It is not very often that I will praise French President Macron in this blog, but as the BBC has reported:
French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel for use in Gaza, prompting swift criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Macron told France Inter radio that "the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza".
At a summit in Paris on Saturday, the French president reiterated his concern over the conflict in Gaza continuing despite ceasefire calls, and he also criticised Israel's decision to send ground troops into Lebanon.
Macron is right: we need to stop supplying all weapons to Israel so that it can no longer bomb Gaza, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Yemen, causing civilian casualties in all of them. These are war crimes.
To use a cliche, solving this problem is not rocket science: it requires that we stop supplying the rockets, amongst other things. The time to do so is now.
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Solving it might not be rocket science but it has to do with rockets; Iran has hypersonic missiles and has done for some time. These are way too fast for the outmoded Western weaponry to cope with. Now Iran’s actively involved the West will be backpedalling like crazy rather than make it even plainer to the world at large how out of their depth they are. I imagine the USA, with its fleet not too far from the area presenting a nice juicy and largely defenceless target for Iranian missiles, will be pulling Macron’s strings here. Expect Netenyahu to be abandoned, left stranded and alone, very soon.
No one is mentioning such things
I was hearing about them from London Paul on the Sirius report a couple of years ago. It’s suggested that the damage done by them in the recent exchange is far in excess of anything the involved governments care to admit. It’s also suggested this will precipitate an abrupt cessation of support for Nentenyahu as everyone else gets the Hell out of Dodge, which looks very much like what we’re starting to see. You can read about Iran’s hypersonic missiles on CNN for one, who maintain what I suspect is the fiction of how the mighty combined defences shot most of them down. Hmmm… just watch how fast other nations
suddenly discover their morals and turn on Netenyahu.
Remind me again how well Russia’s “hypersonic” (which just means Mach 5+) weapons are performing in Ukraine.
But that is not the point.
The emphasis should not be on escalation and retaliation and macho shows of strength and “my missile is better than you missile”. But rather on de-escalation and reconciliation and finding a route to a lasting peace.
Sadly it seems we have aggressive leaders who want to fight and dominate, not statesmen looking for a just and equitable peace. Where that is going to come from I do not know. But I live in hope that this current deplorable situation cannot go on forever.
‘Remind me again how well Russia’s “hypersonic” (which just means Mach 5+) weapons are performing in Ukraine.’
Russia has only used the Kinzal & Zircon in Ukraine, the former isn’t really hypersonic at all, hence the interceptions, and the latter is an anti-ship weapon.
The newer Avangard ballistic variants are a whole different ballgame and similar to Iran’s Fattah that was supposedly used against the Tel Nof airbase.
Double think.
‘We’ are pushing for a ceasefire while pouring ine arms to the side thats massacring tens of thousands, and already committing war crimes in the opinion of international courts .
They have turned Gaza into a wasteland and now doing the same to Lebanon.
We are all implicated.
The figure that has been published is that something like 85% of those who fight for Hamas have lost a parent.
A bit late I know but say a decade or so ago if The Government of Israel had decided that dead Palestinians were something to be avoided wherever possible and they were to tackle some of their more obvious grievances as a National Security issues so for example the settlers on the West Bank were hauled off to Jail then we might not be in the mess we are in now.
Clearly if we deprive the Israeli’s of the means to produce more dead Palestinians or other neighbouring nationalities while its a bit late in the day its in the interests of Israel never mind everyone else.
Stop the private funding of our politics and get better politics.
Stop supplying arms (and military advice) to rogue states and get more peace.
Sounds simple don’ it?
Andrew Mitchell on Trevor Phillips this morning. No one asked if he was a Conservative Friend of Israel as 80% of the previous parliamentary party was. He constantly repeated that Hezbollah are a terrorist organisation. But we don’t get told why they are so designated. They see themselves as a resistance organisation. The present ‘incursion’ by Israel is the third in 40 years. Their definition of peace is that no one resists Israel’s actions.
