Azar Ali

Hamas would have won a massive victory can only mean the majority believe in all they do

Prior to the Mail’s second story, Jewish Labour Movement national chair Mike Katz also warned “handing” the by-election to controversial rival George Galloway will be “a Pyrrhic victory for those calling on Labour to go further now”. Galloway once told a political meeting: “We have declared Bradford an Israel-free zone”

Anniebach

Prior to the Mail’s second story, Jewish Labour Movement national chair Mike Katz also warned “handing” the by-election to controversial rival George Galloway will be “a Pyrrhic victory for those calling on Labour to go further now”. Galloway once told a political meeting: “We have declared Bradford an Israel-free zone”

I can believe it.
Having once seen a tv programme on Bradford ( shudder) I pity anyone who has to live there.
For all the arguing on this thread, one bright spot in the darkness, this Rochdale hopeful for the by election is now toxic and won’t be standing for Labour again I sincerely hope.There’s plenty of time to get a better candidate in place for the GE.

January 1994, Galloway faced some of his strongest criticism on his return from a Middle Eastern visit during which he had met Saddam Hussein. At his meeting with the Iraqi leader, he reported the support given to Saddam by the people of the Gaza Strip which he had just visited: "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability ... I can honestly tell you that there was not a single person to whom I told I was coming to Iraq and hoping to meet with yourself who did not wish me to convey their heartfelt, fraternal greetings and support."[55] He ended his speech with the statement "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability."[56] He said that he was saluting the Iraqi people, rather than Saddam Hussein, in the speech,[37] which meaning was accurately translated for the Iraqi leader.

Galloway spoke in my northern mill town. - he said 911 done by the Israelis and the Americans to blame Muslims - most of the audience applauded this

The topic of this thread is Councillor Ali Azar's comments and the action of the Labour party (for which he is standing) in response.

Mr Azar's comments were those of someone without any knowledge trying to whip up the support of prospective voters by saying what he thinks they want to hear. That alone says quite a bit.

I think that Keir Starmer was between a rock and a hard place: he was condemned whichever way he jumped and I actually feel sorry for the man. However, he has shown he is principled (after new knowledge of Cllr. Azar came to light) and I now admire him, his stance took some courage.

As to other comments on this thread regarding Israel/Hamas, I think that only one has mentioned the fact that Hamas knew (and please please please, do understand this) exactly what would happen when they planned their atrocities of October 7th. Could any sane person believe that Hamas, hiding their fighters in hospitals, schools and apartment buildings, did not understand that they would be chased down and attacked?

If one's county is attacked, one fights back. One fights to a stage when the enemy is undermined and does not have the capacity to fight further. Please just think of WW11, not very long ago. We dropped bombs and killed countless thousands of innocent people, as was done to us.

If Hamas thought that Israel would not retaliate it shows an unbelievable level of arrogance. If Hamas knew Israel would retaliate, where are all the stocks of food and water their population would need? Oh, they seem to have forgotten their own poor people.

I don't suppose many are interested but just in case, Hezbollah has launched more than 2,000 rockets on Israel since the 7 October. Do you read about these attacks?

11,000 rockets have now been fired out of Gaza to Israel. Some 10-20% have fallen short and hit their own people.

80,000 people have been displaced in Israel, being moved away from the border. A similar number of Lebanese people have been moved too.

The news is now focused on Rafah: there are still four (out of 24) brigades of Hamas living amongst the population. These have, have to be wiped out, else the killing will continue for everyone, longer.

There has been a French proposal for Hamas to pull back ten kilometres from the border which would be policed by Lebanese troops. No comment from Hamas yet but don't forget the upper echelons of Hamas are now fighting for their survival of villas with pools, expensive cars etc. Not all Palestinians are poor huddled masses.

Incidentally I am still very puzzled: why there have been no marches in London/around the world, for the poor repressed Syrians or North Koreans, or any other of the many people living under such regimes? Mmmm, I think I can guess why......

.

Anniebach

Hamas would have won a massive victory can only mean the majority believe in all they do

Not really! The choice Gazans have had up to now has been Hamas or Fatah, led by Mahmoud Abbas, who is seen as corrupt and ineffectual. Despite attempts at conciliation with Israeli, settlers have still walked in and grabbed West Bank territory and sometimes used violence. Gazans want a government which will protect them and they thought Hamas would.

The current actions by Israel will have hardened Gazan's attitudes to Israel. They haven't got much to lose, so of course they'd vote for "hard men" who will fight for them.

Where are you getting your information from Candelle? It sounds as though you're better informed then the IDF.

Incidentally, nobody in WW2 flattened whole countries.

Go on then! What's your guess?

It's ironic that Labour is guaranteed to lose the Rochdale election despite having three former Labour members standing.

caknib

Pity the safe space was stolen from other people though?

It wasn't. After WW2 the UN partitioned Palestine between the Jews and the Palestinian Arabs. The State of Israel was then immediately attacked by three Arab states and acquired more territory by right of conquest in the brief war which Israel won despite the odds.

GrannyGravy13

I am amazed that nobody is bothered by Hamas Head Honchos repeatedly stating that they will repeat their actions of 7/10/23 until every Jew is wiped off of the planet.

So am I and I am amazed that an experienced Labour member like Mr Ali could ignore that fact when speaking of the situation.

KS really had no option if he wants to maintain the claims that Labour has changed.
The problem is that though his action supports that claim, the actions of some party members and even would-be MP’s don’t reflect that claim.

Anniebach

Hamas would have won a massive victory can only mean the majority believe in all they do

Which HAMAS 'victory' was that?

Another one bites the dust

The one and only positive is that this happened in an isolated by election with a general election not too far away, because it should give Starmer and team time to rectify the vetting process failures which have allowed a candidate who is clearly unsuitable to be selected. I feel very sorry for the electorate of Rochdale in the interim.

GrannyGravy13

Another one bites the dust

That was clearly some meeting.

It’s going to be a dirty election

Surely "partitioned between" is the same as gave half away?

Anniebach

Hamas would have won a massive victory can only mean the majority believe in all they do

On what basis are you and others claiming that Hamas have the support of the majority of the Palestinian people? None. Do you think therefore that all of Russia supports Putin?

It's not isolated. The Mail obviously have a lot of information that they are slowly going to release.

Quote Glorianny Tue 13-Feb-24 16:56:16
Urmstongran
An iron grip on the Gaza population:

The last elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) were held on 25 January 2006. There have not been any elections either for president or for the legislature since these two elections.
Consider why there haven't been elections. The main reason seems to be that Hamas would have won a massive victory and this was unacceptable to many, including the Palestinian president, other countries and Israel. I wonder is it OK to disenfranchise people because you don't like their choices?

Grantanow I was replying to above

Galaxy

It's not isolated. The Mail obviously have a lot of information that they are slowly going to release.

As have HuffPost and others I have no doubt. Still, if it roots out sleazy and bigoted candidates from all the parties before the actual election surely that’s a good thing for British politics. There have been so many scandals in the last few years that it’s embarrassing, no matter what your political persuasion.

The late Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, once said that “anti-Semites are never just anti-Semites. It is not as if those who dislike Jews are overflowing with love for the rest of humanity“

And it goes to demonstrate what a load of whitewash Chakrabarti‘s report was.