British columnist and author Allison Pearson slammed Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s announcement on Monday that the UK is immediately suspending 30 out of 350 arms licenses due to “the risk that the arms will be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law” as a politically-tainted move that is a “bold challenge to the limits of satire.”

Call me soppy and nostalgic, but I preferred it when Labour was controlled by the trade unions not the Gaza Party. At least the wily leaders of Aslef and the NUM merely wanted improved wages and conditions. They did not expect to dictate British foreign policy.

Unbelievably – although maybe all too believably, given this fledgling Government’s ability to do the most awful thing in any given situation – David Lammy announced that the UK was suspending some arms export licences to Israel. It would have been a controversial decision in normal times, but it came immediately after one of the most anguished days in Israel’s history. Six young hostages, who had been in a living hell in the tunnels under Gaza for 11 months, were executed with a bullet to the back of the head by their Hamas captors. But not before that genocidal group had recorded each hostage in order to have a gloating video to release on the day their parents buried them.

To hear Lammy say he was suspending 30 of 350 arms export licences because there was a risk such equipment “might be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law,” presented a bold challenge to the limits of satire. The only group which could possibly benefit from such a pause had literally just committed the most grievous possible violation of international humanitarian law: the mass murder of innocent civilians.

Unfortunately, the Muslim vote is far too valuable for Labour to allow foreign policy to get in the way of preserving it. Throwing our Israeli allies under the bus while they face an existential threat on all sides was clearly considered a small price to pay if it could appease sectarian extremists here in the UK who pose a demographic challenge in Labour strongholds.

As if to confirm our worst suspicions, Lammy’s announcement came on the very same day that four new MPs, elected on a pro-Gaza ticket, and a former Labour leader, informed the Speaker they were founding a group known as the Independent Alliance that would sit together in the Commons – Jeremy Corbyn, long-time Hamas sympathiser; Ayoub Khan, MP for Birmingham Perry Bar; Adnan Hussain, MP for Blackburn; Shockat Adam, MP for Leicester South; and Iqbal Mohamed, MP for Dewsbury and Batley (where a teacher went into hiding with his family in fear of their lives after an angry Muslim mob objected to an RE lesson on blasphemy in which he showed a picture of the Prophet Mohammed). Nothing to worry about, ladies and gentlemen. Just an Islamic separatist caucus now sitting in our Parliament with the aim of influencing government policy towards views which are inimical to our values and traditions. (Can you get arrested for mentioning British “values and traditions”? Asking for 30 million non-brainwashed people.)

The UK actually provides less than one per cent of Israel’s armaments. So the cut Lammy announced was only ever crude gesture politics. The man is such a giant numpty he probably hoped he could earn himself a few brownie points with the Independent Alliance and far-Left, pro-Palestinian Jew-haters while still avoiding a diplomatic incident.

His timing was appalling. As Lammy revealed his shabby, treacherous plan to the Commons, I was watching Rachel, the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, give an eulogy at the funeral of her “sweet boy”, who will forever be 23 years old. “It’s not that Hersh was perfect,” she began, “but he was a perfect son for me. I am full of gratitude to G-d for giving me the privilege of being Hersh’s mother. I wish I could have had more time with you…” At that thought, she almost broke down irrecoverably, but managed to continue: “Go now on your journey, because finally, finally…you are FREE!”

Rachel’s courage, eloquence and resolve in the face of the cruellest fate imaginable – her only son fallen among Islamist barbarians whose charter commits them to the extermination of the Jews – has been both astounding and humbling. If Rachel Goldberg-Polin is Joan of Arc, David Lammy is a child playing with a box of matches.

I am travelling to Israel very soon…I will apologise to every Israeli I meet for the tawdry betrayal by the British Government. I will explain that Israel is still our valued ally, an oasis of democracy in a desert of tyranny, our Foreign Secretary is a grandstanding halfwit and Labour is just trying to appease groups with whom most decent people disagree. I will say that and I will hope, actually I will pray, that it’s true.  

Am Yisrael Chai.

Energy Minister Eli Cohen (Likud) tweeted Pearson’s article on Wednesday, commenting: “During World War II, the British fought for their survival and begged the Americans for weapons. Without the help of the United States… who knows how history might have turned out. Israel has already faced arms embargoes, and just as we have triumphed in the past, we will prevail this time. However, for Britain, this embargo will remain a stain in the history books.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)