On the ongoing conflict in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and the Red Sea and the confused international response with discussions on the political situation, international support, and potential future scenarios. The podcast emphasises the importance of peace negotiations and the need for continuous efforts toward peace. It also discusses the potential roles of China and Russia in mediating conflict. Listen to the full episode through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podcast Addict and Buzzsprout:

What Hope for a World going to Hell in a Handcart: Transcript

[0:00] Okay, I want to review the latest developments in Britain, America, in the Red Sea, in Sudan, and Gaza, and Ukraine.
Just the things that have been going on in the past few days, really.
In Britain, we’ve seen the election of George Galloway in a by-election, election and a by-election in which both the major parties failed to secure either first or second place. Second place was taken by an independent.
Now, this is remarkable and hasn’t happened for some years that both major parties have been knocked out of first and second place.

[0:44] And the election was fought on the Gaza issue.
And really, the establishment in Britain is out of touch with the popular mood, in my view, from my perspective.
So much so that Rishi Sunak, the British Prime Minister, issued a statement in which he implied that there were too many pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
They’re taking place in central London virtually every Saturday day at the moment, and his view was endorsed by the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, illustrating how completely out of touch they are with the popular mood, both of them.
And this is not confined to them. It’s the leadership in Britain.
It’s the establishment in Britain.
And we watch in the BBC trying to maintain what it regards as establishment neutrality by referring every time, every broadcast to Hamas as a terrorist group and to balance things out.
In some degree, things should be balanced. It is essential that phrases like the expression, from the river to the sea, are not used by demonstrators.
They are deeply offensive, profoundly offensive expressions.

[2:13] Of course, the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu does the same and uses exactly the same expression with regard to the State of Israel is what provokes this.
But nonetheless, it is a crudely racist statement.
Whether used by Benjamin Netanyahu or by demonstrators.
And we don’t need to see the demonstrators stooping to the same level as Benjamin Netanyahu.

[2:44] I mean, racism is wrong, whether it comes from the Israeli prime minister or it comes from a demonstrator, pro-Palestinian demonstrator in the street.
These expressions are wrong. Whether you say Palestine from the river to the sea or Palestinians from the river to the sea, these are profoundly offensive statements, as are Benjamin Netanyahu’s when he says he no longer believes in a two-state solution if he ever did.
And that is actually racist.
It’s a racist approach because Netanyahu does not believe in a single state with equal rights for Palestinians.
He believes in a single apartheid state where Palestinians are not given equal rights.
And that is utterly racist and it’s a deep abiding shame of Israel that they are led by a racist in my view now we have a situation where people are dying in Gaza on quite a scale and I can only speak from my personal experience my friend Ahmed Yusuf I have not heard from him for two months My messages are not getting through to my friend, Ahmed Yusuf.
And I don’t know whether he’s dead now.

[4:12] My friend, Adel Zanoun, he’s managed to get his wife and children out.

[4:19] My friend, Wael Dado, his wife and children have been killed. And he has got out.

[4:27] I am offended by anger in the context of Gaza.
When people, friends of mine, express themselves in my WhatsApp group in racist or angry terms, in their resentment of what is happening in Gaza, I find it deeply offensive.
I don’t like anger, and it makes me angry.
Now, when I hear my Palestinian friends resort to rage and their supporters resort to rage, it makes me angry. I don’t think it helps.

[5:07] But the situation is immoral. That’s clear.
And Israelis do feel that this is an existential situation. They are frightened by what’s happened, and they’re hitting back with extreme brutality.
They’re frightened by October the 7th. Now, it’s all very well saying October the 7th is of their making because Gaza was a prison camp.
The death figures are ridiculously low, aren’t they? 30,000 dead.
It’s not 30,000. It’s considerably more because they’re only counting the bodies that come to hospital or are recorded by hospital staff and there’s so many under the rubble now.
The real death toll cannot be less than 60,000.
I suppose that’s affordable, but the number maimed is so immense who lead horribly difficult lives because of that.
But it’s no good expressing our concern in rage and being enraged by the situation.
It is one of the Gaza wars, it’s one of the great [6:21] Wrongs of the current century, the 21st century.
It mustn’t diffuse our attention, move our attention from the other great wars that are ongoing.
The Ukraine war, which has resulted in immense suffering.
I am encouraged by the fact that the Chinese are going to step in and be peacemakers.
I hope they’ll be allowed to.
I’m discouraged by the President of the United States of America having lost his marbles.
It’s dangerous to see the work leader of the free world no longer mentally fit.
President Biden was talking about the United States dropping aid to Gaza, and he talked about dropping aid to Ukraine this week, because he muddled up Gaza and Ukraine.
How can you muddle up Gaza and Ukraine if you’re the leader of the free world?
He’s mentally incapable, and he should step aside for his vice president.
But he’ll stand again. That’s astonishing, really.
Where else are we going with this?
It’s hard to see the Sudan War going on.
Life after life being lost.

