We must stop arming Israel
The past two weeks have been a telling indictment of the international community. We have an outgoing US president sanctioning Israel's military response and an aching silence from the president-elect. We have a European Union encumbered by clumsy decision-making and confused messages.
And at home we have a prime minister talking like an accountant about aid earmarked for Gaza without once saying anything meaningful about the conflict's origins. Gordon Brown, like Tony Blair, has made British foreign policy effectively subservient to Washington. But waiting for a change of heart in Washington is intolerable given the human cost.
Of course, Israel has every right to defend itself. It is difficult to imagine what it must be like to live with the constant threat of rocket attacks from a movement which espouses terrorist violence and denies Israel's right to exist. But Israel's approach is self-defeating: the overwhelming use of force, the unacceptable loss of civilian lives, is radicalising moderate opinion among Palestinians and throughout the Arab world. Anger in the West Bank will make it virtually impossible for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, to continue to talk to Israeli ministers.
Brown must stop sitting on his hands. He must condemn unambiguously Israel's tactics, just as he has rightly condemned Hamas's rocket attacks. Then he must lead the EU into using its economic and diplomatic leverage in the region to broker peace. The EU is by far Israel's biggest export market, and by far the biggest donor to the Palestinians. It must immediately suspend the proposed new cooperation agreement with Israel until things change in Gaza, and apply tough conditions on any long-term assistance to the Palestinian community.
Brown must also halt Britain's arms exports to Israel, and persuade our EU counterparts to do the same. The government's own figures show Britain is selling more and more weapons to Israel, despite the questions about the country's use of force. In 2007, our government approved £6m of arms exports. In 2008, it licensed sales 12 times as fast: £20m in the first three months alone.
There is a strong case that, given the Gaza conflict, any military exports contravene EU licensing criteria. Reports, though denied, that Israel is using illegal cluster munitions and white phosphorus should heighten our caution. I want an immediate suspension of all arms exports from the EU, but if that cannot be secured, Brown must act unilaterally.
Finally, the world's leaders must accept that their response to the election of Hamas has been a strategic failure. The removal of the EU presence on the Egypt border in response to Hamas's election, for example, has made it easier for the rockets being fired at Israel to get into Gaza in the first place. An EU mission with a serious mandate and backing from Egypt and Israel would help Israel deal proportionately and effectively with the threat from weapons smuggling.
Attempts to divide and rule the Palestinians by isolating and punishing Gaza will not succeed. To secure peace in the Middle East, Hamas must turn its back on terrorism, and help create Palestinian unity. Only unified leadership in the West Bank and Gaza can offer Israel the security guarantees that it rightly seeks.
My proposals to stay Israel's hand in this conflict may be unwelcome to some, but they have the country's long term interest at heart. No terrorist organisation has ever been defeated by bombs alone. Only a new approach will secure lasting peace for Israel itself.
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Begin with the argument that Israel's actions are radicalising Muslims and thereby creating further problems. You must understand that when you have 80 rockets a day landing on your cities it's a bit late to say, "We'd better not upset the Muslim world or we'll really be in trouble." The terrorist attacks are already the reality in Israeli cities and, for many years, peaceful solutions to the situation have shown to have failed.
There is much talk about civillian casualties that have occurred as the inevitable result of the conflict. I don't like to see civillian casualties either, but I would like to remind you that the Palestinians of Gaza had the opportunity to vote in a responsible government that would seek diplomatic solutions to issues and apply for foreign aid to develop their area into a place where living standards could be improved and a hope for the children pursued.
Instead, they chose to vote into power a terrorist organisation that does not believe in Israel's right to exist, and allowed that military force to embed itself within their society. I have seen plenty of demonstrations against Israel by the Muslim world but I have never seen evidence of Palestinian civillians resisting Hamas' efforts to stockpile missiles, use the local population as human shields and fire thousands of rockets into Israel. Rather, the Palestinians as a whole have shown for more than 50 years, that they do not wish to be a people existing peacefully alongside their neighbours. That mode of living inevitably brings dire results and unfortunately the Palestians are having to face up to the consequences of their attitudes and actions.
Like it or not, history has shown that armed conflict on the part of Israel has been the best solution to violence done against them. The 1948, 1967 and 1973 wars are all instances of how diplomatic relations and truces were successful ONLY after Israel demonstrated that attacks on her people and sovereignty would result in much suffering for her enemies.
More recently, the conflict with Hezbollah provoked Israel to enter Lebanon to destroy much of Hezbollah's infrastructure. Although the campaign has been widely declared a failure by Israel to stop the attacks, you'll notice that Hezbollah has been much more reluctant to enter the fight this time around. So the claim that armed conflict is never an answer to terrorism is a questionable one.
I personally believe that peace between Gaza and Israel can only be attained after the whole population of Gaza come to see that the support of terrorist parties and continual hostility towards Israel brings such severe repercussions upon their own community as to be untenable. There is little chance of convincing them through talks and reasoning alone.
Any idea of refusing to arm Israel is wrong. You will be undermining a nation's struggle for existence and will ultimately risk all out war in the Middle East as the Israel's surrounding enemies, seeing her weakness, contemplate further attacks or invasions. It is only by allowing Israel the strength to ensure her right to exist, that you maintain some kind of status quo.
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