Sir Keir Starmer is to hold talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Downing Street on Wednesday.
As they added:
It comes after Israel carried out a strike on senior Hamas leaders in Qatar's capital Doha, and warned all residents of Gaza City to leave immediately in anticipation of a huge ground offensive.
Keir Starmer is, apparently, going to be talking about, according to the BBC, the "intolerable situation in Gaza" and the "action Israel must take to end the horrific suffering we're witnessing" with the Israeli president.
This makes, quite literally, no sense at all.
What Israel proved with its actions yesterday, for which there can be no moral, legal or defence justification, is that it has absolutely no respect for the rule of international law, or the rights of sovereign jurisdictions, or even of those who are pursuing pathways to peace in Gaza, which Qatar has been doing when almost nobody else has made any successful initiative.
Talks with President Herzog will, in that case, be utterly meaningless. The man is the president of a country with a government, of which he is titular head, that is committing war crimes, and Keir Starmer is inviting him around for tea.
By doing so, Starmer will not be taking action to tackle abuse by Israel.
Nor will he be helping the cause of peace in Gaza,
And he will not be acting in the interest of the survival of anyone who lives there, or in the West Bank.
Instead, he will be providing a platform for Herzog to advance his own pernicious cause of genocide.
In effect, Starmer is not opposing what Israel is doing: he is supporting it by lending Herzog credibility for which there can be no justification at all, because his country's government is deliberately ethnically cleansing the people of Gaza, and is doing so with an almost unprecedented ruthlessness.
We have always known that, above all else, Starmer is a Zionist when he has no other apparent convictions at all. Now we can see how willing he is to disgrace himself, his office, and this country to support the terror that Israel has unleashed in an utterly illegal and inhumane fashion.
Meanwhile, thousands of people who have opposed the actions of Israel are facing criminal charges, whilst Herzog is treated with all due civility. That, too, is Starmer's work.
Right now, there is a rigged election going on in the Labour Party for a new deputy leader. They are wasting their time. They need a new leader instead. The one they have should be heading for the Hague.
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Hear, hear!
All I can add is to ask why does it appear that the RAF is actively aiding Israel?
There was also this in The Guardian today
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/10/poland-shoots-down-drones-over-its-territory-amid-russian-attack-on-ukraine-says-military
The ‘Rules Based’ system of International Relations is breaking down with serious consequences and we are at best not helping to uphold it and at worse dismantling it.
Starmer doesn’t seem to realise that he’s PM of the United Kingdom of Northern Ireland and Great Britain and his main role is to actively do what government can do best for the legal residents.
By getting involved in foreign wars he once again shows, along with net zero, lawfarism, Ukraine, Mauritius, his mates, free speech, DEI and internationalism that he actively dislikes the majority of the people of this country.
You can almost guarantee the IMF will be coming for the UK by the end of the decade because it’s an organisation with the word international in it and that for people like Starmer is a heuristic for good.
Even more blatant – there is an arms fair in London. Herzhog’s on a shopping trip and Starmer sees growth potential for our arms industry opportunities to aid the growth of ethic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.
Maybe, with Blair being so involved with Labour and the TB Institute sees more possibilities of profit from the consulting, commercial and residential opportunities on the Gaza Riviera, Starmer has been asked to help speed the process along which, as a self professed zionist, he seems more than willing to do.
Apparently RAF planes refuelled Israeli fighter planes that bombed Qatar.
https://x.com/FTLP_FTT/status/1965479483835916421
But Starmer says we did not know about the attacks?
Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar: is the operational base for the RAF in the region.
It seems unlikely they would assist a strike on the host country. It would have meant prior contact to arrange a rendezvous for the tanker aircraft -ahead of what we are told of the IDF contact with the US government. It would also have meant authorisation from London and therefore complicity in the strike.
I doubt even Starmer would do that. I doubt the USAF who have a lot of people in the area would agree either.
We shall see.
The question arises because RAF refuelling tankers were apparently (I stress the word) in operation in the area whilst the raids took place.
