Prime minister is asking to be targeted by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement

 

The other day I signed a “Get Well” petition for Palestinian youngsters Adam and Johar who were viciously maimed and crippled by the British government’s “friends” in Israel.

The two cousins, 17 and 20 years old, were returning home from football training when they were attacked by Israeli soldiers who shot them in the legs then set their dogs on them. They were taken to an Israeli military camp and again badly beaten, and Johar’s knees were broken. Both are unlikely to play football again.

I was so incensed that I wrote to my Member of Parliament [Henry Bellingham] with the details saying: “Utter contempt for the thugs who did this, the unspeakable regime that allows it and the fawning idiots like Cameron and Hague who pledge undying support for it in our name. Would you care to sign the petition, Henry?”

Henry the MP replied: “I will certainly raise this with our ministers to find out what we have done and what representations we have made. However, I do take issue with your totally unfair and over the top attack on the prime minister and foreign secretary.”

Unfair? Over the top? Henry can’t have been paying attention to the disturbing things his government leaders are saying.

Fawning over Israel

“An enemy of Israel is an enemy of mine. A threat to Israel is a threat to us all”

Interviewed in 2005, David Cameron was asked why Conservatives should be friends of Israel. He replied:

Because Conservatives believe in supporting democracy, defending freedom and standing up against terrorism. Israel is in the front line in the international struggle against terrorist violence and we should show solidarity with all involved in that fight. Conservatives also recognize Israel’s unique position as a lone democracy in a region that currently boasts no others.

Showing solidarity with the Palestinians in their fight against Israeli terror doesn’t seem to be on Cameron’s agenda. Israel, of course, was founded on terror and is no democracy. It’s an ethnocracy, and a deeply ugly one. The Palestinians, however, did have a democracy but Britain, Israel and the US stamped on it.

According to the Jewish Chronicle, Cameron recently told Jewish leaders:

I am with you and with the Israeli people, genuinely. As far as I’m concerned, an enemy of Israel is an enemy of mine. A threat to Israel is a threat to us all… I can promise you this: Britain will stand with Israel, Britain will support Israel, Britain will keep the pressure up on Iran. We do not want you to have a nuclear-armed near-neighbour, a nuclear threat facing your country… We share that feeling and show you our solidarity.

What stupidity. Israel is hostile towards Syria and anyone else who resists Zionist ambitions to dominate the Middle East. Those countries are not Britain’s enemies by any stretch of a sane imagination, but they are Cameron’s enemies, apparently, and he’d like to take us to war against them for the benefit of his Zionist friends. He recently wanted clearance to bomb Syria but mercifully was stopped by parliament. He and Hague nevertheless inflicted vicious sanctions on the Iranians, intending to impoverish them and ruin their economy, for no particular reason except that Israel and America wanted it. Where is Cameron’s mandate for such objectionable policies? Did he consult the British people before making his pledge of servitude to the criminals in Tel Aviv?

Iran has no nuclear weapons and poses no threat to the UK. What’s more, our Iranian friends (if we’re allowed to have friends in Iran under Cameron’s rule) face the threat of a nuclear-armed, unhinged Israeli regime on their doorstep. UN Security Council Resolution 487, in 1981, called on Israel “urgently to place its nuclear facilities under IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] safeguards”. Israel has ignored it for 33 years. Hasn’t it occurred to Cameron that Israel’s huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction – nuclear, chemical and biological – and its refusal to end the illegal occupation of Palestine are what’s really destabilizing the region?

Furthermore, as the BBC reported back in 2009, the IAEA called on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), open its nuclear facilities to inspection and place them under comprehensive IAEA safeguards. “Israel refuses to join the NPT or allow inspections. It is reckoned to have up to 400 warheads but refuses to confirm or deny this.”

Israel is the only state in the region that is not a party to the NPT (Iran is). It has signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. As regards biological and chemical weapons, Israel has not signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. It has signed but not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention.

“International law is universal and all nations are accountable to it.” Oh really?

William Hague is no better. In 2007, while shadow foreign secretary, he said: “We will always have strong economic and political ties with Israel. We will always be a friend of Israel.” In 2008 he declared:

The unbroken thread of Conservative Party support for Israel that has run for nearly a century from the Balfour Declaration to the present day will continue. Although it will no doubt often be tested in the years ahead, it will remain constant, unbroken and undiminished by the passage of time.

The century-long thread of support he talks about has been with Zionist extremists and militants. Israel didn’t exist before 1948 and many challenge its legitimacy today.

Not long ago Hague preached to the world, in a speech at The Hague of all places, about the need for international justice and his determination to hold criminal leaders to account.

There is no doubt where Britain stands: we are with those who say that international law is universal and that all nations are accountable to it… We are a country that believes in and upholds the Responsibility to Protect… We pledge to recommit to the importance of fighting impunity for grave international crimes wherever they occur…

None of these fine words apply to Israel, of course, whose 66 years’ impunity for countless war crimes, breaches of international law and open defiance of UN principles and resolutions is allowed to continue.

