Beware Suella Braverman and all the other vultures bent on exploiting Jewish and Muslim pain | Jonathan Freedland

The home secretary is not alone in using the Israel-Hamas war to push her own agenda - squeezing that conflict into a shape it doesn't fit

There is a special place in hell reserved for people who exploit the pain of others - and it's becoming very crowded. It's filling up with those who look at the war between Israel and Hamas, and the grief and fear it prompts in the hearts of Jews and Muslims especially, and see not tragedy but opportunity - a chance to advance their own interests.

Early to rush in was Suella Braverman, who is determined to be the hard right's candidate to succeed Rishi Sunak. Her chosen playbook is the one authored by Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, the tactic simple: pick a culture war issue that drives people apart, and crown yourself as head of one of the two warring camps. That's why she said multiculturalism had failed, that Britain faced a hurricane" of migration and that homelessness was a lifestyle choice - each one of those provocations designed to make her the standard-bearer of nationalist populism in the UK.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

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