BRITISH calls for tougher sanctions on Russia over the tragic downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine highlight Western hypocrisy when no such action has been taken against Israel for its brutal war on Gaza.

Tel Aviv’s campaign of butchery in the Strip is not in doubt, but Russia’s culpability for the 298 people who lost their lives in the MH17 disaster is unclear.

If MH17 was shot down by anti-Kiev rebels, it was almost certainly by accident — the outrage over the catastrophe does them no favours. This makes it unlikely that Russia was involved, since trained soldiers would have been able to distinguish the civilian flight from Ukrainian warplanes which have been raining death on cities in the country’s east.

That the insurgents could make such an error is more plausible — and while few Western voices have attached any blame to the Ukrainian government, it bears a heavy responsibility for authorising the airliner’s passage through a known warzone, especially when it is bombing the region and is well aware that the rebels have been firing anti-aircraft missiles at its planes.

Even allegations that Russia has been arming the anti-Kiev revolt — sparked by the putsch which overthrew elected president Viktor Yanukovych back in February — remain mere allegations.

It is certainly possible, though it is a moot point whether Moscow would be at fault for assisting fighters resisting military assault — including by neonazi and white supremacist irregulars, not all of whom are even from Ukraine.

But Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s main “evidence” of this is that the rebels have got hold of some sophisticated military equipment. 

The size of the uprising in the east and participation in it by former members of the Ukrainian military, plus the established fact that rebels have seized weaponry from government troops, would also explain their possession of tanks and anti-aircraft missiles.

Yet despite a total lack of clarity about what is going on and why, British politicians — including, to his shame, Ed Miliband — prattle about the need to “stand up to Russia.”

The government has even stated that it will reopen the investigation into the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

If the initial investigation was botched then this could be a necessary step. And the widespread belief that the Russian state was behind Mr Litvinenko’s murder could well be true — Vladimir Putin’s regime can be brutal and claims by the dead man’s family that he was working for MI6 at the time of his death would provide a motive.

Nonetheless, the sudden announcement of an inquiry now reveals the measure as a political stunt rather than an attempt to see justice done or expose the truth.

Sanctions and name-calling are not going to bring back the 298 killed on MH17. Their families deserve a full and open investigation into what happened without politicians jumping the gun.

Hundreds of others have also been killed in the Ukrainian government’s bid to crush opposition in the east, and this unjust war will keep claiming victims.

Instead of railing at Moscow, the European Union and United States should be putting pressure on Kiev to end the fighting and enter into genuine negotiations with the rebels instead of denouncing them all as “terrorists.”

They should insist that Poroshenko ends his administration’s shameful employment of self-declared fascists, properly investigate massacres such as May 2’s slaughter of trade unionists in Odessa and cease the anti-democratic moves to ban the Communist Party.

Only then can we halt the dangerous escalation of this conflict.