DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Israel is doing the West a huge service

After having remarkable success against Hezbollah with a fortnight of intense and brilliantly-executed operations, Israel has seized the chance to deliver its mortal enemy another devastating blow.

By sending ground troops across the border into its stronghold in Lebanon, Tel Aviv has signalled that it is not willing to take its foot off the terror group’s throat.

The question is, will the invasion be the ‘limited, localised and targeted’ operation they hope? Or will it mark a perilous escalation in the Middle East conflict?

Israel has eliminated the death cult’s leadership and severely degraded its firepower, just as it neutralised Hamas’s forces in Gaza after the genocidal massacre of October 7 last year.

In doing so, it has inflicted a humiliating strategic defeat on Iran, the rogue state which bankrolls and arms both Islamist groups. Yesterday, the world watched anxiously as Tehran sought revenge, blitzing Israel with some 200 ballistic missiles.

This picture shows a projectile being intercepted by Israel near the northern city of Baqa al-Gharbiya

Thankfully, this attack failed to penetrate the country’s Iron Dome defence system. Not a single Israeli casualty was reported.

But despite Israel fighting for its very existence against foes committed to its annihilation, Britain’s Labour government is evermore lukewarm in its support.

Indeed, our hapless Foreign Secretary David Lammy called feebly for a ceasefire. Would that serve any purpose – other than to allow Hezbollah a chance to regroup and rearm?

We know Labour is desperate not to alienate its Muslim voters. But can’t ministers see that by confronting Hezbollah and Hamas, Israel is doing the West a huge service?

The Islamists loathe not only Jews, but the West itself – and would cheerfully destroy every liberal value we hold dear.

An economic joke

Growth would be energised, animal spirits unleashed, the economy boosted by nothing short of a Thatcher-style revolution.

That’s what Rachel Reeves promised if Labour won power. Now they have done, her words are quickly becoming a joke.

Confidence among British manufacturers is tumbling at the fastest pace since the pandemic hit. Meanwhile, business chiefs and consumers are increasingly pessimistic about the UK economy.

The problem is, the Chancellor has spent weeks maniacally talking the economy down – as if she was a Left-wing activist, rather than a member of the Government.

Rachel Reeves has spent weeks maniacally talking the economy down – as if she was a Left-wing activist, rather than a member of the Governmen

It’s no surprise, then, the gloomy messaging is taking a toll. Why would anyone choose to invest in a country described by its own leaders as essentially a basket case?

Businesses are fearful, too, of a Budget with growth-crushing taxes, the heavy cost of new workers’ rights and anti-strike laws.

Rather than turbocharging growth, Labour risks plunging us into a recession.

Lessons in logic

Whatever Labour’s class warriors believe, not all private school families belong to the wealthy tiers of society.

In fact, many hard-working parents will no longer be able to afford the fees if the Government imposes VAT on them.

As Will Goldsmith, head of £46,000-a-year Bedales School, says, this would overload the already struggling state sector and negate any proposed savings.

That, he warns, would amount to ‘levelling down, not levelling up’ – the very opposite of what Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson claims she wants to achieve.

He’s right. But for those steeped in the politics of envy, lessons in logic never sink in.