My enemy's enemy...
Yesterday, the Telegraph reported the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates waxing lyrical over the new strategic and economic alliance with Britain embodied in the Abu Dhabi Declaration signed in the presence of HM the Queen. The previous day, the Telegraph spelled out the true price of this new agreement:
Whitehall officials said Foreign Secretary William Hague's decision to reach out to Gulf states in an effort to secure better diplomatic and trade ties meant Britain had to ‘take on board’ Arab foreign policy goals. Requesting better ties would be a two-way street, not just plea for more defence contracts and exports, they said. ‘It will be a six lane highway with movement in both directions,’ said one diplomat. ‘We have to respond to what Gulf States want. If we want a long-term partnership on foreign policy, then changes in our stance have to be part of it.’
... Officials in both Abu Dhabi and London make no bones about stressing the significance of the defence relationship as the West and its regional allies gear up to a possible confrontation with Iran. That may mean yet further withdrawal of traditional British support for Israel, with criticism of its government already more marked under Mr Hague than it was under New Labour government.
In another indication of the Foreign Office's new sensitivity to Arab opinion, officials admitted to The Daily Telegraph that policies on the Israel-Lebanon war of 2006, Israel's invasion of Gaza in 2008-9, and its occupation of the West Bank and settlements policy were ‘motivators’ for the Islamic radicalism that they confronted daily in the Gulf.
Where to begin? Yes, realpolitik demands that sometimes ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’. Yes, the overriding enemy at this time is Iran, threatening not just Israel and the west but also the Gulf states. Yes, the Gulf is vital to western oil supplies. But sometimes my enemy’s enemy is still my enemy. The UAE and other Gulf states are only relatively moderate in their Islamic attitudes compared to, say, Saudi Arabia (and note that admission of 'Islamic radicalism in the Gulf'). Furthermore, because they can see that the US under Obama is caving into Iran, they are doing what Arab states always do – backing the stronger horse in the region, as explained here:
The UAE and Qatar were quick to congratulate Ahmadinejad on his re-election victory, and Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said traveled to Iran in August. Qatar's emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani discussed ways to expand economic cooperation with Iran with Tehran's ambassador to Qatar on August 27, 2009, the day after Iran's envoy to Bahrain called on the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council states to stop ‘employing foreign forces.’ The New York Times reported in May that Oman and the UAE increasingly rely on ‘mutual interest’ trade with Iran, which is ‘an important political and economic ally that is too powerful and too potentially dangerous to ignore, let alone antagonize.’ Iran's talk of ‘indigenizing ‘regional security shows signs of appealing, especially in Qatar. In Bahrain, too, an eagerness to bow to growing Iranian power has taken the shape of bilateral energy agreements.
So, ostensibly to forge regional alliances against Iran, Britain has now locked itself into a strategic alliance with states which are forging alliances with Iran. Brilliant. And in order to achieve this, Britain is now turning against Israel -- the one state which really is the west’s one true defender in the region -- and falling into line instead behind its enemies.
Really, Britain is displaying the geopolitical equivalent of an auto-immune disease – attacking its friends while embracing its destroyers. One could say that it was ever thus; with the rare exception of Christian Zionist leaders such as Arthur Balfour, Britain has always sided with the Arabs believing that its national interest has always lain with them rather than with the Jews. What’s so unforgiveable is that this is now happening against the backdrop of a global campaign to delegitimise Israel in order to soften up the world for its destruction. In other words, it’s the 1930s all over again; for Britain, history is being repeated not as farce but as tragedy.
For sure, there’s another side to this: Britain and Israel remain close allies in the intelligence sphere. But Israel should surely now regard Britain rather as it presumably regards Saudi Arabia – as a hostile entity with which it sometimes has to do business.
This is a nightmare for British Jews.
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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power', published by Encounter.
For a complete set of Melanie's articles click here
Melanie Phillips blog archive
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JJS
November 26th, 2010 11:51amSurely Israel can now hardly share intelligence with Britain, given Britain's association with UAE etc. And look at how, with the two most recent State Visits, the imprimatur of HM the Queen has been given to this new change of direction. Worrying.....
