Labour Member of Parliament Paul Flynn has criticised Conservative MPs for taking a trip to Israel and visiting military facilities.
According to the Guardian, Flynn claims:
“It is insensitive when people are being slaughtered in such numbers and going out there is giving tacit support to one side. It does seem to be unwise to put it mildly to be there at the moment because the only possible way out is an agreement between the two sides and I don’t think you should go there without going to both sides”.
Yes, Mr. Flynn. You’re absolutely right. What representatives of the British Parliament should do instead is sit on their comfortable sofas in their constituencies and sound off on Twitter about what the BBC tells them is going on in Gaza, right?
I can’t help but wonder if all the pro-Cannabis campaigning (not that there’s anything wrong with that) is finally taking its toll on the scarcely unbiased member for Newport West.
Of course Flynn was the one who engaged in anti-Semitic discourse not so long ago, when he claimed that the British Ambassador to Israel (a staunch leftie, by the way) was unable to be pro-British because he was Jewish.
He said in 2011 that Britain needed “someone with roots in the UK [who] can’t be accused of having Jewish loyalty”. Disgusted? You had better be.
Journalists and parliamentarians should all be scrambling to get to Israel and the Palestinian territories right now, because (and this shouldn’t be something that eludes Mr Flynn), you can learn the most about a long-standing conflict by actually being there at its most intense moments. It is called “education” and “experience”.
I am minded to assume from his comments that he would prefer Tory MPs to remain ignorant about the realities of living in Israel during a war. They were indeed also supposed to visit the Palestinian territories but were unable to under advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
So while Mr Flynn holes up in Newport, perhaps sparking up a doobie with Twitter at the ready for some #activism, his Conservative Party counterparts are as close to the front lines as possible.
But I wonder who the Stop The War Coalition will call on next time for some ‘expert insight’? I’ll put a £10 bag of Pineapple Express on the fact that it won’t be Guto Bebb MP.
P.S. – “tacit support”? I’d be mortified if Tory MPs weren’t pursuing ACTIVE support of the region’s only representative democracy.
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