Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said. ‘One can’t believe impossible things.’

‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’

If Lewis Carroll’s Alice were alive today, she could get lots of practice. The subtle difference, however, is that many of today’s impossible things are real. Here, for example, are four, all originating in Gaza and Britain. I drew them from the headlines of the last few days; I am sure they are real, but I’m still struggling to believe them, because they are still, in a sane world, impossible.

By the way, if you, like me, are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between Gaza and Britain these days, here’s a handy tip. Gaza is the place where they are apparently trying to replace the government of Islamist extremists, whereas Britain is the place where they are apparently trying to replace the government with Islamist extremists,

Impossible Thing Number One: The Make-up of the Executive Board

The White House announced two days ago the make-up of the bodies that will be responsible for overseeing the transition period in Gaza and Phase 2 of the Peace agreement. One of the major bodies is the Executive Board supporting governance and services. If its brief includes overseeing the disarming and demilitarisation of Hamas, then it will certainly be able to draw on the expertise of some of its members.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan;

Turkey hosts senior Hamas figures, some of whom have received Turkish citizenship, and provides political, diplomatic and propaganda support, as well as economic and humanitarian assistance. Hamas has established one of its most important overseas centres in Turkey, primarily operated by prisoners released in the Gilad Shalit exchange deal of 2011. It uses Turkey to plan terrorist attacks and transfer funds to finance terrorist activities inside Israel, in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, and to raise and launder money in support of its terrorist operations, including the October 7, 2023, attack and massacre.

Veteran Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi,

Qatar has, over two decades, been Hamas’s primary external enabler, providing political sanctuary, legitimacy, funding channels, and diplomatic cover, hosting its leadership and enabling strategic planning. Qatar-hosted and Qatar-supported clerical networks linked to the Muslim Brotherhood framed jihad against Israel as a religious obligation, endorsed mass violence against Jewish civilians, and later issued charters justifying October 7 and calling for global mobilization. Qatari-funded charities, cash assistance, and support for UNRWA in Gaza simultaneously providing humanitarian aid while reinforcing Hamas’s governance, military infrastructure, and control over civilian institutions. Intelligence claims Hamas leadership based in Qatar directed or facilitated terrorist infrastructure beyond Gaza, including in Europe, underscoring Qatar’s role in enabling Hamas’s regional and international reach rather than acting as a neutral mediator.

Dutch politician Sigrid Kaag.

For six years until 2004, Kaag was Senior Programme Manager with the External Relations Office of UNRWA in Jerusalem. (Israel recently outlawed UNRWA for its complicity in terrorism.) In June 2025, Kaag resigned from her position as U.N. envoy to Gaza and Israeli-Palestinian peace process point person, complaining that Israelis have too little empathy for Gazans after Oct. 7, 2023. She had earlier defended the U.N.’s refusal to offer aid to Palestinians through the Gaza Humanitarian Fund—an aid operation sanctioned by Israel and the United States to help the civilian population in a manner that removed Hamas from the process.

With these individuals among its members, how can the Executive Board possibly fail to disarm and demilitarise Hamas in Gaza?

Impossible Thing Number Two: The Retirement of Craig Guildford

I’m not sure to what extent the scandal surrounding Britain’s third-largest police force has filtered down to non-Brits, so let me attempt a brief summary.

In early November, 2024, Maccabi Tel Aviv football (soccer) club played Dutch team Ajax in a major European competition match in Amsterdam. There were considerable clashes between rival fans before and after the match, which Dutch police investigation revealed to be largely a result of a coordinated and carefully planned assault on Maccabi fans.

Exactly a year later, Maccabi Tel Aviv were scheduled to play another major European competition match. this time against Aston Villa, a leading English soccer club based in Birmingham, a city over 30% of whose population is Muslim. There were, understandably, concerns about the possibility of crowd violence and the police force responsible eventually advised Birmingham Safety Advisory Group that Maccabi fans were too dangerous to be allowed to attend the game.

Subsequent investigation has revealed that, in documenting and defending this decision, the police force relied on ‘evidence’ ostensibly extracted from the internet by AI Copilot, including a report of Maccabi fan violence at a match that never even took place. They further cited Amsterdam police accounts of Maccabi fan violence: Amsterdam police have disputed this claim, stating that they reported that the cause of the trouble in Holland was much more mixed, with Israeli fans and pro-Palestinians provoking each other. The West Midlands police also claimed their decision was taken after consultation with Jewish bodies in Birmingham, who deny that any such consultation took place. The police also uncovered evidence of apparent plans by Muslim militants to attack Maccabi fans, and failed to further investigate that evidence, or present it to the Safety Advisory Group.

There’s more, but the above is probably enough to make the point.

Amid calls for the sacking of Craig Guildford, West Midlands Chief Constable (the head of the force), the Police Commissioner, who is the only official legally empowered to fire him, insisted that he would wait for the publication of a further report. Meanwhile, Guildford chose to hastily retire, thereby safeguarding his substantial pension and quite possibly forestalling any further investigation.

Impossible Thing Number Three: NHS Guidance to Midwives about Cousin Marriage

In certain Muslim communities in Britain, as elsewhere, marriage between first cousins is very common. The statistical likelihood of the child of such a couple having a congenital disease or birth defect is 10-15%, compared to the British national average rate of 2%.

Despite these stark figures, official midwifery guidance, used for teaching midwives in Britain’s National Health Service, branded concerns about the risks of congenital diseases, or birth defects, “exaggerated” and “unwarranted” The guidance did admit there were some “risks to child health associated with close relative marriage” but claimed they should be “balanced against the potential benefits”, advising that marrying a relative can offer “economic benefits” as well as “emotional and social connections” and “social capital”,

It added that staff should not stigmatise predominantly south Asian or Muslim patients who have a baby with their cousin, because the practice is “perfectly normal” in some cultures.

Britain’s shadow health secretary has pointed out that Britain’s midwives “should be focused on protecting women and babies, not normalising practices that carry well-documented risks. Cousin marriage is not safe and healthcare professionals should never be encouraged to downplay or normalise it.”

Impossible Thing Number Four: Holocaust Memorial Day in Britain’s Schools

The number of schools commemorating the Holocaust has more than halved since the October 7 attacks on Israel. As a direct consequence of the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, the number of secondary schools around the UK that signed up to events commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day fell from 2000 in 2023 to fewer than 1,200 in 2024 and 854 in 2025 — a reduction of nearly 60 per cent.

Commenting on the figures, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, said he feared for the country’s education system as teachers were following “the path of least resistance” by choosing to not mark Holocaust Memorial Day in the face of opposition from parents and pupils.

Bernice read this far and pointed out that I needed to provide a conclusion. I’m confident that my readership will be able to provide their own.