I was interviewed on LBC (Leading Britain's Conversation) by Nick Ferrari about Israel’s strike on the Hamas leadership in Doha and the visit to Britain by Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog. You can access the interview by clicking on the arrow below, and read a transcript of the interview below the video.  Ferrari: We turn first to author and journalist Melanie Phillips, who is a columnist for the Times, who has posted on this. Thank you for coming on, Melanie. In writing in a different newspaper, the Daily Mail, Mark Almond, someone you probably know of, who is the director of the Crisis Research Institute at Oxford University, says the bombing has probably killed any chance of saving the remaining hostages held in Gaza. Would you concur with that? Phillips: Good morning. I don't know whether this is going to harm the hostages. Obviously, this has been uppermost in everyone's minds in Israel, the need to rescue the hostages. The fact is the hostages are dying of starvation and torture and possibly being murdered. And this is an intolerable situation. There has been no prospect of the hostages being released. Hamas has made it absolutely clear over and over again that the only terms on which it would agree to release the hostages is the total surrender of Israel, leaving Hamas in power so that it would be able to commit these atrocities over and over again as it has repeatedly said it would. So it's obviously a risk, whatever Israel does, that the Hamas terrorists holding the hostages underground will kill them. But Israel is in a very hard place. It has no good choices. Whichever course of action it chooses imperils the hostages. Ferrari: You say no good choices, but Melanie, was it a good choice to go ahead with those airstrikes yesterday and put offside, it would appear, the United Kingdom, the US, neighbours such as Saudi Arabia and other countries? Phillips: First of all, I don't believe the Arab world is offside. I think that the Arab world says one thing and does another. The Arab world needs Israel. It wants normalisation with Israel. The Arab world is no friend of Qatar. The Gulf states are no friend of Qatar. Qatar is a bit of an outlier, a rogue state. As far as Britain is concerned and other European countries, I'm afraid to say that Britain's current government under Keir Starmer has showed nothing but hostility to Israel since October 7, 2023, those atrocities and the war that has followed. Although he purports to care about Israel, to care about the hostages, to care about peace in the region, he has consistently failed to support Israel's just war against Hamas. He has called repeatedly for an immediate ceasefire, which would mean the surrender of Israel and the continuation of Hamas in power. He has continued to perpetrate lies such as famine in Gaza -- Douglas Alexander talking about man-made famine in Gaza. There is no famine. Israel has allowed in two million tons of aid. There is hunger. There is terrible hardship. But the Hamas have been stealing aid, stealing food. It is Hamas who have been killing Gazans in the food queues because it is very important to Hamas that the Palestinians in Gaza do not obtain the food which is the source of Hamas's power over them. Now the British government has consistently been on the wrong side in all this, and I'm afraid to say that it has really given the impression that it does not want Israel to win against this terrible force that is Hamas in Gaza. Ferrari: Okay, finally, briefly if you can Melanie, should the meeting go ahead between Starmer and the Israeli president? Phillips: I see absolutely no reason why it should not go ahead. The idea that Israel is some sort of rogue state behaving appallingly so that the British Prime Minister should not meet him is frankly absolutely preposterous. Israel has taken action against Hamas who have orchestrated this genocidal war against Israel. I would expect the British Prime Minister to be on the side of a country that is fighting against a genocidal enemy. Ferrari: I must leave it there, Melanie Phillips, thank you. You're an author, broadcaster, economist for the Times newspaper. I just need to say that the United Nations agency has said that this is a man-made famine and also there are conflicting reports as to whether Hamas is actually shooting, executing, killing people in food lines. So just to get that out there, Melanie has that view and I'm just putting out what the United Nations are saying. |
But, of course, we know that the UN is vehemently antisemitic and gets its information from Hamas.
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