The Standard View: President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel highlights the threat of a regional war

Christian Adams
WEST END FINAL

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American presidents send their secretaries of state around the world to speak on their behalf, and for the interests of the US. When the President himself goes, it is more often when he wants the world to pay attention.

Antony Blinken has been on a whirlwind tour of the Middle East. But tomorrow, Joe Biden heads to Israel. It is a visit of great symbolism, one which also represents enormous logistical and security challenges, as rockets continue to fall across the country.

The great fear is of a broader war. A conflict that involved Hamas to the west, violence in the West Bank to the east and Hezbollah in Lebanon to the north, funded and armed by Iran, would be catastrophic.

Israel has the right to defend itself. It has suffered an appalling terrorist atrocity of a previously unimaginable scale inflicted by an organisation hell-bent on its destruction. There are no good options at this point.

The nation is traumatised but Benjamin Netanyahu still has agency. The priority must be to bring the hostages home and denude Hamas of its ability to wage terror, while acting within international law, protecting civilian life and preventing the conflict from escalating.

London’s antisemitic shame

What level of depravity, prejudice or perhaps sheer stupidity do you need to exude in order to desecrate a Jewish primary school? The Metropolitan Police has launched a hate crime probe after red paint was thrown at two Jewish schools in London. It comes amid a massive rise in antisemitic incidents in the capital.

Threatening, abusing or attacking British Jews, let alone children, for events taking place thousands of miles away is about as far from supporting the Palestinian cause as it is possible to get. Indeed, events of the last week have demonstrated anti-Jewish hatred is far more prevalent in this country than we have been prepared to admit.

The Prime Minister is right to provide the Community Security Trust, which advises Jewish organisations on safety, with additional funding. Yet it is a mark of shame on our country that a penny is necessary to be spent.

Up close with the Romans

Men (and women) now have the opportunity not only to think about the Roman Empire, but to experience what it was like to be part of its legions.

The British Museum has announced a new exhibition dedicated to the foot soldiers who built the Empire, examining their daily lives through more than 200 objects on display, including the world’s only intact legions shield. Come and see them from February next year.

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