“WHAT a glorious day. Remember this moment,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enthused as he addressed large crowds in Jerusalem to celebrate the opening of the US embassy.

“President Trump, by recognising history, you have made history. All of us are deeply moved. All of us are deeply grateful,” Netanyahu gushed.

As he spoke, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) snipers, secure in fortified positions on top of berms constructed to offer a superior sight of protests taking place in Gaza, shot unarmed Palestinian civilians while other IDF personnel rained tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets on them.

At the end of the day, 58 Palestinians lay dead, including a nine-month-old baby girl overcome by gas. Not a single soldier was injured.

Netanyahu justified the massacre to the US TV network CBS, saying: “I don’t know of any army that would do anything differently if you had to protect your border against people who say: ‘We’re going to destroy you and we’re going to flood into your country’.”

In classic victim-blaming style, the Israeli leader accused Hamas of “pushing civilians, women, children into the line of fire with the view of getting casualties. We try to minimise casualties. They’re trying to incur casualties in order to put pressure on Israel, which is horrible.”

If Netanyahu really believed that Hamas wanted to maximise casualties to show Israel in a poor light, why play into their hands by killing children and a legless man in a wheelchair and shooting many victims in the back?

His army could have dispensed with live ammunition, especially since the border fence was never breached and no Israeli civilian was ever in mortal danger.

Opening the US embassy in Jerusalem was President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who suggested that this was part of Trump’s mission to drive a Middle East peace deal, forecasting that the world would look back one day to realise that “the journey to peace started with America recognising the truth.”

The Palestinian population of occupied East Jerusalem did not share the enthusiasm of Netanyahu and Kushner, with dozens protesting as the celebrations began, only to be beaten and arrested by Israeli security forces.

As they learned anew the limits of Israel’s respect for the rights of free assembly and free speech, supporters of the embassy transfer from Tel Aviv chanted: “Burn them,” “Shoot them,” “Kill them.”

Appreciation of how impartial Trump’s as yet unknown peace plan will be was illustrated by US ambassador Nikki Haley’s conduct at the subsequent UN emergency security council meeting.

“Who among us would accept this type of activity on your border? No-one would. No country in this chamber would act with more restraint than Israel has,” she told the meeting.

Haley then walked out as Palestinian representative Riyad Mansour prepared to speak, showing her contempt for his condemnation of the “odious massacre” and his demand for a transparent international inquiry into “a war crime, a crime against humanity.”

He was critical of the UN, asking: “How many Palestinians have to die before you take action? Did they deserve to die? Did children deserve to be taken away from their parents?”

In response, Israel’s ambassador Danny Danon, who later appeared on Channel 4 News to vent an unbelievable bullying tirade against interviewer Cathy Newman, shouting: “You will listen to me,” denied that demonstrations or protests had taken place — “these were violent riots.”

Accusing Hamas of having “taken the people of Gaza hostage,” he added: “They incite people to violence, place as many civilians as possible in the line of fire to maximise civilian casualties. Then they blame Israel and come to the UN to complain. It is a deadly game they play at the expense of innocent children.”

Britain was among a group of Washington’s usually reliable allies, including Germany, Ireland and Belgium, to back the call for an independent inquiry.

In a rare criticism of Israel, UK ambassador Karen Pierce said: “The volume of live fire used in Gaza yesterday and the consequent number of deaths is distressing and cannot be ignored by the council.”

However, Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt reverted to Tory type in the Commons, with an on-the-one-hand-but-on-the-other performance.

Burt distanced the government from Trump’s embassy transfer decision, believing it was “not conducive to peace in the region,” but, questioned over recognition of Palestine as an independent state by Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who is of Palestinian descent, he said that the question “remains open” but must be timed for “when it’s most designed to serve the cause of peace,” whatever that might mean.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was as forthright as ever on the issue, noting that UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has been calling for an independent investigation into these incidents for six weeks since Israeli troops began killing unarmed civilian protesters in Gaza.

Such a probe “should urgently determine whether international law has been broken and hold the Netanyahu government to account for their actions,” Corbyn declared.

Less predictable perhaps was the response of shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, a member of Labour Friends of Israel, who referred to the slaughter as “an outrage that demands not just international condemnation, but action to hold those responsible to account.”

Thornberry urged that Western governments should take a lead from Israeli peace and justice campaigners to demand “an end to the multiple abuses of human and political rights Palestinians face on a daily basis, the 11-year siege of Gaza, the continuing 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory and the ongoing expansion of illegal settlements.”

Israel’s Communist Party accused police of using “brutal force” against protesters in Jerusalem, tearing flags from their hands and attacking them, despite them having protest permits.

The protesters, both Arabs and Jews, 14 of whom were arrested, included Knesset members from the Joint List comprising Arab parties and the Communist Party’s Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace Equality).

MK Dov Khenin (Hadash-Joint List) accused the police of attacking the demonstrators, including the MKs, when they raised their flags and posters, saying: “They were aggressive and did not allow us to state our position in a democratic way. No to this criminal embassy move. No to the massacre in Gaza.”

The Peace Now group said: “This populist move, taken unilaterally and without any recognition of Palestinians’ attachment to Jerusalem and their national aspirations for sovereignty over the Palestinian-inhabited parts of the city, is a boon to extremists on both sides.”

Other protests against the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem were held on Monday evening across Israel, including in Haifa, Jaffa, Nazareth, Sakhnin, Arabe, Kufr Yassif, Yfia, Tira and Tamra.

Israel’s apologists in Britain — coincidentally those most active in stoking claims of anti-semitism in the Labour Party — took their lead from Netanyahu, absolving the Israeli government and the IDF and blaming Hamas.

Board of Deputies of British Jews president Jonathan Arkush and president-elect Marie van der Zyl claimed to be “profoundly anguished” at the loss of life before asserting: “The responsibility for the violence lies with Hamas, a terrorist organisation with the explicit stated aim of murdering Israeli civilians and the ultimate destruction of the state of Israel.”

Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) shed similar “all civilian deaths are regrettable” crocodile tears before demanding condemnation of Hamas hijacking a “peaceful protest as cover to attack border communities.”

Following angry protests, LFI substituted calls for IDF “restraint,” an end to Hamas’s “cynical exploitation of peaceful protest to launch attacks on Israel” and support for “those committed to peaceful reconciliation and a two-state solution.”

This is meaningless since even Netanyahu proclaims such a commitment, even though he told voters at the last general election that he would guarantee no Palestinian state on his watch.

Perhaps it would be more honest if those who claim to back a two-state solution while justifying ongoing zionist colonisation of the West Bank or supporting Israel’s right to defend its borders would make clear where they define Israel’s limits to be, as normal states do.

Without honesty and recognition that Palestinians’ national independence and security rights are equal to those of Israelis, the ugly reality of colonial expansionism, territorial dispossession and ethnic cleansing remains incontrovertible.

John Haylett is political editor of the Morning Star. He writes every other Thursday.