As The Guardian has noted this afternoon:
The World Health Organization pleaded on Tuesday for fuel to be allowed into Gaza to keep its remaining hospitals running, warning the Palestinian territory's health system was at “breaking point”, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories, said:
For over 100 days, no fuel has entered Gaza and attempts to retrieve stocks from evacuation zones have been denied.
Combined with critical supply shortages, this is pushing the health system closer to the brink of collapse.
Peeperkorn said only 17 of Gaza's 36 hospitals were currently minimally to partially functional.
They have a total of about 1,500 beds – about 45% fewer than before the conflict began.
He said all hospitals and primary health centres in north Gaza were currently out of service.
In Rafah in southern Gaza, health services are provided through the Red Cross field hospital and two partially functioning medical points.
Speaking from Jerusalem, he said the 17 partially functioning hospitals and seven field hospitals were barely running on a minimum amount of daily fuel and “will soon have none left”.
WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer Thanos Gargavanis, said from the Strip:
We are walking already the fine line that separates disaster from saving lives. The shrinking humanitarian space makes every health activity way more difficult than the previous day.
Reports are also coming in this afternoon that maybe 60 people have been killed and many more injured by Israeli troops firing at desperate Palestinians at supposedly Israeli-organised feeding stations. This is mass murder of those already made desperate.
And despite all this, our prime minister is signing declarations supporting Israel's right to defend itself from a supposed threat from Iran that it has claimed exists for more than twelve years, but for which there is no evidential support of a current or even imminent threat, meaning that the war in Iran has been deliberately created as a diversionary tactic to prevent the world noticing the genocide in Gaza.
I am almost lost for words at this unfolding horror, and that is rare for me.
But why should we have words for inhumanity on this scale, and the totally inappropriate response from our politicians?
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Wendigo, described as per the Wikipedia entry as “a malevolent spirit, sometimes depicted as a creature with human-like characteristics, that may possess human beings. It is said to cause its victims a feeling of insatiable hunger, the desire to eat other humans, and the propensity to commit murder.”
It goes on to describe it thus: “Some Native Americans also understand the wendigo conceptually. As a concept, the wendigo can apply to any person, idea, or movement infected by a corrosive drive toward self-aggrandizing greed and excessive consumption, traits that sow disharmony and destruction if left unchecked. Ojibwe scholar Brady DeSanti asserts that the wendigo “can be understood as a marker indicating… a person… imbalanced both internally and toward the larger community of human and spiritual beings around them.” Out of equilibrium and estranged by their communities, individuals thought to be afflicted by the wendigo spirit unravel and destroy the ecological balance around them.”
Seems to fit.
I posted this, with some unease, and am not sure why.
Humans have had need to describe our worse behaviours for a long time, and I feel that this term, as an idea and concept describes many world leaders today. Our myths tell us a lot about ourselves, and the fact that the behaviour of Trump and Netanyahu match that of the idea of monstrous behaviour shows us that people like them have long been thought of as the aberration rather than the norm.
Maybe because it is an abnegation of personal responsibility to attribute one’s evil actions to a malevolent spirit?
Having been on the receiving end of such an accusation this week, I understand your unease.
The “ontology of evil” is a complicated subject. I declare an interest – my Christocentric worldview has a non-material, or as many people say nowadays, a “spiritual” dimension. Weird stuff does happen. Gross evil sometimes is SO gross, it appears to have an ontological reality. I think a wide range of religious and non-religious, and humanist people believe that, and can discuss it and share experiences of it, albeit with different explanations.
But in everyday life, it’s a dangerous thing to add to your public armoury, and yes, it can be a cop-out, to avoid reasoned practical argument, and it dehumanises our opponents, and we know where that leads, its an essential pre-cursor to war and then to war crimes (Da*oes, Hu*s, baby killers, Fro*s, Commies, and nowadays, Amalek). If your enemy is no longer human then the gloves are off and any atrocity is possible because they are after all, demons, or vermin, or cockroaches, or rats. (All terms in current use about a variety of human beings and people groups).
I’ve encountered gross darkness with an ontological element to it only a couple times in my pastoral career. Posession? Never, not first hand.
Gross structural evil? Oh, every single day, at all levels of life, local, corporate, political, institutional, including religious institutions.
But evil, whether structural or ontological and individual, (whatever floats your philosophical or religious boat, I know what floats mine) is powerless in the face of love, utterly, pathetically, even laughably incompetent in the face of goodness, love and integrity. It may wreak horrible havoc, especially if we do nothing, but it fails. Always. It is pathetic.
A key argument used by peace-seeking Palestinian Christians, known to me and read by or listened to by me, is that our enemies are “human beings made in the image of God”. That has positive ethical consequences. Including not “demonising” them. Humanise them, and speak truth to power, they really “dont like it (truth) up ’em” (to bend a phrase from Dad’s Army. Loving your human enemy doesn’t mean being soft.