I am not saying that all the blame is on one side.
If Israel was inside their pre-1967 boundaries then the present situation would. almost certainly, not arise. Our commentators now report the abusive occupation of the West Bank but rarely give the context. The settlers, adided by the IFD, are steadily driving the Palestinians off the land by intimidation. It is fair to call it ethnic cleansing. We went to war in the Balkans to stop that. The Arabs have a Devil’s choice. They can accept what Israel chooses to do, which involve giving up an hope of a genuine state of their own, or find a way of resisting which is always called terrorism. Sometimes quite horrible actions.
In the last decades of the Empire we fought a number of ‘terrorists’ (including Jewish militias in Palestine) who later became the governments of their countries and, after a few year, had tea with the Queen.
What I would like to see is the political leadership challenged on their simplistic binary definition of ‘our ally and ‘Terrorists inspired by Iran’.
45 American medics worked in Gaza wrote an open letter to Biden and Harris outlining their experiences and observation of war crimes.
Mark Smith a counter terrorism official resigned in August and wrote of incontroversial evidence of war crimes.
Morality apart, it does not serve the national interest to be ignoring this. The rest of the world can observe. CNN reported a growing fury with the US among Arab states.
the links are here
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/26/world/open-letter-45-us-physicians-gaza/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/19/israel-perpetrating-war-crimes-in-plain-sight-in-gaza-says-ex-uk-diplomat
It is not as though the government doesn’t know, and I would suggest, the media also know but for some reason are not using it.
@Ian Stevenson
“…He constantly repeated that Hezbollah are a terrorist organisation. But we don’t get told why they are so designated……”
It’s because ‘We’ don’t like them.
Apparently. (?)
Is that difficult to understand? Given a pro-Zionist political culture which is terrified of being labelled anti-semitic.
@Bill Kruse. I think you may be underestimating the influence Netanyahu – and the “idea” of Israel – have over the U.S. The US CENCOM (a four star General) arrived in Tel Aviv 24 hours ago. The U.S. has 43,000 troops in the area; along with a carrier group, three destroyers, squadrons of F-16s and F-22s (hard to detect), and U.S. bases surround Iran. The U.S. also has a large, classified radar base in the Negev – part of Unit 512 – and that radar is directed at Iran. (The U.S. aircraft are mostly deployed to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, from where both the U.S. and the UK have been flying surveillance flights over Gaza for nearly a year)
Having often served with US troops in NATO, albeit about 100 years ago, I am not at all convinced they think they’re out of their depth. They’ll just pour more troops, more weapons and bigger bombs into theatre. Netanyahu has spent 30 years verbally attacking Iran, and that has infected the U.S. He, and the U.S., see this as the ideal opportunity to destroy a country and a religion that they loathe and despise.
F-16s are considered obsolete and F-22s would only be useful in attaining air superiority, which would only be relevant for a sustained campaign against Iran for which the US does not have the munitions, having expending a large part of their stockpile in Ukraine.
The West’s militaries have been hollowed out by neoliberalism and Iran relies on rockets rather than an air force. There is zero political appetite in the US for more troop deaths, they will seek to avoid that if at all possible.
“Netanyahu has spent 30 years verbally attacking Iran, and that has infected the U.S.”
Iran, on its own, fully infected the USA way before Netanyahu supplied and applied this latest group of new pathogens.
@ Hannah
I don’t know the facts and don’t dispute what you say.
The US has been itching to have a go at Iran since it ceased to be Persia. At which time it was kind-of British and not quite considered ‘fair game’. But WW2 changed all that.
American foreign policy is wondrous (and frightening) to behold.
The USA has a law that requires $3.8bn of arms to be provided every year, indefinitely.
Peace loving Americans are banking Netenyahu’s lebensraum policies.
“The USA has a law that requires $3.8bn of arms to be provided every year, indefinitely.”
Most Yanks are NOT aware of this law.
