The British government will not suspend supplying arms to Israel, Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Sunday, following Democrat President Joe Biden suspending some weapons shipments and threatening to cut off further military aid to Jerusalem if it presses forward with its planned invasion of Rafah to hunt down Hamas terrorists.
In an interview on Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips Show, Foreign Minister David Cameron said that cutting off weapons shipments to Israel is “not a wise path” noting that the last time he faced public pressure to do so “a few days later there was a massive Iranian attack on Israel, including 140 cruise missiles.”
“If I announced that today, it might help me get through this television interview, but actually it would strengthen Hamas. It would weaken Israel,” Lord Cameron said.
“I think it probably makes a hostage deal less likely. So I don’t think some sort of political declaration is the right answer. We should stick with our rigorous process of making sure we act within the law.”
The former prime minister went on to claim that Britain and the United States “are in a totally different situation” when it comes to Israel.
“The United States is a massive bulk state supplier of weapons to Israel, including, you know, 1,000lb pound bombs and all the rest of it,” he said.
“The UK provides less than 1 per cent of Israel’s weapons and is not a state supplier. We have a licensing system and those licences can be closed if it’s judged there’s a serious risk of a serious international human rights violation.”
Making the rounds on the British Sunday morning television show circuit, Lord Cameron also criticised the BBC for its coverage of the conflict in the wake of the announcement of the death of British-Israeli hostage Nadav Popplewell in Gaza.
“Maybe it’s a moment actually for the BBC to ask itself again, shall we describe these people as terrorists?” he questioned.
“They [Hamas] are terrorists, if you kidnap grandmothers, kidnap babies, you rape people, you shoot children in front of their parents, what more do they need to do for the BBC to say look these are terrorists?”
The comments from Britain’s top diplomat come in the wake of President Joe Biden threatening to withhold shipments of artillery and other weapons to Israel if they invaded Rafah, the final stronghold of Hamas, the jihadist Palestinian group classified as terrorists by both the UK and the United States.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah, they haven’t gone into Rafah yet, if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem,” Biden said this week after his administration halted a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel last week.
Hamas, the Islamist terrorists behind the October 7th terror attacks on Israel that left over 1,200 killed and over 250 taken hostage, many of whom remain in captivity to this day including five Americans, called for a ceasefire ahead of the planned invasion of Rafa.
However, apparently, in defiance of the Biden administration, Jerusalem’s security cabinet voted on Friday to expand its military operation in Rafah while continuing to hold talks in Egypt for a potential deal with Hamas to release the remaining hostages.
In a further attempt to stave off the invasion of Rafah, the White House has reportedly offered to provide intelligence on the location of key Hamas leaders in the tunnels under Gaza to Jerusalem, sparking questions as to why the Biden administration would have withheld such information when it could have helped save the lives of Americans and brought about a swifter resolution to the conflict.
While the UK has decided not to follow Biden in cutting off arms to Israel, Lord Cameron also warned against the Rafah offensive, saying that it would be wrong for Israel to go in without a “plan to protect people” given the high number of refugees who relocated to the area in the wake of Israel’s military response to the October 7th attacks.
“In Rafah, you’ve got hundreds of thousands of people who’ve moved from other parts of Gaza. So it would be extremely dangerous to attempt a major offensive in that way,” he said.
Yet, the foreign secretary said that the issue ultimately “goes back to Hamas” as the terror group has repeatedly rejected deals which could have prevented further bloodshed, saying: “So the question really, I think, is for Hamas, you know, why are you allowing this suffering to go on when you could stop it now?”