Thanks
If it helps I can tell you why it makes me uneasy.
Fascists like to portray “the other” as less than human. subhuman, demons etc.
Talking about the actions of the Israeli state and the attitudes of some of it’s citizens in terms of a demon such as a wendigo is just wrong. Not sure who said it. “Hate the sin not the sinner”. They are human beings. They have/are committing terrible crimes. They need to be held to account for their actions not dehumanised.
Thank you, and appreciated.
Of course people are fully responsible for their own actions. I just find it interesting that many cultures have had ways to refer to and frame this sort of behaviour. Today we would look at it in social, psychological and economic terms, back then it was spiritual. There is a rot at the heart of the governance of many countries.
Hopefully not off-topic: Guardian headline:
“Trump demands Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’ and says US won’t kill supreme leader ‘for now’ – latest updates”
Looks like the wendigo has a grip on Trump & the Trump “administration” (I use the word losely).
‘unconditional surrender’ ……….because Iran is at war? because it initiated an unproved attack on another country?
The time has come to expel from the Uk the Isreali embassy (all of it) and any & all zionists & Israeli passport holders.
In the case of the USA – the embassy needs to be shrunk ditto the US institutions that infest the UK.
Palestine was the start, the world is sliding towards war & more war.
Thank you and well said, Mike.
May I bring this community’s attention to two items on today’s news that exemplify the, frankly, abusive UK relationship with the US.
An independent review has concluded, as many people, including Craig Murray, did at the time that the police could and should have arrested the Anne Sacoolas for the dangerous driving that caused the death of Harry Dunn.
The files on the RAF Chinook crash that killed many British officials and officers based in Northern Ireland can’t be released to protect the privacy of some individuals. My retired RAF officer dad is disgusted by that and says there were concerns then about the helicopters, but the government did not want to upset the US and blamed bad weather, pilot error and RAF maintenance staff instead of Boeing.
Do you think we should provide military support to ensure essential supplies get through to the people of Gaza?
No. We are nit seen as neutral. But the UN should. And we should provide arms.
The UN doesn’t have an army so UN is never going to get anything done.
Please don’t be stupid.
It has always been able to deploy peace keeping forces seconded to it.
30+ years ago, I was briefly involved with a Lebanese woman.
Over dinner one evening we were discussing events in the middle east (In can’t remember what specifically) and I mentioned deploying UN peacekeeping forces to Jerusalem.
She laughed in my face.
Whilst we hold UN Peacekeepers in high regard that is not universally the case.
In the Arab world they are distrusted and not necessarily perceived as unbiased.
It is, as she pointed out, to think so is, to some degree, a paternalistic, colonialist mindset.
I’ve been reading your blog for many years and I am absolutely certain that is not what you intended.
Just pointing out that the UN is not necessarily the answer.
I have no idea what the answer is and I despair at what I see happening.
I am certain though that our government must stop participating in this genocide.
What is a better answer?
As I said in my previous comment I don’t know what the answer is.
I wish I knew.
I was just pointing out that UN peacekeepers may not, contrary to “common sense” opinion in the west, be the answer.
The horror in Gaza demands that Western governments must act – starting with a real ceasefire, full humanitarian access, and a halt to arms sales to Israel. War crimes, whoever commits them, must be independently investigated.
Equally urgent is the need to resist the growing pressure to stay silent. Too many fear that simply defending Palestinian rights will get them labelled antisemitic or extreme. That kind of silencing is not just unjust, it’s dangerous.
Moral clarity is not hate speech. Speaking out against collective punishment, occupation, or apartheid is not antisemitism. If we let fear shut down legitimate criticism, we undermine not just solidarity, but democracy itself.
In a time of atrocities, silence is not neutrality. It’s complicity.
Agreed
Starmer is doing more than signing declarations supporting Israel’s right to defend itself.
The UK Government is providing “intelligence” and weapons to Israel.
The UK are complicit, it is being done in our name.
Source:
United Kingdom and the Gaza war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_and_the_Gaza_war
UK defence secretary walks away from Gaza spy flight questions (Jun 2025)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jun/14/uk-moves-jets-to-middle-east-as-starmer-refuses-to-rule-out-defending-israel
UK police spent thousands protecting Israeli arms firm (Jun 2025)
https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-police-spent-thousands-protecting-israeli-arms-firm-linked-to-bezalel-smotrich/
Does the UK sell arms to Israel? (May 2025)
https://www.oxfam.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-oxfam/gaza-israel-crisis-sign-petition-call-for-ceasefire-now/does-the-uk-sell-arms-to-israel/
USA
Canada
UK
Germany
France
Italy
Japan
Thoroughly and utterly complicit in genocide. Their joint statement vis-a-vis Israel-Iran simply confirms this.