When Hague, who was recruited into the Conservative Friends of Israel at the worryingly tender age of 15, came to his present job his Zionist sympathies oozed from every pore. He played a key part in turning Britain into a safe haven for Israel’s war criminals, especially Tzipi Livni, the regime’s former foreign minister. You’ll remember how she masterminded the terror operation that brought unspeakable death and destruction to Gaza’s civilians five years ago. She has shown no remorse for the blood of 1,400 dead Gazans (including 320 children and 109 women) and thousands horribly maimed.

Silly Willie. Who’d have believed a British government minister would tamper with the laws of jurisdiction and undermine our justice system so that the likes of Livni could safely go shopping in London?

Meanwhile, David Cameron’s head-over-heels infatuation with Israel is so intense that he declared himself a Zionist . The Jewish Chronicle in 2006 obligingly reported on the backers bankrolling Cameron’s bid for power and provided a fascinating insight into how the pro-Israel lobby infiltrates government and destroys the principles of integrity and accountability so vital to British public life.

When Cameron became Conservative leader he proclaimed: “The belief I have in Israel is indestructible – and you need to know that if I become prime minister Israel has a friend who will never turn his back on Israel.”

As many people have angrily pointed out, what’s at stake here are the Seven Principles of Public Life, the most important in this context being Integrity which lays down that “holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organizations that might seek to influence them in the performance of their official duties”. That’s plain enough for even an Etonian schoolboy to understand. Failure to grasp and observe this fundamental principle should lead to automatic disqualification from public office.

“Delegitimizing Israel is wrong, abhorrent”

As it happens, Cameron has just visited Israel. Addressing the Knesset he demonstrated his highly developed sucking-up skills. “I am proud to be pursuing the strongest and deepest possible relationship between our two countries,” he told them.

Cameron talked about the Balfour Declaration and “the moment when the state of Israel went from a dream to a plan Britain has played a proud and vital role in helping to secure Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people”.

I suspect that most thinking Britons are deeply ashamed of the part played by Britain and cringe with embarrassment.

Then he made this astounding statement:

To those who… want to boycott Israel I have a clear message. Britain opposes boycotts. Whether it’s trade unions campaigning for the exclusion of Israelis or universities trying to stifle academic exchange, Israel’s place as a homeland for the Jewish people will never rest on hollow resolutions passed by amateur politicians.

It is founded in the spirit and strength of your people. It is founded in international law. It is founded in the resolve of all of your allies to protect an international system that was forged in our darkest days, to put right historic wrongs…

What a disgraceful distortion.

He went on: “Delegitimizing the state of Israel is wrong. It’s abhorrent. And together we will defeat it.”

Someone should have told him that the only people delegitimizing Israel are the Israelis themselves by their defiance of law and their contempt for decency and the rights of others.

Setting off for Ben Gurion airport (formerly Lydda airport, stolen from the Palestinians in a terror raid in 1948 when Israeli troops massacred 426 men, women and children and drove out the rest) Cameron announced: “I’ve got a planeload of innovative British companies coming with me and we’ll be linking them up with Israeli businesses so they can forge new partnerships that will give them a competitive edge in the global race.”

As they touch down will they remember that this is, actually, Palestine?

UK an open door to Israel’s war criminals

Cameron, continuing his speech to the Knesset, took diplomatic sycophancy to new, dizzier heights.

Let me say to you very clearly: with me, you have a British prime minister whose belief in Israel is unbreakable and whose commitment to Israel’s security will always be rock solid.

I will always stand up for the right of Israel to defend its citizens. A right enshrined in international law, in natural justice and fundamental morality…

He was anxious to establish his Jewish connection “from the lexicon of my great, great grandfather Emile Levita, a Jewish man who came from Germany to Britain 150 years ago to the story of my forefather Elijah Levita who wrote what is thought to have been the first ever Yiddish novel.”

And he wasn’t going to let Hague take all the credit for sheltering Israel’s vile war criminals.

When I was in Opposition I spoke out when – because of the law on universal jurisdiction – senior Israelis could not safely come to my country, without fear of ideologically motivated court cases and legal stunts. When I became prime minister I legislated to change it. My country is open to you. And you are welcome to visit anytime.

He dismisses as “legal stunts” our solemn obligation under the Geneva Conventions to bring to book those suspected of war crimes. So much for his duties under international law to “fight impunity for grave international crimes wherever they occur”.

The rapid growth of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is a direct result of Western politicians like Cameron and Hague flunking their duty to uphold international law, reject Israel’s exceptionalism and punish its crimes. BDS will no doubt apply the solvent to unglue Cameron’s unholy alliance. It will increasingly hurt the evil regime and those who support it. And it will be their funeral.