“Every child, every baby in Gaza is the enemy.” In a normal society, a politician who said something so depraved would face total reputational ruin. Not so in Israel. Meet Moshe Feiglin, previously considered a “far-right outcast”, who has just been elected to Israel’s legislature. He said this last May, but he has also called for more Palestinian babies to die and for Gaza’s entire population, newborns included, to be expelled. In last month’s election, Feiglin formed an alliance with Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right finance minister. Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed this “important union” and praised their “national responsibility”.

Feiglin’s words are not simply the ravings of an extremist politician. Israel has waged what Save the Children describes as a “war on children”. A UN independent commission concluded earlier this year that Israeli forces had deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children. According to figures from the Palestinian ministry of health – which are likely significant underestimates – nearly 22,000 children in Gaza have been killed since Israel began its assault, including at least 1,100 under the age of one.

Now that Netanyahu and his far-right allies have lost their majority in last month’s election, you may well hope that this horror will finally come to an end.

Think again. Park the fact that Netanyahu’s bloc still won more votes than the Jewish-led opposition, despite his government’s failures over 7 October, his corruption trial, the cost of living crisis, the Iran war debacle, the controversy over exemptions from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews and his assault on the........

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