@Bay Tampa Bay
“…Most Yanks are NOT aware of this law.”
Do you consider that most ‘Yanks’ would object? Or not give a damn?
Straight question. I’ve no idea. But I have some inkling of British political engagement. (Or lack of it, and I’m led to believe that Americans are even more insular than the British in their outlook on Global affairs). I’m talking about voters here, just to be clear.
When was this law passed and what is it called?
Dunno the legislative title, but it’s referenced here
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68253765
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68737412
Now I wouldn’t usually cite the BBC, but this is a factual report.
“larry”:
It is called the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to Israel and is detailed here:
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/14/fact-sheet-memorandum-understanding-reached-israel
Payments of $3.8 billion/year are authorised until 2028 (for a total of $38 billion), with further assistance forthcoming:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/10/us-to-send-3-5bn-more-in-military-aid-to-israel-amid-war-on-gaza
This information is not hard to find.
Not quite indefinitely, but the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Reached with Israel “.. covers FY2019- FY2028, is $38 billion ($3.8 billion per year).”
Source: Memorandum of Understanding Reached with Israel, The White House, September 14, 2016.
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/14/fact-sheet-memorandum-understanding-reached-israel
So, an arms supply from the U.S has technically imbued the Israeli government with the confidence to take on Gaza, Lebanon and the Yemen.
So basically, the U.S. has sponsored and helped enable an illegal war – and it is itself now implicated in war crimes.
I think that that is a fair statement.
As I understand it, this memorandum of understanding is an intergovernmental agreement (that is, between the executives in each country). Basically the US has agreed to provide foreign aid – gifts and loans – to Israel so they can buy US weapons.
What if any are the legislative underpinnings? Has the arrangement been approved by Congress?
On his website, Michael Hudson makes the case that, following the Vietnam War, America now uses proxy armies, as in the Middle East and Ukraine.
If Israelis are being used as an American “Foreign Legion” to gain American control of the energy rich Middle East, might the cessation of arms to Israel be, sadly, less likely?
Much as I enjoy Hudson’s writing , I don’t think he’s right on this one.
The US army played the main role in the 1990 Gulf war, in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was also deployed in Germany in Cold War well after Vietnam.
The facts just don’t support the proxy war thesis in Ukraine. It relies on some very dubious assumptions.
With Israel, they get little benefit from it and a lot of negatives. Obama referred to them in his book ‘The Promised Land.’
They are in the mess because the very powerful AIPAC lobby and its predecessors managed to capture this aspect of foreign policy in the 1960s and turn into an electoral imperative. Which is why Biden protests and does nothing effective to rein Israel in.
https://theintercept.com/2022/07/01/pentagon-127e-proxy-wars/
The U.S. has a classified programme called 127e which allows US special forces to “assist” other countries. That includes influencing towards aims which suit America.
Whilst I’m not sure that Israel is being used by the US as a proxy, there is no doubt that the long grubby finger of America is meddling in pies all over the globe.
I have a lot more on US involvement in other, sovereign countries, and a library’s worth of the U.S. policy decisions that’s got them there.
There’s a very good program about Netanyahu on Sky News.
I haven’t watched it all yet – I sleep very badly, so have seen most of it out of order as I have the TV on overnight so catch it in snatches. I hope to watch the whole thing from start to finish soon. I found it quite shocking so far. So far as I understand a lot of what he’s doing is to try keep himself in power (as he’s done for many years in various ways). He’s rather like Trump, in that he’s got various legal cases against him that he’s trying to avoid. And is power crazy.
I’m sure people here will be much better at teasing out stuff than I am if they have the time to watch it.
Israel is the 51st State the Union.
British politicians have discovered this every time they pleaded a special relationship with the US: the position is already taken.
My parents’ generation thought the Americans joined WW2 to save Britain and Europe and were eternally grateful, but in reality they were after the spoils of the British Empire’s Far Eastern colonial holdings. (And European markets were a consideration too, but secondary I think)