Starmer's Pretence At Condemning Israel Has Blown Up In His Face!

Right, so Keir Starmer and David Lammy are acting all big and tough all of a sudden towards Israel are they? Don’t be silly. Of course there will be a catch to all of this and the fact intelligence and surveillance flights were carrying on for Israel within hours of Starmer giving his speech to parliament goes to prove such matters. If Starmer meant a word of what he has said given the Israeli response to it, he wouldn’t be sending surveillance flights from RAF Akrotiri, he’d be organising aid drops launching from there instead wouldn’t he?
There is also the small matter of him and Lammy still refusing to use a certain word beginning with g to describe the goings on and this is especially pertinent given the legal scandal they are embroiled in, over the suspension of arms licences. Remember when Lammy crowed about suspending 30 out of some 330 arms export licences to Israel last September? Well in the last three months more arms have been shipped to Israel by the UK than the last 4 years of the Tory administration, 19 months into this genocide as we now are. Therefore for all the verbal condemnation coming from Team Keith, the truth is they won’t use the word genocide because of a court case they appear bang to rights over which apparently outweighs their determination over aid getting into Gaza and calling a spade a spade.
Right, so for the past 19 months, Israel has, as we know all too well been waging a campaign of destruction in Gaza that many around the world have been calling a genocide, including the International Court of Justice, the ICJ, who have described the events as they were all the way back in January of 2024 as a plausible case of genocide. As tens of thousands of Palestinians lie dead, and as Gaza is turned into a ruinous shell of its former self, for some in the west, attention is finally beginning to pivot, but this likely has more to do with pressure upon them to say or do something now having become impossible to ignore, hitting them in the ballots as it has at least in part. Of course I am talking about Keir Starmer, who, despite being a Zionist without equivocation – his words - has finally begun to distance himself – minimally - from the very state he has long defended and is still acting in the interests of despite his latest bout of weasel words. As the bloodshed continues and international law is openly flouted, Starmer's half-measures appear not as a break with the past, but as optics-driven performances calculated to appease an increasingly shifting public conscience without disrupting Britain's material complicity in war crimes. I say flouting war crimes, they are committing genocide, but Starmer won’t say that word, he won’t even say they are breaking international, but merely that Israel remains at risk of doing so. The ICJ ruled otherwise, well over a year ago and still Starmer won’t get on board with that, but that court case likely has a lot more to do with that, the ongoing arms sales which I’ll come onto.
Starmer's newfound "pressure" on Israel amounts to the suspension of a non-progressing trade deal, symbolic sanctions on a handful of Israeli settlers, and a joint statement with France and Canada expressing concern over Israel's latest military operations. That statement—calling for a halt to Israel's invasion and the end of the humanitarian blockade—might sound like a moral stand. But it is too little, too late, it’s the bare minimum and still not enough, it hasn’t been for a long time now.
Nevertheless, figures in Israel have reacted predictably. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the hard right extremist coalition minister in Netanyahu’s government, the man arguably holding Netanyahu’s job in his hands, threatening to collapse the government every single time they might do something he doesn’t like, and his brutal support for settler violence, the settler movement being his electoral base, has accused the UK, France, and Canada of antisemitism and moral hypocrisy. Benjamin Netanyahu shrugged off the criticism, and Israel’s foreign ministry disdainfully reminding the UK that its colonial "mandate" over Israel ended 77 years ago. The foreign ministry statement on this reading:
‘Following the UK’s announcement that it will suspend free trade agreement negotiations with Israel and impose sanctions on settlers: Even prior to today’s announcement, the free trade agreement negotiations were not being advanced at all by the current UK government. More than that, the agreement would serve the mutual benefit of both countries. If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy — that is its own prerogative.
The sanctions against residents of Judea and Samaria are unjustified, and regrettable, especially at a time when Israel is mourning yet another victim of Palestinian terror — Tzeela Gez, of blessed memory, who was murdered on her way to the delivery room. Doctors continue fighting for her newborn’s life in hospital.
The British Mandate ended exactly 77 years ago. External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction.’
Smotrich calling Starmer an antisemite now is particularly hilarious though. It shows no matter how much you doff your cap for this insane administration and this white supremacist and colonialist state, put so much as a toe out of line and you’re the racist. That jibe is cheapened now beyond meaning and every Jew on the planet is less safe because of rhetoric from Israel like this.
