Greetings, Harrumpfers. You find me, notwithstanding the Season of Goodwill and all that, seething.

An old friend, of whom one has not in recent years seen a great deal, has sent one one of those round-robin summaries of family activities that arrive at this time of the year, brimming with a confidence in their recipients’ fascination with their contents that is not invariably deserved.

Featuring prominently in this document is the news that my friend, and, by implication, his family, have been weekly protesters against the ‘indiscriminate murder’ of Palestinians by the IDF.

Accepting, for the sake of argument, the accuracy of the Palestinians’ account of their plight, and giving my friend credit for possessing a sound moral compass, I have to ask: how has he preserved the equilibrium of that compass, if not by being out on the streets protesting at every one of the atrocities that rival, and in many cases surpass, those said to be perpetrated by the IDF in Gaza?

As a man of the left, he is, of course habituated to the tireless pursuit of fresh ways to make the world a safer place to go to war, but even so, attending conscientiously to the sheer volume of outrage being perpetrated around the world would surely require a capacity of heroic proportions for standing around in the British rain holding a placard. Let’s name just a handful of the causes that intellectual and moral honesty would compel him to protest.

Gaza – completely absent from this glib, faux-pious account is any acknowledgement that the hostilities of which he complains began when Hamas invaded Israel, committed some of the most horrific atrocities imaginable, and took hostages, many of whom they retain, even as they bleat about the pain being inflicted on them by their victims’ efforts to retrieve them. Surely my friend is weekly protesting against the Gazans, and demanding the immediate return of the (surviving) hostages? Surely he is reminding them, with all the fervour with which he reproves the IDF, that freeing the hostages, while it wouldn’t be guaranteed to bring an end to their suffering, is at least worth a go, and is in any case the right thing to do? And while he’s at it, he could usefully point out to them that loudly proclaiming your wish to exterminate your neighbouring state and then complaining when you yourself get hurt by its army is just, well, childish.

China – the atrocities of which this ghastly state is guilty are too numerous to table in full, but their treatment of the Uighurs and their dereliction of their treaty obligations to Hong Kong alone are surely worth a march each per week.

Russia – by now, my friend’s diary must be getting crowded, but no matter – he clearly thinks himself morally superior to those in charge of the IDF, so needs must. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has cost many more lives than have been shed in Gaza, and with a far weaker casus belli (none at all, if you ask me, but that’s by the by). So that’s another slot in the diary gobbled up in the interests of moral rectitude. Assad’s recent demise has freed up one slot in the week which must surely have hitherto, and for many years, been filled by a conscientious obligation to protest at Russia’s support for his murderous regime. But that merely draws attention to another cause which the fearless warrior for justice must surely, in all conscience, embrace – the almost continent-wide meddling in, and supply of arms to, African conflicts. The path from my friend’s door to the Russian embassy must indeed be well-trodden.

Strangely, none of this prodigious, pavement-bashing, placard-waving heart-bleeding is recorded in my friend’s round-robin, perhaps because it doesn’t exist. Which leaves me to conclude that his motives may be less elevated than he would like them to be seen, and may just possibly be indistinguishable from simple, old-fashioned judaeophobia. Harrumpf!

Happy Christmas (and Hanukkah) one and all.