Truthtriumphs
November 26th, 2010 11:52amBritain unashamedly follows her interests, and so should Israel.
Robbo
November 26th, 2010 12:22pmDhimmitude takes many forms and this latest example just confirms that this country is on its knees, metaphorically and physically.
Liz
November 26th, 2010 12:46pmThe first thing I thought when I saw pictures of the Queen on her state visit, was how ironical it is that while she's there being wined, dined and showered with gifts the Saudi government is busy sponsoring Sharia schools which preach intolerance, subversion and racism against her subjects back home. You couldn't make it up, could you?
Jason from AZ
November 26th, 2010 1:12pmSo true. Israel's former allies in the EU, especially the UK, are no longer true allies which Israel can rely upon for support. Even the US under Obama is no longer a trusted friend. (Say what you will about Sarah Palin, if she were ever elected President, her administration would be one of the friendliest allies Israel ever had.)
Israel must start to forge strong alliances with other countries that are also potential victims of Muslim extremism but which do not pander to the oil rich nations like you Brits. India is one country that comes to mind. Canada and Australia are two others.
Gordon Ross
November 26th, 2010 1:25pm"Britain is now turning against Israel". Not so; Britain has been against Israel from the very beginning. The Jewish renaissance in the Land of Israel has always interfered with British interests in the Middle East, and although Britain has posed as a friend and entered into the usual formal diplomatic ties, it has never had real empathy with Israel.
It is appropriate to quote the late Golda Meir once again: "With friends like these, who needs enemies!".
EDDIE
November 26th, 2010 2:11pmIt was always like this. Just read the correspondence between Ernest Bevin and Prime Minister Attlee just after the war when Jewish survivors were trying to get to Israel.. The cornerstone of British Foreign Policy has always been the support the Arabs and Oil, and frankly, they are quite attracted to Arabs as individuals. Balfour may even have thought that “powerful world Jewry” (probably not the Elders) might use their world wide influence to aid Britain defeat Germany in the war if they were granted the possibility of a homeland, so prejudice worked for the Jews on this rare occasion.
Matthew
November 26th, 2010 4:25pmTo Liz, The UAE and Oman (were she is being 'wined, dined and showered with gifts') is not Saudi (Arabia)! The British government is simply pointng out that Israels actions are wrong and that each country should be open to scrutiny. Israel is no exception. However Israels belief that they are is very self destructive.
Samson
November 26th, 2010 5:04pm...A news report indicated that the Queen would be stopping over in Israel after her visit to the UAE. She had been quoted as saying "Yes, I will be sure to visit all the holy places in Jerusalem - that's the capital of Israel, you know - and everywhere else in Israel, the state of the Jewish people." However, the imposter was quickly identified and arrested for impersonating a royal.
In other news:
Queen Elizabeth banned from making state visit to Israel, says historian
14 December 2009
The eminent historian Andrew Roberts has said that the British government had a de facto ban in place on state visits by Queen Elizabeth II to Israel. "The true reason of course, is that the FO [Foreign Office] has a ban on official royal visits to Israel, which is even more powerful for its being unwritten and unacknowledged. As an act of delegitimization of Israel, this effective boycott is quite as serious as other similar acts, such as the academic boycott, and is the direct fault of the FO Arabists. It is, therefore, no coincidence that although the queen has made over 250 official overseas visits to 129 different countries during her reign, neither she nor one single member of the British royal family has ever been to Israel on an official visit,” Roberts told a gala dinner in London.
http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/main/showNews/id/8719
David Lindsay
November 26th, 2010 6:01pmSince when was the UAE an enemy of Britain? If you want to find one of those, then look no further than the comments on this and other Zionist websites.
Britain's longstanding ties to the Arab world are for some reason less well-known in the population at large than used to be the case, whereas a word has been abroad that we have particularly close links to a country set up by anti-British Marxist terrorists and with which we have only the most limited economic or cultural dealings. But the Arab ties are still there, and possibly none is closer than to the UAE.
