The Palestinian people have the right

to self-determination. That will not happen while Hamas is there. This is the problem in a nutshell perhaps?

Our Prime Minister has said that we will "recognise" Palestine next month. It has, rightly, caused alarm among those who know anything about the situation in the Gaza strip.

Hamas is still in control there. The stated aim of Hamas is the destruction of the state of Israel. For them Israel cannot be allowed to exist. 

If Palestine is recognised then Hamas will claim they have been recognised. It will encourage them. Even talk of recognition has Hamas claiming that the October 7 attacks were justified and only the beginning of their campaign. They now claim to be planning more such attacks and that they are winning not just the physical war but the propaganda war as well. 

There is also the Palestinian Authority. It is both weak and corrupt. If it had been much stronger and much less corrupt then the October 7 attacks might have been prevented.  

  On the other side the current Israeli government wants to destroy Hamas. They claim it is the only way to bring about lasting peace in the region. The Israeli Prime Minister also has personal claims of corruption against him and they need to be dealt with as soon as possible. He has no interest at all in having this happen even though it means the extreme right wing of his coalition has control over him. 

While Hamas is in control in the Gaza strip the news we get from there will put out a consistent story. We are being told there is a "humanitarian crisis". Yes, there is a crisis, but who is responsible for it? The answer to that is not the simple "Israel is responsible because they will not allow food aid to be distributed by the United Nations" that we keep being told. The reality is very different.

There is food in Gaza and more could go in. That is a reality. Whether it should be distributed by the UN authorities is another question. To be blunt, Hamas controls the distribution of food through the UN agency. You need to be an open supporter of Hamas  before you "might" get some food. It is being sold at highly inflated prices in order to fund the war. People are starving because they cannot pay these prices. This is the reality of life under Hamas. It is not a popular viewpoint and it is denied by many.

Of course there is some aid which gets in and some which is simply handed out. There are those carefully edited stories, almost all from one news agency which suggest that thousands of people are rushing aid lorries. The air drops, a highly unsatisfactory way of delivering aid, are being used by Hamas to tell the world how dire the situation is - even though it is largely of their own making. 

There have been occasional news stories in the media here which talk to people who have been in to the Gaza strip and come out again. They repeat what we are being told elsewhere but all too often what these people have seen is controlled by Hamas in the same way the "Palestinian Health Authority" controls information about the numbers of casualties and shows pictures of starving children.

Like most people I am deeply disturbed by the situation there and by the situation in places like Sudan and Ukraine and Haiti and other war zones. I hope I am also sufficiently informed to know that the situation is not always the one we are being told it is and that the solution is not a simple one of a ceasefire or ceding territory to an aggressor - or that "recognition" will achieve anything. Such "recognition" may do more harm than good unless other things come with it.