The Labour Government has suspended some arms exports to Israel following a review that found a “clear risk” that U.K. arms may be used to violate international humanitarian law.
Around 30 of 350 licences will be suspended, a decision which has reportedly sparked alarm in Washington, while Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu branded it “shameful” as he vowed to win Israel’s war against Hamas “with or without British arms”.
It seems Israel is being singled out by the antisemitic Left again, under pressure from Muslim and pro-Gaza voters. In the Telegraph, Jake Wallis Simons summarises the hypocrisy of the U.K. suspending arms sales to the one democracy in the Middle East while maintaining business as usual with the rest.
Over the last three years, Britain sold £3.1 billion of weapons to Qatar, the world’s foremost sponsor of Sunni jihadism and the principal benefactor of Hamas. It sold £1.9 billion’s worth to Saudi Arabia, which has been engaged in a bloody war in Yemen that has not, shall we say, been fought entirely according to democratic norms.
Turkey, which has crushed the Kurds once again with less concern for human rights than one might hope, received £799 million in British arms. The United Arab Emirates, often viewed as a dictatorship in Whitehall, purchased a £416 million cache, while the Egyptian police state was able to buy a £318 million arsenal as it continued its flirtation with Islamism and enthusiasm for corruption.
By contrast, Israel, the Middle East’s sole democracy and the only power to respect the rights of women and minorities, which is locked in an existential struggle against the forces of jihadism that menace us all, bought £83 million of British arms, a sum that constitutes just 1% of its total weapons purchases.
Yet it is the Jewish state that attracted David Lammy’s criticism yesterday, as he announced that he was suspending 30 arms export licences to Jerusalem amid misinformation that it has been prosecuting the war in Gaza to excess. …
What is the Government thinking? Does the Foreign Secretary really want to invite scrutiny of every international recipient of British weapons?
Part of the problem is that although Israel is very good at war-fighting, it is nowhere near as effective when it comes to public relations. On that front, even as its leaders peer into the abyss of destruction, Hamas has been the out-and-out winner.
The facts, however, are undeniable. Even given the unique challenges of Gaza – the enemy strategy of human sacrifice, the underground terror city, the foe that doesn’t mind dying – the Jewish state is fighting a cleaner war than has ever been waged anywhere in the world.
You wouldn’t know it from your television. You wouldn’t know it from social media or the progressive ideologues that dominate so many of our institutions. But you would know it if you considered the facts properly and weighed British arms sales to Israel against those to that list of autocracies provided above (not including the United States).
Given Labour’s massive majority, which frees it to govern without concern for special interest groups, this suspension of 30 arms export licences will surely prove an ill-judged blip, to be rectified when wiser heads prevail.
Worth reading in full.
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I have neither Jewish nor Arab ancestors or relatives. So I’m an outsider. But if, as a Christian, I was forced to choose between living in Israel or in a Muslim county, I would choose Israel.
You soon will be living in a Muslim country, mate. Labour’s arse kissing of Islam will lead to it.
About time to.
The current Israeli government is the biggest threat for peace in the region and no self respecting country should be supplying arms to the genocidal maniacs.
God help us.
Hamas are Islam’s Nazis. Those that voted them in Nazis too.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/03/poll-71-of-palestinians-support-october-7-massacre-majority-wants-hamas-returned-to-power-in-gaza/
Israel is simply doing to Hamas and Gaza what the allies did to the Nazis and Germany.
Hamas want a Middle East Holocaust. They state publicly they want ALL Jews exterminated and Israel wiped off the map.
Sympathising with Nazis is NOT a good look.
BTW, in WWII, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem met with Hitler to plan a Middle East Holocaust. Hamas want the same. As, clearly, do you
If you want to use a WWII analogy then what the Palestinians are doing is what the French Resistance did to the occupying Germans after just a few years of foreign occupation.
Palestine has had to suffer 76 years of foreign occupation.
