“If I become Prime Minister, Israel has a friend who will never turn his back on her” pledged David Cameron when speaking to Conservative Friends of Israel last year.
He used the same speech to argue against those who claim there is an equivalence between Israel and Hamas. “Israel is a democracy – Hamas want to create a theocracy. Israel strives to protect innocent life – Hamas target innocent life,” he said.
But for David Cameron talk is clearly cheap.
Look at the tone of yesterday’s Turkish speech: “The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable … I have told PM Netanyahu, we will expect the Israeli inquiry to be swift, transparent and rigorous. Let me also be clear that the situation in Gaza has to change.”
He said Gaza is a “prison camp” and implied that the democratic Israelis are jailors, yet failed to say a word about Hamas.
It’s easy to be someone’s friend when you agree with them. Or when they are getting everything right. It’s more difficult when the consensus claims they’re getting things wrong. Then, the easy thing to do is join the criticism.
Whatever even their harshest critics say about the last two Prime Ministers, it is just not possible to imagine them behaving like this on this, the most delicate of subjects.
When it comes to diplomacy, every word has to be measured, every sentence calibrated.
And when it comes to the Middle East, language is even more important and caution is crucial.
He might have impressed some people in Ankara today, but he will have reduced Britain’s influence on the peace process where it really matters – in Jerusalem.
And whatever short-term plaudits he does win, Britain’s international credibility and influence will not be strengthened by a Prime Minister who so clearly says different things to different people.
As a result, he’ll have set back the chances of Britain contributing to the peaceful solution we all want to see.
Ian Austin is Labour MP for Dudley North
Tags: David Cameron, Gaza, Hamas, ian austin, Middle East
He might have impressed some people in Ankara today, but he will have reduced Britain’s influence on the peace process where it really matters – in Jerusalem.
The peace process isn’t just dependent on what Israel does or says. There’s also the small matter of giving Palestinians the confidence that western powers aren’t trying to screw them – like the last 4 or so years.
As a result, he’ll have set back the chances of Britain contributing to the peaceful solution we all want to see.
If he wants peace, Cameron will have to go furthr and ask Israel to stop building settlements. This was a mild rebuke in the form of saying what is obvious to everyone in the world.
There’s also the slight matter that the Labour Party takes exactly the same line on the Gaza flotilla attack. David Miliband – no swivel-eyed lefty he – condemned it as completely unacceptable.
You cannot defend killing unarmed civilians in international waters, that’s your prerogative. It was wrong when the PLF murdered Leon Klinghoffer, and it was wrong when the Israeli navy decided to indulge in a little piracy.
Israel needs critical friends. Israel is doing things wrong – it’s doubling down on a policy that can’t bear fruit long-term and failing to reach a meaningful solution before demographics overwhelm it. Why the hell would you stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them when a) they’re acting against their own interests and b) their actions completely contravene international law?
Pretending that Israel is entirely without fault is not being its friend. It’s closing your eyes to reality.
Cameron was being opportunistic and simplistic. Anybody who supports peace between Israel and Palestine cannot fail but be dismayed that we once again have a Western leader stumbling into the region’s diplomacy with rhetoric based on exaggerations, fallacies and selective memory.
Again and again, such action (which is analagous to the West’s historical misadventures in the region) serves only to bolster the intransigent elements on both sides of the green line.
It was, at best, amateurish. At worst, hypocritical. You want to promote humanitarianism and self-determination in the Middle East and you choose to do so while, in the very same breath, fawning over Turkey? Really?
[…] But nevertheless, even such a small move is important, and unless it is loudly supported by those who want peace in the Middle East, Cameron will only hear pro-Israel frothing from the Tories and Labour. […]
People like Ian Austin are the problem, any words which seem to move towards a more balanced view of the conflict are attacked, Israel is a ignoring international law and many UN resolutions, its policies are akin to apartheid in the way the Palestinians are treated etc etc and we have reprobates like Ian Austin wanting the language moderated, he and many like him are the reason labour lost the last election and if he continues his quite sickly fawning over the Israelis then hopefully they will lose again.