HMMM: TORY'S COALITION PARTNER IS AN ANTI-ZIONIST WHO WANTS TO RECOGNIZE HAMAS AND END ARMS SALES TO ISRAEL

We must stop arming Israel

Nick Clegg

The Guardian, Wednesday 7 January 2009

Brown has to stop sitting on his hands, halt British weapons exports and insist the EU do the same

... 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.

• Nick Clegg is the Liberal Democrat leader cleggn@parliament.uk

BRITAIN HAS NEVER BEEN A GREAT ALLY OF ISRAEL. ANTISEMITISM HAS COME EASILY TO BRIT'S FOR NEARLY 1000 YEARS.

BUT IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE SUCH AN ANTI-ISRAEL POLITICIAN HAS HAD SO MUCH POWER.

IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO SEE HOW CAMERON - AND ISRAEL - HANDLES THIS.

CAMERON IS NO GREAT FRIEND TO ISRAEL EITHER:

The Liberal Democrats who hope to play the spoilers on May 6 is home to an even greater proportion of Israel-haters than is the Labour hard-Left. As for the Conservatives, JID gives them some credit: “The tone of party pronouncements on Israel are notably sympathetic. William Hague, a former party leader and now Shadow Foreign Secretary, criticized Labor for not voting against the Goldstone Report.”

However, Melanie Phillips points out in her Spectator blog that Tory leader David Cameron, whom she prefers to call “David Obameron,” is promising to line up as a loyal soldier in the Obama administration’s diplomatic war on Israel. As evidence she cites the following in an interview with Cameron in the Financial Times published on March 31 (subscription required):

FT: Yes. You managed to tell Mr. Netanyahu that he might want to revise his position on settlements.

DC: I have. Unlike a lot of politicians from Britain who visit Israel, when I went, I did stand in occupied East Jerusalem and actually referred to it as occupied East Jerusalem. The Foreign Office bod who was with me said, most ministers don’t dare say. So, yes, I thought I had quite an argument when I was in Israel with Tzipi Livni about settlements and I think Obama is right to take a robust line. I think we have to but it is depressing how little progress is being made right now.

So Cameron — whose skimmed-milk New Age version of conservatism may wind up pulling defeat from the jaws of victory in the coming ballot — not only brags about his disdain for a united Jerusalem and his disagreement with the leader of the opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on the fate of Jerusalem but expresses support for Obama’s diplomatic offensive against the Jewish state.

STAY TUNED...

UPDATE: LIAM FOX IS MINISTER OF DEFENSE - HE'S A DR. AND A HAWK AND AN ATLANTICIST AND A ZIONIST. WM HAGUE IS FOREIGN SECRETARY - ALSO A FRIEND OF ISRAEL