First Minister Humza Yousaf has sharply criticised both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer for their failure to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, even as the death toll in Gaza surpasses 6500, an estimated 40% of whom are children.
With the single exception of the First Minister and the SNP, there has been a dismal failure of moral leadership from the leaders of political parties in the UK when it comes to the recent attacks in Israel and Israel's brutal, indiscriminate retaliation. This is only to be expected from the Conservatives.
No one looks to the Tories for moral leadership any more than anyone looks to Pennyworth the clown from the storm drain in It for best childcare practices.
However, the failure of Starmer and Labour to criticise clear instances of breaches of international law on the part of the Israeli government and armed forces is a sorry sign of just how much the Labour party under Starmer is firmly in the grip of the right wing.
Starmer cares more about not upsetting the right-wing press and prejudicing his chances of winning the next general election than he cares about the innocent civilians who are dying as they cower under aerial bombardment from the Israeli armed forces, even while they are scrambling to find food and water which are in perilously short supply due to the Israeli blockade.
Humza Yousaf's own in-laws are currently trapped in Gaza. Despite being British citizens, the British Government appears to be doing very little to get them and other British passport holders trapped in Gaza to safety. The spinelessness of the Labour party in not speaking out forcefully against Israel's clear breaches of international law is not merely an abdication of moral leadership, it also acts to worsen an already desperate situation.
It is not antisemitic to denounce the breaking of international law by the Israeli government and armed forces. It is precisely because the right-wing authoritarian Netanyahu knows that he can do what he wants without fear of criticism from Western governments and political parties that he is emboldened to continue a campaign of collective punishment against the population of Gaza.
Humza Yousaf has spoken out forcefully, denouncing the terrorist attacks of Hamas, condemning antisemitism, and demonstrating his solidarity with the Scottish Jewish community by visiting a Glasgow synagogue, where he told the congregation: "Your grief is my grief."
The First Minister joined 500 mourners earlier this month at Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue, where he met the family of Scottish-Israeli Bernard Cowan who was murdered by Hamas.
However, unlike the Conservative and Labour leaders, he has not been afraid to speak out against the disproportionate and indiscriminate response to the attacks by Hamas of the Israeli government and armed forces.
He has also spoken out strongly calling for an immediate ceasefire, even as Sunak and Starmer merely repeat the mantra that Israel has the right to defend itself.
Speaking during an interview with LBC earlier this week, the First Minister said he found the stance of Starmer and Sunak "infuriating".
He said: "We are seeing thousands of people die, children die. How many more children have to die before a ceasefire is called for? “We are calling for a ceasefire, I cannot understand Sir Keir Starmer’s position, I cannot understand the Prime Minister’s position, and I ask them how many more children have to die before you join us and join many across the world, including the United Nations, and call for that ceasefire.
"I call on all parties to commit to a ceasefire for the sake of those innocent children who are suffering so badly."
There is a growing rift within the Labour party over Starmer's refusal to condemn breaches of international law by Israel, or even to acknowledge that they are in fact breaches of international law. Likewise, Starmer has resisted demands to call for an immediate ceasefire.
Anas Sarwar, the leader of Labour's Scottish branch office told the BBC on Tuesday: "There is no justification for the withholding of essential supplies; water, electricity, medicine and food from the people of Gaza. It is a clear breach of international law."
Around twenty Labour councillors in England and fifteen local Labour party office holders in Scotland have already resigned over Starmer's moral failure over the suffering of civilians in Gaza. More than 150 Muslim Labour councillors have written to Starmer demanding that the party’s leadership calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Now there are reports that Labour fears that there could be front bench resignations over the issue. According to The Times, up to four shadow ministers are on "resignation watch." These include Sarah Owen, the shadow faith minister, and Rachel Hopkins, the shadow Cabinet Office minister.
A Labour source told the paper that the party are battling to keep the ministers from resigning. A member of Starmer’s senior team told The Times: "There's a real concern that if we lost a shadow minister, for example, that all of the others come under real pressure."
Labour Renfrewshire councillor Jamie McGuire has come in for criticism for claiming in a BBC documentary series about the UK's four nations that the UK is a "union of equals" and always has been. To which the obvious retort is, "Have you not been paying attention, son?"
If this really is a union of equals, why does Scotland need permission to ask the Scottish electorate if they want to leave it?
McGuire made the comments in connection with some ill-informed observations about the Darien expedition, which he said proved that "Scotland could not go it alone."
There's Labour in the twenty-first century for you, basing its opposition to Scottish self-determination on the failure of a seventeenth-century colonialist project which was sabotaged by the English government of the day.
