Race to the bottom

I honestly think there is no such thing as the human race. There are at least two: the one I belong to, and the one occupied by the likes of ISIS, The Wagner Group, paedophiles and groomers, Hamas, and their apologists and celebrants, including the Labour Party fringe. How can anyone perpetrate such horrors, support them or not condemn them?

That was not a rhetorical question. I genuinely do not know the answer. One reason I don’t know the answer is because I can’t bear to read the news at the moment and am probably missing out on some key fact or explanation. It was like that after 9/11. The vicarious terror I felt at the sight of those poor people jumping from the Twin Towers stayed with me, so that a couple of years later, while watching the movie Titanic, I had to close my eyes when passengers and crew jumped from the stricken ship into the ice-cold ocean.

It certainly puts my angsts over the years into perspective. I mean, really, they’re non-angsts by comparison: not even a fly in the ointment, more like a gnat in the toilet bowl.

And I cried when I saw those Palestinian flags being waved in celebration in British cities. They are not my countrymen. They do not hold British values. Regardless of where they were born, they do not belong in my country.

And just like that, I can hear the Free Speech argument being thrown back in my face. Yes we all have a right to Free Speech but, as I’ve blogged many times before, with rights come responsibilities. In this case, Brits have a responsibility not to celebrate the kidnapping of children and the rape of women and girls, nor to intimidate British Jews. To do so is animalistic, and I apologise to the animal kingdom for saying that, even to rats and termites.

Some time ago, I blogged about Israel and Palestine here in 1,300 words. The brevity was an insult really. Nevertheless, I concluded that: “The saddest part is that the biggest sufferers, as always, are the weakest, the Palestinian civilians. Hamas treats them as pawns / collateral damage, so Israel has to as well or it will compromise its own security. I’m not saying it’s right; I’m saying that’s how it is.” Today, Israel will again have to respond brutally, or risk its own annihilation. Similarly, Ukraine has to be aggressive in order to be effectively defensive.

By the way, the Archbishop of Canterbury is “praying for restraint in both sides”. If God weren’t crying, he’d be laughing.

So while all this is going on in Ukraine and Israel, while Yazidi women remain traumatised at the brutality of ISIS, while victims of paedophilia and grooming struggle to escape their past, I’m pursuing a puerile PhD, wondering whether to have beef or lamb for Sunday lunch, and stressing about my chipped nail polish. But I am shouting out evil and injustices as I see them, regardless of how ‘unfashionable’ or ‘illiberal’ my views might be, and of any consequences. I’m a feisty Northerner (that’s a tautology). Bring it on!

I’ve never thought of myself as an angel or a particularly nice person – a nice person wouldn’t write these blogs (so I’ve been told) – but Hamas and their flag-wavers are not stoking the fires of hell; they’re burning in them. In comparison, I've got a seat at the right hand of God. As do Israeli Jews.