Or perhaps Starmer is discussing what further role UK can play in the genocide – we appear to already be participating.
https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2025/09/09/doha-raf-refuelling-plane/
Or how we participate in the Gaza reconstruction to a Dubai type resort that will assist in the UK goal of growth?
Tony Blair is, apparently, involved in the proposed Gaza real estate deal. Let’s join all the dots shall we.
https://gwynnedyer.com/2025/gaza-not-so-much-a-genocide-more-a-real-estate-opportunity/
It would appear from flightradar data, that RAF refuelling aircraft were used to refuel the zionist bombers en route to Quatar. If this is correct, and no reason to doubt it, the condemnations by Cooper and Starmer about Israeli actions are simply lies and false crocodile tears as they must have known in advance and authorised the assistance of the RAF. Also shame on the RAF pilots for obeying such orders. The whole lying scum lot of them should and must face justice for their genocide support in the Hague.
PS The front page of The National is spot on. Pity The Guardian is such a cowardly zionist supporting rag.
There is doubt here. I can’t see an RAF plane refuelling Israeli planes about a 100KM off the shore. Radar coverage there is comprehensive.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/despite-claims-british-tankers-cannot-refuel-israeli-jets/
and the Israeli air force operates its own in flight refuelling aircraft
https://theaviationist.com/2024/08/18/israeli-air-force-in-flight-refueling-show-of-force-to-iran/
As I have noted – this is not proven, but they were they there?
But this data does not rely on radar, but on transponders.
The Canary link shows the RAF plane flying in loops just off the coast of Qatar. This would be covered by radar and the refuelled aircraft would show up. Would they refuel before the strike or after? Either way if they were doing it, they might as well have made an announcement on local TV.
The obvious place is over Iraq.
The permission to refuel would have to have been given before take off of the mission to be certain of getting back i.e.a few hours before the strike.
London would have consulted the US who have no reason to approve it. And given the US time to veto it. Unless we believe Trump is lying about being disappointed with the strike. As it undermined his policy, I find it hard to believe.
The USAF have flight refuelling planes in the area so why use the RAF? The Israelis have refuelling aircraft of their own. So why use anyone else for a limited strike?
The RAF refuelling method is incompatible with Israeli -see link .
It would put RAF people in the country at risk of retaliation -probably expulsion rather than violence. Senior commanders are often better qualified in international relations than politicians. They would have protested. Would even Starmer go against it given that these things get out?
It would scupper the western presence in the Gulf.
If there was anything other than speculation, the Arab media would be posting it. I have only checked Al Jazeera and they don’t mention it. Would they? I feel sure they would.
We will have to see how the story develops.
Fair enough.
But what else were they doing?
It is hard to see the bombing of negotiators on the territory of an ally as any step towards peace. Is Isreal going to compensate the Qataris who were killed or injured?
But then Israel takes lessons from the US, which seems to have little compunction about attacking and killing civilians on vessels in international waters (so called narco-terrorist are criminals, not enemy combatants), or flying planes halfway around the world to attack nuclear sites in Iran, or assassinating foes such Qasem Soleimani in Iraq (all this under Trump, now with his Department of War, which signals his aggressive intentions towards friends and enemies alike) or Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan (under Obama). These killings are extrajudicial executions, or less politely murder. Until someone says stop, shedding blood begets more shed blood.
And will Herzog and the Prime Minister oversee the signing of a multi-billion pound contract for an Elbit company (Israel’s biggest arms suppliers) to train British forces quite possibly to use Elbit-supplied equipment?
British forces should not have such an entanglement with a foreign power – one that is in the throes of committing genocide. If this agreement, mooted but kept very, very quiet is signed, it may be that members of our Army, Navy and Air Force will be influenced in ways of which the British public do not approve – and that our nation will be stuck with such an agreement – perhaps for a decade – in any case until long after Kier Starmer has departed the scene with his strangely divided loyalties.
Tbhis would be a hidesous outcome
The bombing in Qatar was quite simply an unhinged attack – on what – Muslim/sovereign soil?
I’m looking at fellow Gulf states and asking the question ‘What are they going to do about that?’.
