The Vice President of the USA states and demands: “People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane, and our common humanity compels us to act… The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses…. Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks.”

Of course, people living in a battle zone are suffering. This is asymmetrical urban warfare at its most complex. Especially exacerbated by one side deliberately using civilians as human shields.

There will be difficulties in supplying aid and ensuring that it goes to those who are in need. Israel is doing the best that it can – as a combatant in a war – to supply its enemy with aid to survive.

The suffering is immense. But to believe that a six week ceasefire will solve the problem is Mary Poppin’s logic at its worst.

This “spoonful of sugar” will do nothing to eradicate a murderous gang of rapist intent on killing Jews and destroying the State of Israel. The exact opposite: it will allow the butchers to regroup and consolidate.

There is only one way in which to “peacefully” end this war and provide for the trapped non-combatants: Hamas release all the hostages, surrenders, and makes its leaders available for criminal proceedings.

Unfortunately, this will never happen. So better to fight on until the end, rather than, as a futile act, to sweeten the medicine.

VP Harris also does Israel a huge disservice by implying that the SOI is not only responsible for the supply of food, fuel and other services to the people of Gaza, but also that it controls the administration and distribution of these services. Israel is at war with clearly defined goals. Unfortunately, these do not include care and comfort of its enemy.

That said, IDF standing orders, demand “Every ground, aerial and naval operational activity and exercise we conduct is first and foremost carried out for the sake of defending the State of Israel and its civilians. Defence is our mission-security is our goal.”

NOT – NOT- NOT the genocide of the Palestinian people.

These attempts by Harris and others to push Israel into the corner labelled “bad guy”, ignore the evidence.

On the day of her speech, the UN released the results of an investigation into the horrors of October 7th and subsequent events.

A team of United Nations experts tasked with gathering information on sexual violence linked to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel found “reasonable grounds to believe” that some victims were sexually assaulted, including rape and gang rape.

It found “clear and convincing information” that some of the women and children taken back to Gaza that day by Hamas as hostages were subjected to “rape and sexualized torture and sexualized cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” There were “reasonable grounds to believe,” it said, “that this violence may be ongoing.”

As, arguably, the most important woman in the USA, Harris was silent about these revelations.

So were all other women’s organisations: from the pink hats to the red stockings. #metoo stops at the Jews.

As to the reason Harris’s silence, I can but speculate: a combination of stupidity and ignorance coupled to a fear of loosing political support of so-called feminists in her own party drove her to use the phrase of Lord Nelsen – “I see no ships” – when placing the telescope to her blind eye.

As for those feminists – the sirens of our times – I can only resort to sexism by suggesting their views must have become distorted by the politics of their current “toy-boy”.

For the reason that it defies all logic that their supposed solidarity has been broken by antisemitism.

Can there be another explanation?