The BBC carried the news: Baroness Warsi quits as Foreign Office minister over Gaza

Foreign Office minister Baroness Warsi has resigned from the government, saying its policy on the crisis in Gaza is “morally indefensible”.

She wrote on her Twitter feed that she was leaving with “deep regret”.

Lady Warsi, who was previously chairman of the Conservative Party, became the first female Muslim cabinet minister when David Cameron took office in 2010.

The Muslim business community in Britain, predominately families who immigrated from Pakistan, is a major component of the Conservative Party.

The Baroness felt that simply saying that the situation in Gaza was terrible, while doing nothing about it and implying that Hamas was somehow responsible, was not a policy she could support.

Cameron’s statement in response to the resignation that included a line about the Baroness discussing this with him before going public with her resignation, must be particularly galling to Warsi who has been pushing for Britain to use its influence with Israel to stop the attacks on Gaza from the beginning.

While the IDF has withdrawn ground forces, the negotiations about something more permanent are taking place in Egypt. The Egyptians are moderating between Israel and Iran, because the Egyptians don’t talk to Hamas either, and Israel doesn’t talk to Iran or Hamas.

Position: 40.2N 62.7W [10AM CDT 1500 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [055°] near 31 mph [50 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 85 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65 mph [105 kph].
Gale Force Wind Radius: 140 miles [220 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1006 mb.

Currently about 305 miles [ 495 km] South of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Bertha has transitioned to an Extra-tropical storm and no further advisories will be issued by the NHC.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

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