U.K. hits Israel with partial arms embargo over Gaza war

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Britain has slapped a partial arms embargo on Israel, refusing to supply replacement parts and other equipment for Sa'ar 4.5 gunships because they participated in Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

Britain's Foreign Office informed Israel's embassy in London of the sanctions a few days ago. The embassy, in a classified telegram to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, said the decision stemmed from heavy pressure by both members of Parliament and human rights organizations.

The embargo followed a government review of all British defense exports to Israel, which was announced three months ago. In total, the telegram said, Britain reviewed 182 licenses for arms exports to Israel, including 35 for exports to the Israel Navy. But it ultimately decided to cancel only five licenses, all relating to the Sa'ar 4.5 ships. The licenses in question apparently cover spare parts for the ship's guns.

The British said the embargo was imposed because these ships participated in Operation Cast Lead. In so doing, the British claimed, they violated the security agreements between Britain and Israel, which specify what uses may be made of British equipment."

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[Hardrada]

1. This is a good start!

[notadmblnd]

2. I wonder if there will be a reprisal of terrorist attacks in the UK?

[LeftishBrit]

5. Why on earth would there be?

[LeftishBrit]

6. self-deleted; posted in wrong place.

[notadmblnd]

8. an embargo is probably piss them off

I was just thinking that there may be instances of retaliation. Do you think it's far fetched?

[LeftishBrit]

9. Diplomatic retaliation perhaps...

but terrorism or military action, no. We aren't their *enemies*. There has never been Israeli terrorism in the UK (even Irgun attacked British targets in Israel, but not in the UK) so I don't see why they would start now.

[proteus_lives]

12. Wow.

Not too bright are you?

[azurnoir]

3. Our congress should be ashamed n/t

[IndianaGreen]

4. Our Congress are whores for the Israel Lobby

and for the health industry, Big Pharma, military-industrial complex, etc. Heck, our Congress should be replaced in its entirety!

[LeftishBrit]

7. Good. Now if only we could reduce OUR war activities!

[Tripmann]

10. Not bad, but why only partial?

[shira]

11. Britain's breathtaking double standard

In 2008, while the civil war in Sri Lanka was raging, Britain sold $22 million worth of armored vehicles, machine gun parts and semi-automatic pistols to the government in Colombo. During the course of the Sri Lankan army's assault on the last Tamil Tiger strongholds from January to May this year, approximately 20,000 civilians were killed.

The Foreign Office said of the cancelled Israeli contracts "We do not grant export licenses where there is a clear risk that arms will be used for external aggression or internal repression." The Sri Lankan army appears to have killed more than 40 times the number of civilians in its campaign against the Tamil Tigers than were killed in the IDF's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year, but we have yet to hear of any restrictions on British arms exports to Sri Lanka.

...

The double standard which the British Foreign Office has applied in defining which countries are suitable customers for British arms is quite breathtaking. China threatens Taiwan, occupies Tibet and brutally oppresses its own people. Relations between Pakistan and India in the earlier part of this decade were extremely volatile and the countries even teetered on the edge of nuclear conflict in 2001-2002. And the atrocious record of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses is well documented. Yet, oddly, none of this has prompted London to embargo weapons to any of these governments, despite its declared parameters precluding the export of British arms to countries which might use them for external aggression or internal repression.

...

BUT THE HYPOCRISY of the recent announcement is not perhaps the most concerning aspect of this affair. What is more alarming is the specific focus of the embargo, namely Israel's actions during Operation Cast Lead. The cancellation of the export licenses would seem to imply that Britain views Cast Lead as Israeli "external aggression".

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443820096&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Violet_Crumble]

13. Good news! n/t