Nick Clegg: Halt arms exports to Israel
Brown must stop sitting on his hands and take action. First, he must condemn unambiguously Israel’s tactics, which are bringing untold suffering to hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza, just as he has rightly condemned Hamas’ rocket attacks. Then he must lead the European Union 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 of aid to the Palestinians. It is an economic superpower in the region, but for too long has acted like a political pygmy. The EU must immediately suspend the proposed new cooperation agreement with Israel until things change in Gaza.
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 that Britain is selling more and more weapons to Israel, despite the many questions about the country’s use of force. In 2007, our government approved £6m of arms exports. In 2008, it licensed sales twelve times as fast: £20m of exports in the first three months alone.
1. Salvatore Mundi couldn’t lead a dog to it’s bowl at feeding time.
2. What ideas do you have to stop Iran, Hamas’ puppet master, from supplying training, munitions and money to Hamas?
Have you contacted the President of Iran to get him to retract the islamic fundamentalist “Clause 4″ – the destruction of the nation and people of Israel?
As you well know, this would mean the end of Israel. If you do not accept the right of Israel as a stat to exist then that is fine. Otherwise it is illogical: Israel is surrounded on all sides by those who wish its destruction. Halting arms sales would inevitably mean that that would happen.
Not really, because the US would continue to supply it anyway. Besides, I would definitely couple that with halting arms sales to Saudi, Iran (which we don’t anyway) and other Middle Eastern countries.
And this is why the Liberal Democrats will never be in power in this country. Head in the clouds.
Sunny – in the current economic climate, the possibility of halting the exporting of anything to anyone, anywhere, is highly unlikely.
possibly… possibly.
“It is an economic superpower in the region, but for too long has acted like a political pygmy. ”
Interesting. So you’re in favor of economic imperialism?
He should have gone further and pushed for banning UK citizens from serving in the IDF. Naturally it would apply to serving in any foreign army.
‘Are you chairwoman of the BNP? Sure as hell seems like it’
Of course she is not. Make your point without being silly.
SE – excuse me, that’s somewhat uncalled for, I made a realistic comment on what the Government is likely to do. Since Margaret Thatcher all but destroyed the British manufacturing base, and turned the UK into a service industry dependent on the finance and banking sector (great choice BTW), arms are among our largest exports.
It’s easy for Nick Clegg to make his speech when he doesn’t have to make a decision that will affect the livelihoods of people here, but I can’t imagine a Government acceding.
Where does that make me a BNP supporter?
heh highly unlikely. apparently the arms sales are practically what’s left of britain’s ‘exports’ given the financial sector’s gone bust so i don’t think calls for this are about to happen, unless we want to restructure the economy along some other lines.
Sonia – does that make you also chairwoman of the BNP?
‘Sonia – does that make you also chairwoman of the BNP?’
I think you mean Sonia of the BNP.
I’m also the chairwoman of the BNP as I too believe the arms export revenue will be retained
this is getting a bit like that film scene in Spartacus where all the revolting slaves admit to being spartacus
Persephone – can we assume that SE is a bloke?
Applying this argument to the Iraq war, shouldn’t Britain stop selling weapons to itself?
… and what I really want to know is, who is the charwoman of the BNP? I have some itching powder for them.
The remarkable thing is, as far as I know, we don’t sell arms to Hamas.
As Freedland says in the Guardian, of Hamas:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/07/gaza-palestine-israel
It lacks the resources of Hezbollah, with its open border and supply lines to Syria. Hamas is in tiny, sealed-off Gaza. True, it is backed by Iran – which partly explains the strength of support for Cast Lead from an Israeli public long fearful of an Iranian proxy on its southern border – but relying on smuggled kit is not the same as having a powerful patron across the border.
Sounds like a captive market to me…
Of course, that’s what this conflict is about: the Hamas leadership are betting they can aggravate israel enough they commit some atrocity that will cause the arms embargo on them to be unenforceable. Some Israeli leaders seem to think they can use the valid excuse of the arms embargo as a cover for atrocities.
This Lib Dem policy is just another tiny battle in that war, another small defeat for a peaceful solution, another small way of stoking the insecurity of the Israeli side and the hope of long term military victory on the Hamas one.
I can’t remember the name of the democrat that was interviewed on Al Jazeera, but he’s written to condoleeza to ask for there to be an investigation into how american sold arms are being used….pretty much a lone voice i’d say..
I don’t think there will be any halt to Israel…i mean we’re talking about a lucrative arms trade that brings in a hell of a lot of money and jobs (recession or no recession)…we don’t care when we’re supplying saudi, or when we were supplying iraq…so israel isn’t going to be any different.
Chairwoman @ 15
Like SE I will make an equally unvalidated assertion based upon SE’s comments:
I think SE is a seagull. SE has hovered over this site, pooped over it & vanishes leaving others (i.e. site admin) to clean up afterwards