles, Hiddleston, Alwyn or Harris, it was simply because they were more comfortable.
Taylor has been seen cheering on the Kansas City Chiefs and happily sporting high heels as she steps out with Travis.
True love at last, or is it?
After all those tall, sensitive Brits, I’m so not convinced that some lantern-jawed American jock will ever be a perfect fit for Taylor Swift.
A BOBI DAZZLE
BOBI, the world’s oldest dog, has died at age 31.
He was a sweet-looking Portuguese Rafeiro do Alentejo – a dog bred for guarding livestock, and with a usual life expectancy of 12 to 14 years.
Bobi’s owner Leonel Costa attributes his long, long life to a “calm and peaceful” environment, “love and freedom” and eating the same nosh as humans.
His passing will have had every dog lover wondering how long they have left with their four-legged family member.
Our boy Stan, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, turns 12 next month.
That’s a pretty good innings.
But even the longest of dog lives are heart-breakingly brief.
AS championship boxing switches from Las Vegas and London to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tyson Fury channels Joe Dolce to tell us: “It’s-a not so bad – it’s-a nice-a place.”
Great weather, chilled atmosphere, friendly folk, etc.
Saudi Arabia sounds great, Tyson.
A bit of a shame about the beheadings, but you can’t have everything!
LOSER ON LAW
WHAT will cost the Tories the next election will be the increasing lawlessness in this country.
The police shrug their shoulders at burglary.
The shoplifting epidemic is a feature of every dying High Street.
Green goons vandalise national monuments at will.
Cops – so quick to take the knee for a fashionable cause – decide no offence has been committed as protesters at a rally in London scream “jihad!”.
The Tories are supposedly the party of law and order.
Yet law and order is disappearing before our eyes.
And there is nothing more likely to make Tory voters stay at home come General Election day.