Don’t fall into the trap of ‘picking sides’ over Gaza

The horrors of Dresden, Guernica and Iraq are compelling reasons not to raze Gaza to dust, just as those sadistic and hate-filled attacks by Hamas are abhorred by all of us. This war is not about choosing one camp over another, writes Alan Rusbridger. Basic humanity is at stake – we need our leaders not to take sides

I suspect most people feeling horror-struck by what they’re currently seeing in Gaza were equally disgusted by the atrocities committed by Hamas on 7 October (AFP/Getty)

A prominent British Jewish journalist was explaining the dilemma that Israel faced over the rising death toll in Gaza. “At the heart of this,” he said, “from a humanitarian point of view, it’s disastrous.” But he added that we had to consider what the US did when it was attacked on 9/11: it invaded Iraq, where 200,000 [his figures] were killed in three years. And the British in the Second World War? “They firebombed Dresden, burning alive 25,000 civilians.”

You could see the point he was trying to make (in the latest episode of the Media Confidential podcast). Israel had been murderously attacked, and it was not going to take any lectures from the citizens of countries that, in a comparable situation, had famously – or infamously – retaliated with brutal force.

The counterargument, with the wisdom that hindsight comfortably brings, is that Iraq and Dresden are surely compelling arguments for not bombing even larger areas of Gaza into dust over the coming days and weeks.