My belief, is that , since the 1940s Israel has become a monolithic society through the financial support and the blind eye/eyes, from the enablers to the west
That itself has always been genocidal in nature from both parties.
Myself personally have read from right to left on this argument. It’s a hard read! It doesn’t make sense from any perspective!
But I am now aware that the Middle East/ Arab side is, and has had a little too much shit from Israel and it’s supporters.
Obviously to me this is both geopolitical and with a stark belief of religion.
Personally I would give them all another planet! It makes me feel sick. Have had this with the Cold War, growing up in since the 70’s.
Creating fear is what they do.
The Bogey Man.
“But I am now aware that the Middle East/ Arab side is, and has had a little too much shit from Israel and it’s supporters.”
Did you previously think it was OK for the Middle East/Arab side to have any shit from Israel and its supporters? Why?
Please do not tar all Israelis with the same brush. There is a significant, but tragically a minority of Israelis who look in horror at what ‘their’ government is doing. Demonstrations have been taking place outside Netanyahu’s house for years demanding his resignation so that he would have to face the jail time he deserves. His embrace of the far right aimed to keep him out of jail but like the sorcerer’s apprentice he is now trapped.
The progressive movements associated with the kibbutzim that were a major feature of an earlier Israel are being drastically eroded by the messianic tendency so vividly portrayed in Louis Theroux’s recent documentary leading our friends to despair at where their country is going. Many of those murdered by Hamas were committed to helping their Gazan neighbours.
Yet again we see where the demonising of the ‘other’ leads.
Not at all Cyndy and my beliefs have been long held from Naqbar, through to PNAC ( Project For The New American Century) ,,, to what we have achieved , as Western imperialists to this day.
Like I say, I have read from left to right and I guess for me the atrocities to human life have outweighed any ideology and seriously lack diplomatic substance from a western perspective.
Has Regime change worked and who is next?
Never felt such despair – the population of all western countries does not support aiding and abetting the perpetrators – yet political leaders of all stripes seem perfectly confident in ignoring the public.
Correct
it is time the political leaders were told, not asked, to explain their position. What do, for example, the Conservative Friends of Israel support them and what do they get out of it?
Am wondering if this is actually because the West is a little too dependant on Israeli Intelligence….
Thank you.
Did you see the quote from the new German chancellor? Israel is, apparently, doing their dirty work.
The words that maketh murder eh………………..
My view is that we are living in a post Neo-liberal world, a world were the exploitation, evisceration – of flesh and wealth and hope and immiseration of ordinary people by power has become acceptable.
None of us ordinary people are safe in this world.
We are all Palestinians in truth, but some of us just can’t see it.
Wow, I liked that lasy sentence.
The present Israeli government are doing exactly what they have always wanted to do. They’re pursuing a horrific policy and the UK and other nations shouldn’t have anything to do with them.
There are no adults in the political leadership of the western empire. We are watching Lord of the Flies playing out in real time across the near east.
Trump shouts about a definitive end to the crisis – there is absolutely no prospect of that, because, even if Iran “surrenders”, it will make no difference. Netanyahu and his Zionist regime will continue its assaults on Syria and Lebanon and Gaza and Isreal’s other neighbours until he achieves his goal of a greater Israel stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates and under the direct control of Israel.
Following a report on tonight’s BBC news, I’m thinking about something much closer to home, though no less shaped by dehumanisation: the situation of irregular migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.
Like the people trapped in Gaza, many of these migrants are fleeing war, persecution, or intolerable conditions. Yet much of our media – and most of our politics – depict them not as fellow human beings in need of sanctuary, but as a “problem” to be repelled. The rhetoric is chillingly familiar.
Would it not be more humane – and more economically rational – for the UK to allow these asylum seekers to work while their claims are processed? At the moment they’re banned from employment, forced to subsist on £7.20 a day, and housed in hotels at a cost of around £6 million a day to the taxpayer. Many wait years for decisions.
If even a portion of these people could contribute through legal work:
They could support themselves with dignity rather than rely on state support.
They could help fill the labour shortages we constantly hear about – in care homes, agriculture, hospitality.
And the Exchequer could benefit from the tax revenues they would generate, rather than absorb the mounting costs of enforced idleness.
It’s a small change in policy, but one with profound human and fiscal consequences – and a litmus test, perhaps, of whether we are serious about justice only abroad, or also here at home.
Much to agree with
The Guardian appears to have bowed to the inevitable and produced an article detailing and criticising the horror caused by Israel and supported by Western governments. It even uses the “genocide” word.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/17/the-guardian-view-on-gazas-engineered-famine-stop-arming-the-slaughter-or-lose-the-rule-of-law
The significant thing is that it is published as Editorial, not just “Opinion”.
