Israel-Gaza war: There is no sliding scale or superiority of suffering - Jackie Baillie

Retribution is exactly what Hamas wants, to draw Israel into a bloody quagmire as innocents on both sides suffer

The sense of loss, pain and grief was palpable when I visited the Giffnock Newton Mearns synagogue in the wake of the 7th October atrocities on Israel.

I sense that too from my discussion with Gerry O’Hare, an oncology nurse from the Vale of Leven hospital, who has spent time in Gaza as a volunteer medic. He told me of a breast cancer surgeon that he has worked with who has lost their life in the Israeli bombardment of the enclave.

Melanie Ward, the Scot from Helensburgh, who is chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestine, reports that the system of humanitarian support in Gaza is close to collapse. She has colleagues in Gaza whose lives are on the line along with the two million citizens who are now trapped in a war zone. As I write all aid agencies are warning they can no longer do their jobs.

These are only vignettes from my own constituency. The horrendous terrorist bloodshed in Israel, the pulverising response from Israeli forces and loss of civilian lives has affected everyone in Scotland and will continue to reverberate for many months to come.

The inhabitants of Gaza, who have been under siege for years are now tensed for a ground operation by the Israeli Defence Force which could have repercussions for the whole region.

It is clear in the determination of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to utterly destroy Hamas that many thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians and children will be killed and tens of thousands wounded. Collective punishment is wrong.

As well as exacerbating a humanitarian disaster the incursion into Gaza will cost Israeli forces massive loss of life too. The two sides have been in conflict several times over the years and each time it has been at the cost of young blood and innocent lives on both sides.

The danger each day is that the conflict spreads to the other Palestinian enclave on the West Bank and to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and Syria in a conflagration orchestrated by Iran and capable of sucking in the United States. We stand on the brink of something terrible.

After the slaughter of the innocents in Israel it is hard for mere diplomacy to hold back that instinct for retaliation. But retribution is exactly what Hamas wants, to draw Israel into a bloody quagmire which will suck the whole Middle East into conflict. We need to find a permanent solution for the region – security for Israel and for Palestine.

Amplified by social media, the bitterness of the conflict is in danger of poisoning our own domestic politics. It is important the armchair commentators realise in their competition for outrage that there is no sliding scale or superiority of suffering, that each life is worth the same, every life is sacred.

We face the dark prospect of beginning 2024 with a war in Europe entering a third year, an unstable Middle East and an emboldened China with only Donald Trump’s serial court appearances to distract us.

The roots of the conflict between Israel and Palestine go deep into the past but the future is there to be grasped.

Immediately the Israeli hostages must be released, humanitarian aid must be allowed in and rockets must stop being fired from Gaza into Israel and from Israel into Gaza. The international community must work to ensure that these conditions are met so that both sides can start taking the tentative steps towards a two state solution and to peace.