I wonder if someone will try to arrest Herzog whilst in the UK? By rights that is what should happen. Apparently the UK were not even told about the attack! Is this some sort of charade meant to portray Starmer as a ‘peacemaker’? As a self confessed Zionist – an Israeli expansionist – Starmer backs aggression so there is no way out for him at all.
You can be pro Israeli in the sense that is a Jewish state offering security to Jews and given their history of persecution prima facie it is acceptable. But when it does what it is doing now, that is another line that must not be crossed. Self defence has turned into brutal expansionism in lands where Christians, Jews and Muslims and their subsets once intermingled. It’s just not on.
Israel has a very long history of sabotaging peace negotiations, often by assassination. This is one more such set of murders.
Starmer denies prior knowledge of the attack. In unrelated news an RAF refuelling tanker was circling over Doha at the time of the attack. The Israeli F35 jets would require refuelling to return to Israel after the murders.
UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is apparently a good friend of the Israeli Ambassador, the notorious Tsipi Hotovely. So no hope there.
Over 1000 UK residents have now been arrested under terrorism legislation for writing on cardboard placards in protest at genocide.
There is no longer any shame, nervousness or embarrassment from Starmer’s government about the UK’s support for Israel’s genocide. There is just arrogant, blatant hypocrisy, shameless complicity, and utter contempt for truth, justice, and basic human rights.
Today Starmer will shake hands with President Herzog who was named by the the ICJ in their Jan 2025 statement about the prevention of genocide because of his stated belief that ALL Gazan were complicit in the Oct 7th attack.
Starmer and his government will not change. We, the UK people, are a sideshow, an inconvenient hindrance to his project, which has nothing to do with us or our welfare, and everything to do with the ongoing hegemony of the vested elites he sold his (and Labour’s) soul to, many years ago.
I believe that the UK has become a rogue state, and, not for the first time, a supporter of international terrorism. There is no legitimate or ethically acceptable future for Starmer or his Cabinet. No decent human being could have anything to do with them and still claim to have a conscience. Yet his Cabinet, his government and his Labour MPs keep him in power. They too, are complicit.
It is time for public principled rebellion, resignations and truth-telling from those in Westminster and Whitehall who, up till now have only objected in silence.
The Guardian is full of stories about Johnson’s venal corruption today, but they are nothing compared to the war crimes being facilitated day after day by the current Labour government.
Staggeringly, your last comment is entirely appropriate.
And please accept my apologies for the delay in getting to this comment.
Michael Rosen responding to Yvette Copper ‘condemnation’:
Condemn (verb) [new meaning]: to state that you disapprove while doing all you can to support.
That sounds right
You ask “what else were they doing?’
There is an Qatari air force with fighter jets and a large US air base in Qatar. They would being doing routine exercises with either or both.
I think we can assume they were not informed of the impending strike.
It is interesting that it has been mentioned several times.
But that leaves open a further question, which is why the strike was allowed to happen unimpeded.
To answer the further question -stopped by whom?
A flight refueller sees some fighter jets which they might detect as Israeli a/c which then open fire and go home at speed. The RAF Voyager can only watch. It is unarmed.
Th US and Qarari airforce might have had fighter planes in the air but they are not going to fire on them without authorisation and probably outnumbered. By then it was too late.
I would expect the Voyager has a similar fight path quite often. In flight refuelling is a necessary skill and needs practice. The RAF has the refueller planes and the Qatari air force has not ( on order)
It is possible I am wrong but it looks like someone has jumped to a conclusion which is soon put about as a fact.
Not even Press TV, the Iranian channel , is repeating this.
Will any of the deputy leadership stitchup candidates make any reference to Israel, war crimes, the Occupation, the West Bank, Gaza, E. Jerusalem, the GHF, the IDF, Elbit Sysyems, RAF Akrotiri, surveillance flights, contracts to train our military, Epstein or the Labour boomerang called Mandelson currently (mis)representing us to Trump?
I suspect that Emily Thornberry may wring her hands gently. But that’s about it.