LFI director Michael Rubin has written the below article for The Times. Click here to read the original.
Since the 7 October Hamas atrocities, Labour has steadfastly repeated its belief in Israel’s right to defend itself.
It has been right to do so, but the government’s decision this week to suspend some arms sales to the Jewish state will do little to further that aim.
Nor will it help bring the tragic conflict in Gaza to a close, advance a wider regional peace and a two-state solution, or aid the Israeli opposition in its political struggle to end the Netanyahu era.
Israel is the UK’s closest ally in the Middle East and the only one to share our liberal democratic values.
Over the past 11 months, Iran’s decades-long campaign against Israel has reached a new level of intensity.
To the north, Hezbollah has been attacking Israel daily. To the south, the Houthis have launched over 200 projectiles at Israel and menaced international shipping. And from the east, Iran launched an unprecedented direct attack in April, firing over 300 rockets, drones and missiles at the Jewish state.
But Israel’s ability to resist the threat posed by the Iranian regime is also a vital UK national interest.
Israel is the third largest supplier of arms to Britain, including weaponry that has been used to defend the lives of our troops serving overseas. Israel helps keep our streets safe from terror at home. And Israeli tech and expertise is helping protect us from cyberattacks.
Israel bears the heaviest cost of Tehran’s aggressive ambitions beyond its own borders, but those ambitions threaten us too.
Iran is the leading sponsor of state terrorism globally and is now a nuclear threshold state. It has the region’s biggest stockpile of ballistic missiles. And Iran is Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in Ukraine: having supplied Russia with deadly suicide drones, it is now believed to be on the brink of delivering ballistic missiles.
The decision to restrict arms sales will have been heard in Tehran. With its suggestion of a further weakening of western support for Israel, it risks emboldening the regime, leading not to the de-escalation we all seek, but to further escalation and bloodshed.
But it has also been heard in Tel Aviv. There is enormous hurt among Israelis that Britain would treat an ally in this fashion at the very moment the country is mourning and burying the six hostages Hamas brutally murdered at the weekend.
For the past 11 months, the hostages, their families and all those who lost loved ones in the 7 October attacks have endured unimaginable suffering. In Gaza, too, innocent Palestinians have paid too high a price as a result of the conflict and Hamas’ callous disregard for human life.
Ministers are genuine in their desire to see this awful conflict end. The Prime Minister is also right in his belief that a lasting peace and a two-state solution will only come about when Israel is “safe and secure”. Only western solidarity with Israel, and a recognition of the shared threats and challenges we face, will help achieve that goal.
