it had restored funding to Unrwa, the UN agency, despite allegations that it employed some of the terrorists behind the October 7 2023 massacre….
As the only UN agency devoted solely to one particular group, it also provides official licence to the idea that Palestinians are permanent refugees whose troubles can only be ended by the destruction of Israel – never mind that its funded schools taught Jew-hatred and the glories of jihad, allowing Hamas to ignore all the tedious business of running a country so they could concentrate on building tunnels and stockpiling arms.
The UK Government now seems so hostile to Israel, perhaps Israel will take the hint. It is not as if Israel does not have cards to play. The UK and Israel have had decades of cooperation in counter-terrorism and work closely in cyber-security and defence technology. Our joint military exercises have helped keep British troops safe, especially through drone technology, missile defence and radar systems based on Israel’s world-leading expertise.
Israel has also shared critical counter-terror intelligence with the UK on threats to Britain posed by Iran, ISIS and others. Our intelligence services regard that cooperation as vital to security. If Israel is regarded as a bad actor to be punished, why should it work to help the Government seeking to punish it?
At a time of grave threats across the globe, when the reliability of the US in these areas may be compromised, we should be deepening and strengthening our links with countries with which we have always worked so well. Instead, we have a Government which regards political posturing, perhaps driven by fear of a Muslim vote backlash, as more important. For shame.