Starmer purged the Labour Party of thousands, mainly on the left, in the name of cracking down on antisemitism, so it seems only correct he now reports himself to Labour’s independent disciplinary process. Of course he could deny being an antisemite, but by his own logic, that would make him part of the antisemitism problem of course. What will he do? Say nothing and ignore it is the safe bet there, though I do hope someone in the media asks about this.
At the end of the day the sanctions that have been levied are minimal and largely symbolic. Britain has chosen to sanction just three Israeli settlers—one of them being Daniella Weiss, a prominent figure in Louis Theroux’s documentary "The Settlers" and frankly shes an easy high profile target thanks to that documentary to choose. The government's rationale is that these individuals were responsible for organizing violent campaigns against Palestinians in the West Bank, which is absolutely true, but what does such a minimal set of sanctions achieve? Sanction the entire state for heavens sake, we’re past gesture politics, we need action now!
These settlers are fringe actors compared to the military officials and government ministers responsible for orchestrating the devastation of Gaza, even if figures like Weiss might have their ear. And no Israeli politician—no matter how complicit—has been sanctioned, not even Smotrich or Ben Gvir, easily amongst the worst of a deeply depraved administration.
David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, has summoned the Israeli ambassador in response to the Gaza blockade, but no further details than that. She shouldn’t be summoned, she should have been ordered to board a plane following expulsion, but instead a diplomatic coffee and cake meeting does nothing to mitigate a starvation campaign that the United Nations, European Union, and so many humanitarian organisations have condemned. These tepid actions are nothing more than performative outrage and we see it for that.
Yet despite all of this superficiality, these moves do reflect something important: the beginning of cracks in the UK’s otherwise unwavering support for Israel.
Esteemed Middle East journalist Jonathan Cook has drawn attention to this where it comes to UK media, here’s an excerpt from his piece in Middle East Eye:
‘Finally, something looks like it may be about to give.
The British establishment’s financial daily, the Financial Times, was first to break ranks last week to condemn "the West’s shameful silence" in the face of Israel’s murderous assault on the tiny enclave.
In an editorial – effectively the paper’s voice – the FT accused the United States and Europe of being increasingly "complicit" as Israel made Gaza “uninhabitable”, an allusion to genocide, and noted that the goal was to "drive Palestinians from their land", an allusion to ethnic cleansing.
Of course, both of these grave crimes by Israel have been evidently true not only since Hamas’ violent, single-day breakout from Gaza on 7 October 2023, but for decades.
So parlous is the state of the western reporting, from a media no less complicit than the governments berated by the FT, that we need to seize on any small signs of progress.’
Even some Tory MPs, are beginning to speak out—though I highly doubt they would have done so whilst in power. Their criticism appears more opportunistic than moral, using Starmer’s sluggish pivot as a means to score political points, but others who have called it out for a lot longer than both the Tories or Starmer have given him a beasting:
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer can call a genocide a genocide and it was interesting that she raise the governments own risk assessments, because by publishing then we can all hold them to account to not only what they do in regards to Israel now, but what they already know and any refusal to publish them can only be seen as a government desperate to hide either their own disregard for international law, their complicity in Israeli acts that they know breach international law and meet the case for genocide, or both as I would see such a refusal to publish to be.
Still, despite all of that, Starmer's hypocrisy remains glaring. On the same day he declared in Parliament that "we cannot allow the people of Gaza to starve," a spy plane from RAF Akrotiri was en route to Gaza—assisting Israel in its targeting operations:
‘A large UK military transport aircraft, the A400M, was deployed from Britain’s base in Cyprus to Israel. This aircraft has the capacity to carry up to 116 troops and a wide range of military equipment, including components for Chinook helicopters.
Since 2023, the United Kingdom has carried out at least 518 aerial surveillance operations over Gaza using Royal Air Force aircraft based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. These reconnaissance flights have raised concerns over the UK’s role in supporting Israeli genocide in Gaza that has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians.’
On top of those reconnaissance flights and transport craft flights from RAF Akrotiri though, erhaps the most damning evidence of Britain’s complicity, which has come to light this week, lies in its continued arms trade with Israel. Back in September, the government suspended 30 arms licenses but arms sales have only increased. Starmer’s government has issued more military aid and arms to Israel in the three month period from October to December last year, immediately after those arms licences were suspended, than the Tories did in four years. £128m of arms sold to Israel versus the Tories sales of £115m between 2020-2023. Over 300 active licenses remain—facilitating the export of weapons and equipment, including critical F-35 fighter jet components, the most high profile of the parts we provide.