No teenage British conscript was photographed being hanged with barbed wire by those seeking the independence of the Trucial States, and relations ever since have reflected that. With Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the UAE was a Clinton campaign backer on whose instruction she therefore promised to nuke Iran. But the Emiratis' bonds to Britain are older and stronger. And the Emirates would make for a much less difficult or demanding outpost of British influence than Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are outposts of American influence.
Adam B.
November 26th, 2010 6:06pmMatthew, I'm sure you wouldn't mind Israeli diplomats telling the UK how its policies in Iraq and Afghanistan are wrong, how Britain should withdraw from settled territory like the Falkland Islands etc.
I'm sure you'd accept all that in good grace - just like you expect Israel to do so.
Wouldn't you?
Adam B.
November 26th, 2010 7:09pmLindsay, if your reason for hating Israel and endlessly criticizing it harks back to what happened 62 years ago, I think you need to get over it.
If you think these Gulf states are your friends, you are sadly mistaken. Look at general attitudes towards the West, with no shares values of freedom or democracy, equal rights for minorities, women or gays.
But then perhaps that isn't important to you.
Worried
November 26th, 2010 9:53pmI have commented on this very subject before, and the jist of my point was "we have been bought". Ethics and all the rest out the window - our economy is being kept afloat by those who we obtain our oil from, so foreign policy be damned. Britain is a duplicious evil nation, don't you forget that.
Dhimmi No More
November 26th, 2010 11:08pmDavid Lindsay, wannabe dhimmi. Did you see the picture in Mail onlne the other day of our barefoot dhimmi Queen in the Arab mosque?
AY
November 27th, 2010 2:23am..knitted kippa featured by St.George's cross for prince William, and through-see burka for Kate.. dreams, dreams.
john
November 27th, 2010 9:14amSurely the UAE will lend us one of their aircraft carriers, and their Harriers,at a price, to be sure, to help us to retake the Falklands, when the Argentines have really understood the current wimpishness/wimposity of the Brits. and invade the islands in the New Year. Obama won't help, that is certain.Not the EU, nor NATO. But hurray, the camels are coming, the camels are coming to the rescue. Can one believe it?
Agha Ali Arkhan
November 28th, 2010 5:33pmIf I were a Western Power, I know with whom I would want to be in bed when the s..t hits the fan in Iran.
barackobama
November 28th, 2010 8:51pmGordon Ross.
About 100,000 British, Indian, Australian and other troops were killed, wounded or struck down by disease in the campaign to drive the Ottomans out of what is now Israel in 1917-18. How do you explain that?
gareth
November 28th, 2010 8:58pmThe 1600s and 1700s after England stopped praying to Rome and turned to the Bible - a great affinity with (Ancient) Israel was felt by most of the population - evidenced by the large number of biblical first names, particularly amongst the New World settlers....names like Samuel, Zachariah, Hosea, Isaac, Enoch etc..... are ubiquitous.
Balfour was just the last of a long line of earnest, spiritual Israelites, including old Winston himself.
And was Jerusalem builded here?
I hope God will not turn his back on us, as we are doing with Israel today.
Nick
November 29th, 2010 9:55amWhat a difference a day makes. Presumably Mel will now be singing the praises of our new friends in Riyadh.
Zachary
November 29th, 2010 3:10pm"The enemy of my enemy can be my worse enemy"
BAS
December 2nd, 2010 6:14pmWhy are Israelis so insecure about this? Its very simple Israel is not interested in peace under this current right-wing government and the Americans and British (and the Arabs/Muslim world) have stretched their patience on this. The West is in a recession and needs the goodwill of cash-rich Arab countries. Anyway when it comes to interests, Britain's are closely lined with the Arab world at the moment and will continue the more right-wing Israel turns. So the sooner some sanity returns to Israel and they bring in a center-ground government with serious intentions of a peace deal the better for Isral