heavy pressure by both members of Parliament and human rights organizations. The unhinged malevolence over Cast Lead can no longer be brushed off as the foamings of the far-left and its acolytes in the media, NGOs and fashionable society. This is the British government now acting to punish Israel for defending itself against relentless rocket attack by an enemy bent on its destruction. It says Israel’s actions were ‘disproportionate’. What is it talking about? The actual evidence showed that the proportion of civilians killed in Gaza was very small – far smaller than might have been expected given the tactics Hamas was using of embedding itself within the population. The claims of large numbers of civilians and children killed were fabricated by Hamas and recycled by the Israel-bashers of the UN and media. Far from being ‘disproportionate’, Cast Lead was a carefully targeted operation which, given the circumstances, was astonishingly successful in its aim of confining its attack to terrorist operatives. The only people claiming ‘disproportionate’ are enemies of Israel. Now the British government has openly joined them. Even now, however, the Foreign Office is in weaselly fashion attempting to deny that this is what it is. This partial arms embargo, it says, is not a partial arms embargo -- because all export licenses will continue to be considered individually: 'Future decisions will take into account what has happened in the recent conflict. We do not grant export licenses where there is a clear risk that arms will be used for external aggression or internal repression. We do not believe that the current situation in the Middle East would be improved by imposing an arms embargo on Israel. Israel has the right to defend itself and faces real security threats. This said, we consistently urge Israel to act with restraint and supported the EU Presidency statement that called the Israeli actions during operation Cast Lead “disproportionate.' Sorry, but an embargo is an embargo. An act of ideological spite is still an act of ideological spite. The false flag of 'disproportionality' is hoisted only by those who find it 'disproportionate' that Israel should ever defend itself against the Palestinians by military means at all. Israelis are expected instead passively to die under rocket and bomb attack -- or perhaps live in shelters for ever. That's proportionate. It is time now for all decent people of goodwill everywhere to boycott NGOs like Amnesty, War on Want and all the others who are pushing these obscene lies and libels about Israel. No decent person should have anything to do with these organisations. No-one should give money to these inciters of hatred and purveyors of lies. They have sided with the forces of genocide and Islamic fascism against the Jewish people, truth and conscience. They have become a force for evil in the world. As for the current British Labour government, it can no longer be counted a friend or ally of Israel. The odious Miliband made this as plain as could be when he called two months ago for a ‘new coalition of consent’ between the West and the Islamic world. He went on: Decisions taken many years ago in [the Foreign Office] are still felt on the landscape of the Middle East...Ruined Crusader castles remain as poignant monuments to the religious violence of the Middle Ages. Lines drawn on maps by colonial powers were succeeded, among other things, by the failure to establish two states in Palestine. There was only one reason why a Palestine state did not arise, and that was because the Arabs refused precisely such a proposal -- offered not just by the ‘colonial’ power, Britain, but again in 1947 by fiat of the United Nations. As Miliband did not recall, the Arab response was a rejection of a state of Palestine and a war of extermination against Israel instead. This in turn followed decades in which Arab rejectionism of ‘two states’ and of the Jews’ right to be in their historic homeland at all was directly related to the systematic British appeasement of Arab terror. Britain’s history in Palestine was in fact one of repeated betrayal of its pledges to the Jewish people made under international law, and its appeasement of Arab tyranny. Let us not hear any more sickening cant from Gordon Brown about how he learned to love Israel at his father’s knee. In this latest act of malice, Britain has merely reverted to shameful colonial type, courtesy this time of the post-modern left. It’s déjà vu all over again. ........................................................
It's Déjà Vu All Over Again
So now the veil is well and truly ripped off. All the warning signs have been there for months: Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s boilerplate leftist agitprop about Operation Cast Lead in Gaza; Britain’s pressure on the EU to renege on the agreements it made with Israel and boycott produce from the settlements; Miliband’s statement that Jerusalem should be the capital of ‘Palestine’ as well as of Israel. Now there has been a step-change. Ha’aretz reports that the British government has revoked a number of arms export licenses to Israel following the Gaza war. Five export licences have been revoked over spare parts for ships’ guns. The decision apparently resulted from
web haaretz.com 
IDF troops carrying out ground maneuvers in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead in January.
(Getty Images)Last update - 16:40 13/07/2009 U.K.: We revoked Israel arms licenses, but it's no embargo By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service Tags: Cast Lead, Israel News, Gaza 
The British Embassy in Tel Aviv confirmed Monday that the United Kingdom has revoked a number of arms export licenses to Israel following the Gaza war, but insisted that the move did not constitute a partial embargo.
"There is no partial U.K. arms embargo on Israel," the embassy said in a statement to Haaretz. "U.K. policy remains to assess all export licenses to Israel against the consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria."
The statement came in response to a Haaretz report that Britain had indeed 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.
What do you think about the embargo? Join the debate on the Haaretz.com Facebook group
The embassy added: "We reassessed these licenses against the U.K. and EU consolidated criteria. We judged that in a small number of cases Israeli action in Operation Cast Lead would result in the export of those goods now contravening the consolidated criteria. These licenses have been revoked.
"There are no security agreements between the UK and Israel."
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.
Last week, Britain's foreign and defense ministries informed the relevant companies that they would have to cease their planned arms deals with Israel's navy.
Ever since the Gaza operation, British MPs and nongovernmental organizations have been trying to persuade London to impose a complete arms embargo on Israel. However, the British government has rejected this demand.
In February, Amnesty International published a report on arms sales to Israel in which it highlighted Britain's role in supplying engines for Hermes 450 drones. According to Amnesty, Israel uses these drones to conduct assassinations in Gaza. The report prompted the Palestinian organization Al-Haq to file a suit against the British government, arguing that British arms sales facilitate Israeli operations in Gaza.
In April, Foreign Secretary David Miliband informed Parliament that Britain would reexamine all its defense exports to Israel in light of Operation Cast Lead. An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that since then, Britain's military attache in Israel has requested information on the uses Israel made of various types of British-supplied equipment during Cast Lead.
Foreign Ministry officials said that only a small percentage of Israel's defense-related imports come from Britain. According to data suppled by Britain's department of trade, these sales total some 20 million pounds - about NIS 130 million.
The British embargo is not expected to have any impact on the navy's operational capability. However, it has great political significance, and could encourage other countries to halt defense exports to Israel. The country considered most likely to be next is Belgium, which sells Israel equipment used to disperse demonstrations.
In an earlier response, the British Embassy in Tel Aviv issued a statement saying, "On 21 April 2009 the Foreign Secretary issued a Written Ministerial Statement about U.K. exports to Israel which may have been used by the Israel Defense Forces during the conflict in Gaza. This statement makes clear that all exports are subject to stringent controls.
"The statement sets out clearly the detail of U.K. components in equipment that may have been used in Operation Cast Lead. U.K. equipment was not exported for specific use in Operation Cast Lead and export licenses were issued based on all the evidence available at the time they were granted.
"Future decisions will take into account what has happened in the recent conflict. We do not grant export licenses where there is a clear risk that arms will be used for external aggression or internal repression.
"We do not believe that the current situation in the Middle East would be improved by imposing an arms embargo on Israel. Israel has the right to defend itself and faces real security threats.
"This said, we consistently urge Israel to act with restraint and supported the EU Presidency statement that called the Israeli actions during operation Cast Lead 'disproportionate.'"
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Monday 13 July 2009
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