“No one likes us, we don’t care.” It may be rousing on the stadium terraces of south London, as the signature chant for Millwall football club, but as a national strategy it’s a disaster. Even so, Israel has become a Millwall among the nations, apparently unbothered by and impervious to the condemnation of a watching world – condemnation which this week gained serious momentum.
As one country after another pointed an accusing finger towards Israel, repelled by the starvation, devastation and bloodshed it has brought down on Gaza, Israeli officials offered the now-familiar middle finger in return. When Keir Starmer announced Britain’s intention to recognise a state of Palestine, it was swiftly brushed aside by the deputy mayor of Jerusalem as “much ado about nothing”.
