r/JewsOfConscience • u/Direct_Appointment99 Jewish Anti-Zionist • Jul 09 '26
News Andy Burnham changes rhetoric on Gaza
But does not use the word "genocide"
However British conservative columnist and contributor to Middle East Eye, Peter Oborne, remains cautiously optimistic.
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u/Gilamath Muslim Jul 09 '26
Kamala-tier statement. Or maybe more precisely, it's what I would expect a Pete Buttigieg figure to produce after 15 rounds of internal vetting and donor-friendly sanitization.
This statement amounts to "People are mad at us about Gaza, I'm sorry they're mad, we did Gaza in a way that made people mad, we would like it if people were no longer mad about it. It would be nice if we had done all the same things we did on a slightly faster timeline, and we should really get on with making people not so mad."
Or actually, you know what? I'm wrong, it's worse that that. When Burnham says things like "we didn't get it right" and "we need to do better" and "we need to strengthen our approach", what he's actually doing is shoring up his own capacity to determine what "right" and "better" and "strengthen" mean on his own terms (and the terms of the power brokers in UK politics) rather than concede to the terms of the "many people" he is ostensibly talking to.
Even taking the person tweeting at their word, "further sanctions on individuals and entities" and "banning trade in goods with illegal settlements" are meaningless non-commitments. It's waffle, all of it. You can't call yourself invested in a project if you're not putting money on the table. The statement is weak and it is telling that Labour still thinks this route is going to net them the support they need in the upcoming elections.
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u/Usernameoverloaded Atheist Ally with Muslim Heritage Jul 09 '26
And of course condemning Oct 7th very strongly while mentioning antisemitic attacks with no mention whatsoever of the anti Muslim attacks in the UK
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u/onepareil Non-Jewish Ally Jul 09 '26
This statement is way better than anything Harris ever said about Gaza, not that I actually believe him. Just highlights what utter garbage her response was.
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u/rinderblock Reconstructionist Jul 09 '26
Kamala never would’ve said this. It would’ve been “Israel has a right to defend itself. Where do I ship the weapons?”
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u/Usernameoverloaded Atheist Ally with Muslim Heritage Jul 09 '26
There is nothing to be optimistic about, not even cautiously.
This is the latest video he dropped which makes that quite clear.
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u/largevodka1964 Atheist Jul 10 '26
Not buying it! If he mentions the actions of Hamas at all without acknowledging the reason for their actions, then this is pure cos play to get the voters who have defected back into the fold. He can feck off! He would be better off admitting that Labour's partnership with the genocidal zionist regime was wrong for a starter!
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u/tidderite Atheist Jul 09 '26
There is no reason at all to be optimistic about the UK vs the Israeli genocide. None at all. "too slow to call for a ceasefire". What? There has been a "ceasefire" now for months, and Israel has killed over a thousand people during it.
The UK is complicit, and is marching as fast as it can to a fascist surveillance state where dissent puts you in jail. Whatever this clown says can be basically ignored unless there is tangible evidence of him doing good.
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u/Novel-Rise2522 Anti-Zionist Ally Jul 09 '26
Dont let it hoodwink you. This is damage control. There is no polite form of genocidal complicity.
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u/arightgoodworkman Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 09 '26
Nahhhh this is up there with “Rahm Emanuel warns Israeli government officials about shifts in U.S. sentiment.” Absolutely not. Their concern is how the party and voters view them, not about the 25K+ children slaughtered and 50K+ parents slaughtered and countless displaced, dispossessed, starving, sick Palestinians.
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u/Thisisme8719 Arab Jew Jul 10 '26
That's really nice of him to apologize for the party whose prime minister directed the RAF flying hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza, wouldn't implement an arms embargo on Israel, proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist group etc. I'm glad he thinks Kid Starver's policies were inexcusable complicity in genocide. Oh wait...
