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UK’s lapdog leaders too scared to condemn Israel’s unprovoked attacks on Iran

Britain’s spineless political leaders have miserably failed to condemn Israel’s dangerous and unprovoked attacks on Iran. That’s because they’re powerless to do so, as lapdogs of US imperialism and active participants in the ongoing US-Israeli genocide. And that should worry us, because it could spark a world war.

Israel has killed around one child per hour in Gaza since October 2023, trying to terrorise Palestinians into leaving their homeland. Iran has not. Yet British prime minister Keir Starmer and foreign secretary David Lammy are trying to ‘both sides’ Israel’s latest act of aggression, continuing a clear tradition of shamelessly supporting Israeli war criminals (who have nuclear weapons) while making absurd exaggerations about an essentially non-existent threat from Iran (which doesn’t have nuclear weapons). As a junior partner to the US empire, though, you wouldn’t really expect anything else from the British establishment.

Starmer and Lammy prioritise US & Israeli interests over human life and international law

If Starmer and Lammy actually cared about peace, human life, or international law, they would stop participating in and covering for the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza. But in reality, they are self-interested tools of a British establishment that cares primarily about its ongoing gig as the US empire’s faithful sidekick. Real power lies with the US, and its Israeli outpost, so Britain’s spineless leaders are (once again) faithfully trying to shift the blame away from Israel and onto Iran. (The mainstream media, of course, does exactly the same.)

Starmer couldn’t even say it was Israel that attacked Iran while urging “all parties to step back” and calling for “restraint, calm and a return to diplomacy”.

Nor could Lammy as he slightly reworded this meaningless nonsense:

Previously, both Starmer and Lammy have had no problems naming and condemning Iran when it has responded to Israeli aggression, or insisting that Israel has rights that it doesn’t. (For the record, Israel doesn’t have a legal right to self-defence in territory it illegally occupies. Iran does have the legal right to respond to Israeli aggression.)

The British establishment is an escalator – not a de-escalator with Israel

Let’s put to one side the role British colonialism played in bringing death and destruction in the Middle East, and particularly in helping to set the Israeli state up as the next big thing in Western colonialism.

The fact is that, today, British politicians are simply fulfilling their duty as imperial lackeys – with only superficial differences between blue and red Tories. We can see this in the ongoing arms transfers to Israel, the participation of RAF Akrotiri in the Gaza genocide, attacks on international law and British law, the ongoing British training of Israeli occupation forces, and the repression of dissent. And in exchange for doing the bidding of arms profiteers, genocidal Israeli occupiers, and other big business interests, the UK’s top politicians receive generous financial donations (including from the influential pro-Israel lobby).

In these ways, Gaza is Britain’s genocide too. And the money-hungry, misanthropic cowards that wealthy interests helped to install in government aren’t about to risk their journey on the gravy train by standing up for international law.

UK foreign policy is not about to change. Because it’s no accident. It is, by design, a tool of genocidal imperialism.

‘The Nazis and the Allies should both show restraint’

The ‘two sides’ bullshit has to stop. Because this is not about two sides. In a World War Two comparison, it’s like someone asking the Nazis and Allies to ‘both show restraint and de-escalate tensions’ – which would be patently absurd. No good-faith actor would suggest that as Nazis exterminated millions of Jewish and other civilians in the Holocaust.

The US-Israeli genocide is the Nazi Holocaust of our day. And the only restraint we really need is for that genocide to stop and the forces committing it to face justice. Anything else is just a cynical distraction.

The simple fact is that Israel has engaged in wanton brutality in Palestine. Iran, on the other hand, has faced down Israel’s aggression with massive restraint. While Iran is not perfect, there is absolutely no moral equivalence. Israel has spent decades as a settler-colonial aggressor (including against Iran), but Iran has suffered decades of imperialist interference. Suggesting they’re somehow on the same footing is both obscene and dangerous, further empowering and shielding genocidal war criminals in Israel.

A mass movement is currently rising in Britain to counter the gold-digging lapdogs of the political establishment. And for it to have any meaningful impact, it must stand firmly against US imperialism and the ongoing stranglehold it has over our lives. It must also be a mass grassroots movement. Because while money can corrupt a handful of leaders, it’s near-impossible to corrupt thousands and millions of people desperate for peace.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

This post was originally published on Canary.