UK Halts Some Arms Exports to Israel as Labour Chases Muslim Votes
Minouche Shafik’s new boss, David Lammy, dismays Netanyahu, Mirvis
[The Editors is called The Editors, plural, not The Editor, singular, for a reason. When I launched it, a shrewd friend advised, “it can’t just be you.” I’m delighted to start introducing some additional voices. Today’s comes from Michael Mosbacher, who is associate comment editor at London's Daily Telegraph. He is a past editor of Standpoint and The Critic, having co-founded both British magazines.—Ira Stoll.]
On Monday, as Israel was burying the six hostages murdered by Hamas, Britain’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, announced that the UK was suspending 30 of its 350 arms export licenses to Israel.
Lammy, the Labour Party politician who recently offered Minouche Shafik a lifeline out of the Columbia University presidency, claimed the arms-export move was based on legal advice.
In a display of supposed even-handedness, Lammy made some noises about condemning Hamas and Iran and stated that the UK was imposing new sanctions on “four Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets,” well short of the widely demanded proscription of the organization as a whole (something that successive British governments, including the previous Conservative administration, have all unfathomably refused to do).
The move has soured UK-Israel relations, with Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rebuking the “shameful” decision. Many are asking why Israel is once again being singled out for such treatment? The UK remains happy to supply many multiples of what has gone to Israel to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Sales to Israel have in fact been very modest and amount to a fraction of a percent of the country’s arsenal — £42 million (roughly $55 million) in 2022 and only £18.2 million (roughly $24 million) in 2023.
Whatever hindrance Lammy’s move puts in the way of Israel’s operations on the ground, the harm it does to relations and the message it sends out is much more consequential and damaging. The new British Government has also been keen to march in lockstep with the Biden administration on Israel and international affairs more widely. And now their policies are out of kilter, going well beyond Biden’s withholding a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs. Why has Labour allowed this to happen?
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