Appeasing as Fast as They Can
Rapidly deteriorating conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip risk blocking the creation of a viable Palestinian state, MPs warn today in a thinly veiled attack on British policy in the Middle East.
The report by the all-party International Development committee criticises the UK-backed financial boycott of the Palestinian Authority and says that this is drawing Palestinians closer to Iran. “The committee doubts whether this is a development the international community would have intended,” it adds.
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Hamas is boycotted because it refuses to recognise Israel, renounce violence or accept existing peace plans, including the near-defunct Oslo agreement. Hamas counters that Israel has ignored its own commitments. On Monday it described a suicide bombing in Eilat, the first such attack for nine months, as “legitimate”.
The MPs argue that more money is not the answer to the Palestinian crisis since it is Israeli measures - the expansion of settlements, its West Bank security barrier and checkpoints - that are eroding prospects of development. “Israel has genuine security concerns,” the report says, “but we question the proportionality of the measures it takes and their effectiveness in achieving … long term peace and security. The policy of isolating a democratically elected government is questionable under conditions of ongoing conflict.
I could expend a lot of bandwidth on the lies and half-truths in the reporting alone—the Eilat attack may have been the first suicide bombing in nine months, for example, but it was hardly the first attempt.
Let’s just see where all this furious appeasement has gotten the Brits, shall we?
Eight men were arrested under anti-terrorism laws in Birmingham early today over what reports said was an alleged plot to kidnap a British soldier.
The men were held in dawn raids on four addresses around the city as part of what the Home Office described as a “major counter-terrorism operation”.
The plot to kidnap a soldier sounds familiar. Can’t quite put my finger on where I’ve heard that before.