Good morning. It's three minutes after 10, and I do hope you're well. You're listening to James O'Brien on LBC, where I find myself both relieved and, well, sort of sadly pleased, if that's a phrase that makes sense, by the fact that we opened yesterday's program talking about intergenerational trauma and what society can do to acknowledge the very real and visceral,

even existential fear of Jewish people at all times, never mind at a time of such conflict

and confusion. Because I had a conversation yesterday with a former editor of a national newspaper

and he said something that hadn't occurred to me

previously he just said we're awful aren't we the way that we make it about ourselves and i thought

gosh yes the speed with which we move away from covering the actual carnage whether on october the 7th or

subsequently of course in gaza oct October the 7th or subsequently, of course, in Gaza,

October the 7th in Israel and subsequently in Gaza.

And we start talking about journalism or politics.

We just make it domestic, not necessarily self-centered, but we make it domestic.

And it occurred to me that it would be very hard, wouldn't it, to identify

how much of the fact that we're talking more about Suella Braverman than we are about

dead Palestinians is down to Suella Braverman and how much of it is down to us. I'm not going

to lie to you. I would rather talk about having an absolutely despicable Home Secretary than I would

talk about a terrorist atrocity in Israel or the continuing carnage in Gaza. So it's simply because

of the psychic toll that it takes, the emotional toll that it takes. But it is odd, isn't it? I think

that a lot of the responsibility lies with Suella Braverman,

because of the ecosystem in which she operates.

And by that I mean that she knows what is going to happen

when she uses the phrase hate marches

to describe essentially peaceful protests,

but not entirely peaceful protests, and then doubles down on it in full knowledge of how offensive it is and how inaccurate it is.

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