The British government has sanctioned two Israeli ministers for incitement to violence. By this despicable action against the State of Israel it is they who are inciting violence, both at home and abroad.
Why has UK Foreign Minister David Lammy not sanctioned their ministers and officials, at the very least? What about Mahmoud Abbas, time-expired PA president and infamous Holocaust denier, who has praised Hamas’s genocidal invasion on 7th October? Instead, accusing Israel and not the PA, Lammy is de facto approving of their violent actions and encouraging them to do more. There is no other way to read it.
The British Foreign Office cites the two ministers’ inflammatory rhetoric. That is undeniable, but how many other government ministers around the world has the UK sanctioned for such words, and you can be sure there is no shortage of targets for such ire if they wanted to find them. But unlike many of them, Israel is a democracy with a hugely powerful judicial system. It can itself deal with such allegations if they amount to a crime, without the former Mandatory power shoving its nose in where it has no business to be.
That’s the thinking in London too. It won’t work in either capital. Can’t these so-called leaders see that the Muslim-hard left alliance against Israel is far more than that alone? It is merely a tool to attack the British way of life and inflict their own ideological agendas on the country. When the situation in the Middle East calms down another weapon will be seized with as much vigor and no credit whatsoever given to the government for betraying Israel.
What these arms embargoes, sanctions and especially recognition will do though is to encourage jihadists everywhere. Recognizing a Palestinian state will effectively reward terrorist activity against Israel from Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Iran. Why wouldn’t they do more of the same if these violent tactics work so well? Therefore the British government’s hand-wringing and sanctimonious pontification over its desire for peace in the Middle East will in fact achieve precisely the opposite.
Colonel Richard KempPhoto: CourtesyThe imbecility of Britain’s Middle East policy is not only damaging in the region but also at home — and that goes for the other four supplicant countries as well. In these nations, Jews have been increasingly targeted, including with violent assault, since the start of this war.
By their unfounded anti-Israel actions and inflammatory rhetoric — unjustly accusing Israel of war crimes and pandering to the genocide accusers — these governments are doing exactly what they charge Ben-Gvir and Smotrich with: inciting violence. They are hurling fuel onto the flames of Jew hate when what they should be doing is to ensure the truth about Israel’s war is heard, if for no other reason than to protect their own Jews against intimidation and abuse.
Colonel Richard Kemp is a former UK Armed Forces commander