Too little, too late, and reeking of editorial hypocrisy, but at least its a start.
On Sunday in a small church gathering I used the words “war crimes” and was immediately shouted at, and then, next day, in a very unpleasant email, accused of “deeply held antisemitism” (and more). But that’s nothing, a trivial “1st world problem”, compared to the suffering in Gaza.
There are no words, only action is acceptable, and here in UK, ordinary citizens have few options – but one is to be increasingly blunt to our representatives – they are complicit in war crimes as long as our leaders fail to call Israel out.
Israel’s “get out of jail free card” dating from the Holocaust ran out long ago.
For centuries Europeans slaughtered diaspora Jews, and finally we created international laws to say, “never again”, noy to Jews, not to ANYONE.
In our own lifetime, the state of Israel is slaughtering Palestinians of all faiths and none, in breach of those same international laws, and we wring our hands, call them allies, and send them weapons. We dont even blink when they attack Syria, Lebanon or Iran, instead we express our intention to send them even more military support, without seeking parliamentary approval.
We may feel there are no words left but there are. They are “war crimes”, “breaches of international law, breaches of international humanitarian law”, and “genocide”.
Our UK government is complicit, legally accountable, under those laws, every single PPS, every Minister, every Secretary of State, they are personally complicit, and I do not know why our Attorney General Lord Hermer, is still in his post.
Thank you Richard. There is a price to pay for criticising Israel, but it is tiny compared to that paid by the victims of Israel’s crimes. Take care.
I agree with you, and am sorry for the arrression you suffered. I find such opinions utterly incomprehensible.
Good grief. with regard to people’s reactions – none so blind as those that wont see.
I have a more “robust” attitude to what is happening – which I suppose makes me an extreme Nazi in the eyes of some.
Most people do not appreciate that the Israeli army was the merger of various jewsih terrorist groups – the same ones that bombed the King David hotel and killed a load of British soliders – not to mention the hanged British sergants etc etc.
Israel was a mistake even before it was founded. it is a bigger mistake now & demonstrates that with the right propaganda/lies any nation can be every bit as evil as Nazi Germany – emphasis on “nation”. “The Chosen people” – which means that the not-chosen are thus untermenschen – being played out in front of us – day after day.
That comment Mike is not lost on me, ‘cos I know my history and religious studies.
A country that kidnaps one of its own nuclear scientists abroad for being honest with the world about what Israel had been up to with nuclear development, and brings him home for punishment?!
What sort of mindset is that?
Is it the mindset of a victim/persecution culture at the top, Israeli politicians abusing/exploiting their own history to justify unacceptable behaviour, as they do in Gaza/Iran.
The only word I can use to describe that political behaviour is ‘depraved’. And that leads to tragedy.
I cannot believe my eyes when I see the daily horror in Gaza, people being murdered trying to get food for Their families.
And now they attack iran on some trumped up theory that they are very close to having a nuclear weapon.
It’s 2003 all over again, “WMD”!
I watched Channel 4 news last night and as well as not being able to hear the Iranian Ambassador (very suspicious) our Prime
Minister was gas lighting us, he truly is a pathetic untrustworthy liar.
I recommend we all watch Lowkey’s latest video on Double Down News.
I think the Iranian ambassador issue was genuine
And Gary Gibbon did, again, make Starmer look like a fool.
Like everyone here I am horrified by Israel’s continued genocide in Gaza and the fact that it seems, within the political class to be acceptable. The public is powerless, our voices are shut down and ignored despite making contacts, protesting. It is a rude lesson in how democratic we really are, and to see our political leaders continue to support Israel is sickening. The Israeli government, in its relentless march to enlarge Israel while keeping its singularly Jewish character has always had a problem with what to do with the Palestinians. It seems to have come to an agreement they just have to kill them, as many as possible as quickly as possible. Tank fire at those desperate for food, deliberately destroying the kidney dialysis unit in the last functioning hospital along with the blood and fuel supply is all part of the plan. The latest system of food distribution means that those who are elderly, wounded, weak, children cannot access the meagre supplies… only those who still have the strength to walk long distances, carry a heavy box; ie the remaining young men are coming under fire. It is absolutely despicable! meanwhile our leaders swan around in Canada talking trade and giving meaningless pronouncements while cravenly agreeing with Trump! Ugh!!! And how is Israel’s attack on Iran STILL considered “Israel’s right to defend itself”?? Apparently it is one more war crime to attack any nuclear facility. Do they care? International law MUST be re-established and applied to all equally. Israel and the US need to be kicked out of the UN as all they do is render it impotent.