The announcement last week that Britain would suspend 30 weapons export licences to Israel prompted a predictable firestorm. Critics of Israel’s war in Gaza accuse the UK government of being criminally soft on Israel. From the other side, Britain’s chief rabbi was outraged. The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu cleaved to his theme that his country is fighting both Iran and Hamas, whom he regularly compares to Nazis, and his closest associate, the minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, suggested that the policy was like denying Churchill the weapons to fight Hitler.
Others understandably lambasted the UK government for deeply insensitive timing, the announcement coming even as Israel was convulsed in anguish after six hostages were executed by Hamas. The hostages had survived in captivity for nearly 11 months before being shot in the head as Israeli forces approached.