It’s the fact that Hamas murdered those six hostages *after* filming a ”promo” video of them, whereby the evil sickos filmed each of them speaking, assuring them they’d be freed soon, and then they released this film so that all of the loved ones back home had hope. After 11 long and horrendous months they survived only to be executed in cold blood by this evil filth that needs to be extinguished from humanity. What kind of sick and callous person do you have to be to do such a thing, whilst simultaneously making out that YOU are the victim in a conflict that YOU started? The barbarians are never going to let any hostages go alive, are they? You support terrorists you’re sick in the head, simple;
”Hamas shot Hersh, Carmel, Almog, Eden, Alexander and Ori in the back of the head.
They filmed the murders and aired it on Telegram the same day as the hostages’ funeral.
Over 80 yrs and nothing has changed. The Hamas Nazis and the German Nazis are one and the same.”
https://x.com/Sh_q_y/status/1830927113429332034
And just to prove my point, this sure as hell is one sick, racist biatch;
”British BLM activist posts shocking tweet after 6 hostages were executed in captivity.
Dr Shola Mos-Shotbamimu claimed people, media and governments offering condolences to the victims and condemning their killing was rooted in ‘White Supremacy.’”
https://x.com/OliLondonTV/status/1830529747698467152
Strong words from the Global Imams Council, condemning Hamas and their actions;
”Global Imams Council Statement on the Execution of Hostages by Hamas Terrorists.”
https://x.com/ImamsOrg/status/1830363906432438465
I am not convinced of the claims of good faith and good intentions among that faith.
Do you have any direct evidence supporting this claim or could it be another example of Israeli propaganda, like Hamas raping all and sundry, Hamas beheading infants, Hamas putting infants in ovens and the like – all proven to be complete fabrications?
I certainly hope it is propaganda and not frustration after such a long time of being completely ignored by the Israeli government, culminating in Netanyahu’s recent assassination of the Hamas chief negotiator at the end of July.
The few Israeli hostages that have been freed (and not killed by Israeli forces) did not claim to have been mistreated. On the contrary, one claimed her captors (later shot by the IDF) had told her she would not be harmed, for “We are muslims”.
Just how clean the IDF’s campaign has been, we won’t know for many years.
However it is undeniable the Israel is the only country in the whole benighted Middle East which operates broadly like a proper western democracy and pleasant tolerant place, and this whole war started because of a most appalling attack by hamas, who have pursued their campaign in a ghastly manner sacrificing their population to garner brownie points amongst western useful idiots.
So yes my sympathies are firmly with the Israelis and I hope they can get their remaining hostages hone soon, and complete the destruction of the loathsome hamas butchers.
Proper western democracies are not what they used to be. Israel’s “covid” measures were brutal.
This isn’t me taking sides.
Point taken, while I was writing I had the same idea, but the point stands. All other places in the middle East are real real shitholes.
I know very little about any country there, but yes if given an ultimatum I had no option of refusing or researching I would choose to live in Israel over all the others, though I am not sure I would fit in or enjoy it much.
Have you ever been to the Middle East ‘Jack the dog’ or are you just another anonymous arm chair warrior?
You should ask yourself ‘Jack the dog’ how the most heavily defended border on Earth was so easily crossed by the Palestinians in October last year and the IDF took some 6 hours to respond.
I am afraid there are very many independent platforms that prove the opposite is the case, that IDF’s campaign is not ‘clean’ and that Israel is not a ‘pleasant tolerant place’, especially if you happen to be of Arabian origin. https://www.ukcolumn.org/, https://www.youtube.com/@judgingfreedom and https://antiwar.com/ report regularly on events there and, for example, https://electronicintifada.net/ shows many images of the destruction Israel has wreaked on its own citizens. The IDF prisons are renowned for torturing and killing Palestinian prisoners and there was the recent case of prison guards being arrested for sodomizing a Palestinian, only to be released after a civilian uprising; the matter was discussed in the Knesset and an Israeli Rabbi announced that it is not immoral to rape Palestinians (male or female).
Britain needs Israel more than Israel needs Britain.
No nation had more opportunity to help fledgling Israel in 1948 than Britain, yet did more to oppose it.
As a result, Almighty God stripped us of our empire. The curse is still operating.
I’m always reminded of old Habakkuk who said ‘as you have done, so it will be done unto you’ in regard to the gentile nations treatment of Zion.
Wait and see.