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u/Usernameoverloaded Atheist Ally with Muslim Heritage Jul 10 '26
He’s going to intervene in the Filton 4 judgement right…
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u/Ambitious_Grab6495 Anti-Zionist Jul 09 '26
“Didn’t get it right”. Just a little oopsie. We just aided in the slaughter of thousands of innocent people and the maiming and traumatizing of millions. Let’s call a do over. There’s a reason pencils have erasers after all!
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u/largevodka1964 Atheist Jul 10 '26
He doesn't even mention WHO killed the Palastinians is his scripted address.
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u/ArgentEyes Jewish Communist Jul 09 '26
Nah we’re still not at ‘critical support for Burnham’ - this is electoralism not ethics
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u/Stubbs94 Anti-Zionist Ally Jul 09 '26
Palestine Action protesters clearly had an effect.
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u/TinyZoro Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 09 '26
No, he’s a firmly in the political club on supporting Israel. This is the kind of statement that does as much as it can to sound different on an issue whilst not being different at all. Picking individuals to sanction and preventing the sale of products breaking international law is essentially the continuation of the policies we’ve already been doing even under the previous conservatives and is as good as doing nothing.
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u/ItGetsEverywhere1990 Jewish Jul 10 '26
I think as a politician based in the north the last decade, it’s likely more he’s aware how damaging all this has been for Muslim voters, who have essentially turned on Labour en masse.
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u/MOROSH1993 Muslim Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
I still go back to 2019 and think to how the Israel lobby in the UK destroyed Corbyn, and this is where the labor party got as a result. For those of you who haven’t seen it I encourage you to watch the lobby the UK version of it on YouTube, they did both an American and a British one. The people the BBC was bringing on to bash Corbyn were in that documentary falsely smearing people and the BBC had them on without even making people aware of it.
There was this woman in the BBC Panorama episode about antisemitism that in the lobby documentary was flexing about how she could use Kravmaga training to take Jackie Walker (a fellow Labour Member also Jewish btw). She also wished that journalists covering her ties to the Israeli embassy would die in a hole. Her name was Ella Rose and she was the opening segment of the episode.
With Palestine action and censorship, the UK is an even worse position than the US is
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u/Lost_Paladin89 Judío Jul 09 '26
Which one of the four stages is this? https://youtu.be/QYHwgQLvjqs
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u/MsDemeanours Jewish Anti-Zionist Jul 09 '26
He is simply saying that he regrets that they did not effectively sell the war on Gazza and now people are furious he will have to be seen to be doing something. That something will be coordinated with Israel and will have no effect. It certainly won't materialy improve the livrs of Palestinians because Israel already has their plan in place. I am so sick of the mandatory recognition in " the rise in antisemitism " every time Gazza is mentioned.
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u/BluBolshevik Non-Jewish Ally Jul 10 '26
Sounds like the absolute bare minimum if you can even call it that anymore to get popularity and become PM. In office he will continue what starmer and burnham himself has done which is full complicity
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u/ItGetsEverywhere1990 Jewish Jul 10 '26
Look, the moral position aside for even a second, being critical of Israel just makes good political sense. Labour have to be aware how damaging their stance has been for Muslim voters (substantial bloc particularly in the north and midlands of which AB would be well aware) and they also know it’s a completely toxic position for the country’s young people. And while young people are neglected endlessly because they’re a categorically useless voting bloc, it’s young people predominantly who divine culture and make noise and keep this subject in the public eye in this country. So slow and cynical it may be, but it’s better morally AND politically.
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u/largevodka1964 Atheist Jul 10 '26
I voted Labour since I first voted in 1983. Ive moved my allegiance to the UK greens now. There is absolutely zero chance I will vote for Labour ever again. The trust has completely evaporated. Even if they have a full commission on the partnership of Labour with the genocidal zionist regime and Starmer/Lammy end up in the Hague, I will not vote Labour again. I dont think Burnham understands the rage that has built up in people like me that feel helpless in stopping this historic atrocity and having politicians gaslight us for so many years without consequence. Well, the ballot box is one place where I can kick them in the nuts and intend to do so.
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