This escalation in arms transfers has been exposed as the UK government faces a legal challenge. Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, supported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam, has brought a case against the British government for continuing arms exports to Israel. The court case focuses heavily on the F-35 parts, arguing that they are used in war crimes. The government's defence? That Israel is not committing genocide. This grotesque denial places Starmer’s refusal to name the crimes Israel is accused of, even as he condemns them, as genocide, all in a new light: it’s not about political caution, but about preserving Britain’s arms pipeline to Israel, defending their case in court over and above getting that aid into Gaza and condemning Israel as it should be.
The Campaign Against Arms Trade, CAAT has condemned the surge in weapons sales, calling it an unforgivable betrayal of international law and basic human decency. Instro Precision, a British company that provides targeting gear to the Israeli military, continues to export its tools of war as a recent Declassified UK expose has revealed, these guys work closely with Israeli arms bigwigs Elbit Systems. These dealings, knowing what they will be used for, or could be used for, actively enable the destruction of Gaza.
Meanwhile, whilst Jonathan Cook spotted some shifts to the good in UK media, there will always be those who find a new depth to stoop to. In a particularly sick example, David Maddox of the Independent tried to lay blame for Starmer taking this long to act against Israel, even as weakly as he has, on Jeremy Corbyn. Yes the jam making allotment botherer is to blame for the UK’s position on Israel and Gaza.
Maddox wrote by way of explanation for Starmer dragging his heels all this time:
‘In reality, Labour under Sir Keir Starmer has been held back by a sense of shame.
A visible reminder of this came when former leader Jeremy Corbyn got to his feet to challenge Lammy. Under Corbyn’s leadership, Labour became so immersed in antisemitism and so marginalised the Jewish community that the party has had to continue working hard to restore its reputation.
For this reason, Sir Keir and Mr Lammy have worked hard to support Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of the horrific 7 October 2023 attacks by Hamas.’
You ridiculous pimple of a man. Corbyn was vilified for his solidarity with Palestinians, that’s enough to have the Israel Lobby, still succeeding in its propagandising labelling him as such, an opportunity sniffed out by Morgan McSweeney and Starmer, to bring Corbyn down and it worked and still some in the mainstream media, peddle this.
Starmer, in contrast, has presided over a government that has armed Israel more heavily than any prior administration and one strongly worded letter as Carla Denyer put it, has meant that he’s been accused of antisemitism too now. The term has been used too much, it has been abused too much, it has lost all meaning and Maddox should be rinsed deservedly for such a sickening article.
Despite publicly advocating for humanitarian aid, Starmer’s policies still help sustain a siege that has turned Gaza into an open-air graveyard. Britain could end its role in this today by revoking all arms licenses, banning weapons exports, and sanctioning the architects of Gaza’s devastation, the politicians, the people in power. But it chooses not to go that far.
The truth is simple: if Starmer genuinely cared about Palestinian lives, he would have acted long ago. He would not need the cover of Canadian or French statements alongside him to issue a moral verdict. He would not need to fight court battles arguing the toss over what constitutes a genocide. He would not suspend a dead-end trade deal while clearly expanding arms sales. He would not issue token sanctions while ignoring the role of the Israeli state in orchestrating the violence.
The pressure must not let up on him, it must increase, because clearly he’s feeling it, but not enough. The British public must understand the depth of his governments complicity and demand accountability. Aid without arms, diplomacy without duplicity, and support for international law—not in name, but in deed—must be the rallying cry.
As Israel’s siege intensifies and Gaza continues to suffer, history will remember who stood silent, who stood complicit, and who stood in solidarity. Starmer, for all his rhetoric, is stil leaving behind a legacy of an enabler and only he can choose to change that.
Challenges to the Starmer regime over this and all manner of other policy areas are increasingly coming from the Greens, but given how little attention they get, you don’t tend to hear it. Well a new leadership contender might be about to change all of that, because being kept quiet doesn’t work for him at all. He’s got a lot to say and if you aren’t yet familiar with Zack Polanski, you need to be, so check out this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch to see who really can hold the likes of Starmer and Farage to account from the left.
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