Israel is “the Middle East’s sole democracy and the only power to respect the rights of women and minorities”. Oh, really? Certainly not if you are Palestinian, then you have no rights whatsoever, despite the fact that Palestine existed for thousands of years before the Zionists decided to create the State of Israel there.
Israel did not exist before 1948! That part of the country was occupied by Palestinian Arabs, living peacefully together with a small number of Jews before the Zionists targeted the country to be its future home. How a minority of Jews became a ruthless majority is described in detail here: https://www.un.org/unispal/history2/origins-and-evolution-of-the-palestine-problem/.
Israel “is locked in an existential struggle against the forces of jihadism that menace us all”. I disagree. Israel has from the outset practised apartheid both with its Arab inhabitants and with its neighbours. It has displaced millions of original Palestinian Arabs and has constantly warred against its neighbours, completely ignoring borders and UN resolutions. It currently bombards southern Lebanon, it lays claim to Syria’s Golan Heights, it recently launched a missile attack against the Iranian consulate in Damascus, as well as frequently assassinating those it considers undesirable, even most recently the chief negotiator for Hamas, who was attending the inauguration of the Iranian President as a guest of Iran. The latter point also underlines how completely disinterested Israel is in peace negotiations with Hamas.
Part of the problem is that although Israel is very good at war-fighting, it is nowhere near as effective when it comes to public relations. What does “very good at war-fighting” mean? Is it not more desirable to be better in diplomacy? And it is no secret that AIPAC has completely bought the US Congress. One can only surmise Israel would desire a similar political clout in UK.
The facts, however, are undeniable … the Jewish state is fighting a cleaner war than has ever been waged anywhere in the world. Again, just what is that supposed to mean? Israel is the only country in the world that can bomb refugee camps, and machine-gun women and children with impunity. It destroys civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, refuses humanitarian aid – food and medical supplies – to its Palestinian civilians, thus practising genocide, and clearly desires to remove all Palestinian Arabs from within its borders, whereby ‘remove’ includes extermination. Israel has also freely practised its Hannibal directive, resulting in massive numbers of own dead, including hostages. I would hardly describe its war as being ‘clean’.
Oh dear. You have a serious problem with your understanding of history. Israel existed well before Palestine. And Palestine was an invented, insulting name applied to what had been Israel, by the Roman conquerors. Read history before you start supporting Islamic murder. It’s coming for you in this country, matey. Better wake up or
You’re just going to be a good, enslaved, dhimmi.
Israel did not exist before 1948. And I neither support Islamic murder nor Christian murder. Nor do I support open borders: your government does, voted in by millions – not me!
Quoting the UN report above:
The origins of the Palestine problem as an international issue, however, lie in events occurring towards the end of the First World War. These events led to a League of Nations decision to place Palestine under the administration of Great Britain as the Mandatory Power under the Mandates System adopted by the League. In principle, the Mandate was meant to be in the nature of a transitory phase until Palestine attained the status of a fully independent nation, a status provisionally recognized in the League’s Covenant, but in fact the Mandate’s historical evolution did not result in the emergence of Palestine as an independent nation.
The decision on the Mandate did not take into account the wishes of the people of Palestine, despite the Covenant’s requirements that “the wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory”. This assumed special significance because, almost five years before receiving the mandate from the League of Nations, the British Government had given commitments to the Zionist Organization regarding the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, for which Zionist leaders had pressed a claim of “historical connection” since their ancestors had lived in Palestine two thousand years earlier before dispersing in the “Diaspora”.
Claiming land on the basis that one’s ancestors lived there 2,000 years ago is, well, in my opinion, difficult to justify.
How is it possible to label criticism of the Israeli State ‘antisemitic’ Mr Jones? Are you not aware of the many Jewish people who are highly critical of the Israeli State? Can you not see that the label ‘antisemitic’ is a catch all facile lie like ‘anti-vaxxer’ or ‘conspiracy theorist’ propagandised by the State to discredit all criticism?
Do any of you lot listen to Vanessa Beeley on U.K. Column News? I suggest you do before taking sides. Just a thought.
They refuse to be educated.
I helped fund Vanessa many years ago when she was reporting from Syria.