Article published by Ynetnews.com, 12June 2025. © Richard Kemp
The British government has sanctioned two Israeli ministers for incitement to violence. By this despicable action against the State of Israel it is they who are inciting violence, both at home and abroad.
First, they are guilty of the most appalling double standards. The British, along with Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Norway, indict Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich but completely ignore the dictatorial Palestinian Authority’s encouragement, financing and glorification of terrorism.
Why has UK Foreign Minister David Lammy not sanctioned their ministers and officials, at the very least? What about Mahmoud Abbas, time-expired PA president and infamous Holocaust denier, who has praised Hamas’s genocidal invasion on 7th October? Instead, accusing Israel and not the PA, Lammy is de facto approving of their violent actions and encouraging them to do more. There is no other way to read it.
Lammy does concede a half-hearted condemnation of Hamas and says he wants the hostages returned. But his actions say something entirely different. With Britain and its four international accomplices ganging up on Israel, they are sabotaging a potential peace deal and hostage exchange in Gaza by giving Hamas hope at a time they sorely need it.
The fact that Hamas applauded an earlier statement from Britain, France and Canada threatening sanctions should surely have told Lammy something. Instead he demands that Israel end the conflict. What does that mean? Israel withdraws from Gaza, Hamas survives and the hostages remain captive. That is the only alternative to prosecuting the war until Hamas is destroyed or forced to give up.
The British Foreign Office cites the two ministers’ inflammatory rhetoric. That is undeniable, but how many other government ministers around the world has the UK sanctioned for such words, and you can be sure there is no shortage of targets for such ire if they wanted to find them. But unlike many of them, Israel is a democracy with a hugely powerful judicial system. It can itself deal with such allegations if they amount to a crime, without the former Mandatory power shoving its nose in where it has no business to be.
Israel has done exactly that many times before. Indeed Ben-Gvir was convicted in 2007 for incitement and support for extremist groups. In any case, should Britain really be casting the first stone? Don’t forget that until 2017 the murderous IRA terrorist leader, Martin McGuinness, was Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, part of the UK’s apparatus of government. His crimes were infinitely worse than anything Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have been accused of. And McGuinness was far from the only former terrorist to hold political office in the UK, and many are still in power.
The reality is that none of this is about Israel. It’s all about British domestic politics and a Labour Party plunging in the polls and desperate to shore up its position ahead of the next elections. Although it gained a substantial majority last year, Labour lost seats to Muslims standing on an unambiguously anti-Israel platform. The party had been insufficiently hard-line against Israel before the election and is now doing its best to make up for that including by imposing a partial arms embargo.
Britain will now be greatly tempted to follow the lead of other countries such as France who are contemplating “recognition” of a Palestinian state, perhaps later this month. Indeed France’s thinking on this closely reflects Britain’s overall policies towards the conflict. It was recently revealed that a French Interior Ministry report recommended recognition of a Palestinian state as a means to appease Muslim voters and calm internal tensions.
That’s the thinking in London too. It won’t work in either capital. Can’t these so-called leaders see that the Islamic-hard left alliance against Israel is far more than that alone? It is merely a tool to attack the British way of life and inflict their own ideological agendas on the country. When the situation in the Middle East calms down another weapon will be seized with as much vigor and no credit whatsoever given to the government for betraying Israel.
What these arms embargoes, sanctions and especially recognition will do though is to encourage jihadists everywhere. Recognizing a Palestinian state will effectively reward terrorist activity against Israel from Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Iran. Why wouldn’t they do more of the same if these violent tactics work so well? Therefore the British government’s hand-wringing and sanctimonious pontification over its desire for peace in the Middle East will in fact achieve precisely the opposite.
The imbecility of Britain’s Middle East policy is not only damaging in the region but also at home — and that goes for the other four supplicant countries as well. In these nations, Jews have been increasingly targeted, including with violent assault, since the start of this war.
By their unfounded anti-Israel actions and inflammatory rhetoric — unjustly accusing Israel of war crimes and pandering to the genocide accusers — these governments are doing exactly what they charge Ben-Gvir and Smotrich with: inciting violence. They are hurling fuel onto the flames of Jew hate when what they should be doing is to ensure the truth about Israel’s war is heard, if for no other reason than to protect their own Jews against intimidation and abuse.
Image: UK Government