Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s recent visit to London highlights the growing global outrage at Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Herzog admitted he had a “tough” exchange with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, yet still repeated the tired claim that Israel’s brutal campaign is about “defending Western values.” At Chatham House, he declared Israel was protecting Europe and the “free world” with the “blood and tears” of its families—a grotesque distortion that equates mass civilian suffering with noble sacrifice.
Outside, protesters made clear what many around the world see: signs reading “Stop the Slaughter” and “Don’t Listen to War Criminals” underscored the reality that Israel’s actions are not defense, but devastation. Even the Scottish newspaper The National condemned Starmer for “rolling out the red carpet for genocide.”Herzog himself has provided ample grounds for accountability. In October 2023, he declared all Palestinians in Gaza “unequivocally” responsible for Hamas’s attacks—an admission of collective punishment that violates international law. Palestinian rights groups used this very statement in seeking his arrest. While Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service reviewed the application, authorities ultimately failed to act.
\The U.K. must ask itself: does honoring leaders implicated in war crimes align with the values they claim to uphold, or betray them entirely?
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