Letter to UK Foreign Minister David Lammy

(The letter below was written by one in my mailing network.)

I am writing to you to express my disgust and shock that you have taken the egregious and cowardly decision to suspend export licenses to Britain's only true ally in the middle east, Israel.
 
You make the claim that it cannot be proved that British weapons are not being used "in breach of international law". And yet your government knows perfectly well that Israel is exercising extreme restraint in its conduct of the war in Gaza, and is applying standards and procedures for avoiding harm to non-combatants in enemy territory that have never been applied in the history of urban warfare.
 
The absolute proof that Israel is taking more precautions to avoid civilian deaths than any other army in history is in numbers: A civilian to terrorist ratio of 1.5 - 2 to 1 (even if you believe hamas casualty figures which are the only source of the number of civilian deaths, unquestioningly repeated by the media and the UN). Compare this to the Iraq war which the Labour party dragged this country into, where the best Britain and its allies could achieve was 4.5 to 1.
 
That you also chose to make this announcement on the day that six Israelis hostages were being buried after their brutal sadistic murder by Hamas terrorists is doubly outrageous.
 
But you know this and you made the decision anyway. Why? I can think of no other reason than to appease the far-left and Islamist mob that threatens your MPs' security and your party's vote share.
 
And furthermore, this comes on the back of two other disastrous decisions in recent weeks:
 
- The resumption of funding to UNRWA, which is clearly a terrorist front group with a vested interest in perpetuating the conflict with Israel and brainwashing the Palestinian youth into Jew-hatred and violence. Your government is literally taking money from pensioners and giving it to terrorists - unbelievable.
 
- Your back-tracking on the UK government's commitment to oppose the ICC's arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, the democratically elected leader of an allied country.
 
I can only assume that you think that by giving the extremists in your party and in the country at large these concessions it will stop their threats, their violence, their intimidation. It won't. It will have the opposite effect, it will embolden them to increase their pressure. Where will you stop Mr Lammy?
 
Israel is a democratic nation state fighting a war for its survival against a vicious, cruel, cynical and bloodthirsty terrorist regime. A regime that murdered, tortured, burned alive, raped, kidnapped thousands of Israelis - an initiation of Total War if there ever was one. Yet Israel did not retaliate with total war as some countries no doubt would have done. It is fighting a just and necessary war to free hostages and to defeat the terrorist regime, under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, under intense international pressure, in a theatre where its enemy has deliberately embedded itself in the civilian population, turned civilian infrastructure into military infrastructure, dug 500 km of tunnels under every school, hospital, mosque and home. In spite of these challenges Israel is very clearly adhering to the laws of war.
 
Additionally, given that the UK also exports weapons systems to the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, India, etc etc, what proof do you have that those are not being used "in breach of international law"? How many have died in Yemen from Saudi bombardments? How many Kurds have been killed by Turkey? Will you also be suspending exports to those countries? I certainly look forward to finding out.
 
Mr Lammy I urge you to own up to your mistake, to reverse this decision, to show some backbone and leadership, and to stand up to the extremists who are pressuring you by telling the truth loudly and clearly: Israel is NOT committing genocide, genocide is what Hamas promise again and again to do to Israel's Jews (and demonstrated exactly how they will do this on October 7), and that Israel is a peaceful nation which respects international law. Because you know this to be true.