The hypocrisy of western leaders is worse than ever, in the face of Israel's latest bloody onslaught in Gaza.

Oh sure, they voice "concerns" over civilian casualties. But since tiny Gaza is just 25 miles long by 6 miles wide - with over 1.8 million people overcrowded into 2 main cities (the terrain is desert or beach), the majority of those killed by Israel's bombs, rockets, tanks and snipers can only be civilians. As ordinary Palestinians say themselves, when Israel issues a warning for them to take cover, just where are they meant to go? The small strip of land allocated to them is blockaded by Israel and they are not allowed out of it. It is like being in a prison. It always has been.

So now, in this latest attack by Israel, 648 have already been killed and over 4,000 wounded, many of them children. Compared to 27 Israeli soldiers (mostly ground troops sent into Gaza) and 2 civilians killed. And at the time of writing, Israel's army carries on with its "targeted" shelling, claiming its response is "proportionate" and that it is Hamas which is holding Israel's population "hostage", rather than the reverse.

Well, Israel's politicians, western leaders, and their media can try to turn the world on its head all they like, but how can any of the rest of us swallow such obvious lies, bigotry and bias?

Cameron out-bigots Obama

In this, Cameron's statement issued on Monday, is even more pro-Israeli than that issued by the US. Like all of the western leaders, he says "Israel has the right to defend itself" and blames the "crisis" on Hamas. But he goes on to say that Hamas is "raining hundreds of rockets on Israeli cities, indiscriminately targeting civilians in contravention of all humanitarian law and norms". Never mind that these rockets hardly ever hit anything, unlike those of Israel, which are deadly in their sophisticated accuracy. Cameron emphatically stands with Israel's "right to defend itself". Yes, as always, standing up for the underdog!

If there is something indiscriminate going on here it is Cameron's handling of the facts, which speak for themselves. While one may not be a supporter of Hamas, clearly, it is in no position to make a "proportionate response " itself, given the fact that it is imprisoned within Israeli-claimed territory and only gets its weapons and supplies, "illegally" via tunnelling out - much like the inmates of WW2 prisoner of war camps.

Of course, Cameron's response and total solidarity with Israel is no surprise. It is in the interests of the western powers that Israel carries on demonstrating to all in the Middle East (and particularly now that Iraq is imploding) that it still has the capability of acting as regional policeman on behalf of the US, Britain, et al.

These "responses" against Gaza are an opportunity for Israel's military to flex its muscles and for Netanyahu's government to prove it is still "needed". They care nothing about the populations - neither the people living in Israel (some of whom are Palestinian) nor those in the besieged and ever-shrinking Palestinian territories. Because it is all of them who are the real hostages of the Israeli government's western-backed, brutal and vicious policy. Yet again.

Ukraine: another lethal imperialist game

The reaction to the shooting down of the Malaysian airlines MH17 Flight in east Ukraine has been just as bad, if not worse, in terms of hypocrisy. It took almost a week for Obama - and ever-obliging Cameron - to even acknowledge the obvious: the most likely scenario is that MH17 was shot down by mistake, while flying over an area in which a civil war is being waged - where it should not have been routed, in the first place.

If anything, it is the on-going conflict which the EU and US had a prime role in sparking, by their support for the present regime in Kiev, which is to blame. So no wonder they are falling over themselves to condemn Russia and call for more sanctions against it. And now it turns out that British arms dealers, like all others, are implicated in selling weapons to all the protagonists in this conflict, indiscriminately! What a surprise!

But never mind, Cameron's propaganda, again, turns the facts on their heads. Despite the fact that the Kiev regime, which Cameron backs (and helped establish and recognise), has far-right (neo-Nazis) in the government, it is quite acceptable, simply because it is anti-Russian. Kiev under this regime, will thus ally itself with the EU and US, join Nato, and give western investors great opportunities. But (and this is the big "but") only if the Russian-speaking and Kiev-hostile east Ukraine complies and gives up its demands for autonomy under a federation! Because it is the resource-rich Donetsk region of east Ukraine that the west's investors are interested in.

So where does the working class stand in all of this? Obviously workers must stand in solidarity with the oppressed and besieged populations, and innocent victims like those travelling in MH17. But it is certainly also up to the working class of this country to oppose every single move of this government to advance predatory, brutal and lethal imperialism, which, behind Cameron's words of false outrage, is only out to profit from the carnage, both in the Middle East and Ukraine.