As a battle-scarred veteran of many political battles in the UK and the US, I rejoice in the stunning victory of Labour in two byelections (Labour MPs told to ‘keep feet on ground’ after historic byelection wins, 20 October). But two other recent articles in the Guardian contain implicit lessons for Keir Starmer and the Labour party I support. One is the moving article by Magen Inon (I lost my parents in the Hamas attack. My family want peace, not revenge for their deaths, 19 October); the other is your report about Starmer’s response to events in the Middle East (Labour deeply divided over Starmer’s line on Israel-Hamas war, 20 October), which quoted one unnamed senior Labour MP saying: “We just looked like we didn’t care about Palestinians”, and another asking: “How have we gone that far away from our Labour values of equality and justice?”
Joe Biden, in the face of great political difficulties at home, had courageously, while strongly supporting Israel’s right to defend itself after the terrible killings by Hamas, warned Israel of the devastation that followed the “mistakes” of the Iraq war by his own country’s leaders. Starmer was reported as having offered his total support for any actions Netanyahu would take. Does Labour really want to alienate large numbers of its own supporters by relying exclusively (here and elsewhere) on a strategy of minimising all distinctions between Labour values and those of a feeble, incompetent Tory government that is rapidly losing popular support?
Is expediency the only thing that matters, leaving no room for human feelings and moral principles as things that motivate people to vote or to behave? Why endanger the possibility of a transformative Labour victory next year, like FDR’s New Deal or Labour in 1945?
Warren Chernaik
Emeritus professor, University of London
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