Foreign secretary David Lammy’s lame announcement in the Commons yesterday in banning some arms sales to Israel has managed to piss off just about everyone from human rights groups concerned about the situation in Gaza to the Israeli government themselves.
The decision is way too late for many people who hoped that any UK government will set an example in trying to stop the Israeli government attacking and killing thousands of Palestinians in Gaza in response to the terror attacks on October 7th last year. The decision to suspend just 30 of around 350 export licences have been seen by critics across the world as not going far enough.
The Labour party has collectively kicked themselves in the foot ever since Sir Keir Starmer’s infamous public statement in defending the Israeli government’s actions, and have tried, unsuccessfully, to please all of the people all of the time. They still haven’t learned their lesson from losing a lot of public support over the situation in Gaza, which was a major factor in the recent general election campaign. When one thinks of a previous postholder and Conservative party leadership challenger James Cleverly was bad enough, Lammy is maybe worse. Many commentators have begun to argue that he is now completely out of his depth.
While the political classes continue their childish squabbles, the crisis in Gaza continues to deteriorate further.