[7:38] Britain was largely the creator of modern Sudan, the architect of modern Sudan.
Our roving ambassador, Alan Goulty, put together the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which led to the partition of Sudan, the largest country in Africa, a million square miles into two nations.
And now the North is at war with itself in a huge civil war. and what’s needed.
I think Russia, who backs both sides, the Kremlin backs the government, the opposition is backed by the Wagner Group or whatever the Wagner Group is now called.
The rapid support forces are backed by the Wagner Group. So Russia has close relationships with both sides.
Russia could be a peace broker. There’s nobody else.

[8:28] Ridiculous having parties that are committed to one side, like Saudi Arabia acting as peace broker in Sudan, we need a neutral party.
So we might be rescued. Ukraine might be rescued by China.
Russia could rescue Sudan if it wanted to broker peace.
We need peace brokers in this world. But who’s going to broker peace between Gaza and Israel while we have a U.S. president who doesn’t know the difference between Gaza and Ukraine? Who’s going to step up?
Britain? Britain this week withdrew its destroyer from the Red Sea because it had been attacked by the Houthis.
There’s a whistleblower from the Navy that’s been talking about that.
Britain had to pull its destroyer out. It was damaged by the Houthis, and the destroyer had no ship-to-shore missiles left.
Because the ship-to-sail missile unit was pulled out to make it into a recreation room.

[9:31] The British Navy is pathetic, but it’s not just Britain that’s pulling out of the Red Sea. All of the Armed forces are pulling their naval assets out of the Red Sea, all of the armed forces of the world, because they’re too vulnerable.
So that’s a problem that’ll be with us for a while.
Oman was in a position to negotiate an end to this, but was told not to by the British.
Stupid British. We want to teach the Houthis a lesson.
Houthis, of course, are Ansar al-Islam. It’s kind of racist to refer to them as the Houthis, It’s like talking about Israel and saying the Jews, but all the press do it, and now I’ve descended to the same level.
I should be ashamed of myself. Anyway, so we have these major conflicts ongoing. Where is the sunshine?
Where’s the hope in all of this?
Well, I think the hope is in the It’s in the people of the world.
The people of the world are turning on their governments to express their disgust with the establishment.

[10:44] And we saw that this week in the election of George Galloway. Gorgeous George.
I know him from the past. I knew him very well.
And George Galloway is what he is. What is he, a populist? Yes, of course he is. A great orator? Yes, of course he is.
Frightening? Yes, of course he is, to the establishment.
And it’s sending a signal that people want their voice heard.
And if the reaction in fear from Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer is to ban demonstrations frustrations and freedom of speech in the United Kingdom, then they won’t achieve anything.

[11:32] Won’t succeed. There is a lot of hope around, but let’s make sure that we don’t turn hope into hatred.
We need to stand up for freedom and care and compassion without anger and rage.
My wife and I were listening to a sermon in church, and the preacher raised the question of whether anger was justifiable in certain circumstances.
I don’t think it is. I don’t think it is.
It does nothing but create anger in others. Anger creates anger.
Atrocity creates atrocity.
We need to try and deal with world affairs in a cool-headed way with compassion in our hearts.

[12:22] Compassion for the state of Israel that has a right to exist without being existentially threatened by phrases like, from the river to the sea, which may mean little to you, but deeply bothers and disturbs Jews and Israelis.
And we need a world in which compassion is shown by the Israeli public, who I don’t think are truly aware of what their armed forces are doing in their name.
We must never dehumanize others, and we need compassion in our own hearts where we must not ignore the plight of the Sudanese or the Ukrainians, or the Russians, because Russians, are dying in their thousands upon thousands fighting this war too.
The war in Ukraine, I mean.

[13:16] All these things are interrelated in tomorrow’s world, and we have to build a world in which people care for people and stop dehumanizing each other, where there is less rage, more compassion, less anger, lest we destroy ourselves in tomorrow’s world. And is there hope?
Is there hope? Well, there is, really, because as people express their deep concerns, so governments and political parties will change.
It’s not confined to Britain.
The American electorate in states like Michigan are deeply concerned by the Gaza War.
America, a country that normally turns its back on a deep and cogent understanding of international affairs.
America is waking up to the world much more than it used to.
So things are changing. The mood of the world is changing. People are aware.

[14:28] And governments are not leading. leading, the people are leading, you are leading with your views, and you can and must express them, and you can and will change the world and make it a better place.

Featured image by Save_Palestine from Pixabay