Boris Johnson Denounces “Insane” Call for Banning Arms Exports to Israel

British former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned the proposals for the Conservative government to ban arms sales to Israel as “madness” and “an example of the death wish of Western civilisation”.

The US, UK, and other Western governments are retreating from supporting Israel’s war against the terrorists of Hamas. The timing of such proposals, coinciding with the six-month anniversary of the Hamas October 7th pogrom, makes them all the more obscene.

While the accidental deaths of three British aid workers are being used as a pretext for a serious discussion of arms embargoes, the underlying cause of the proposals is UK backsliding from backing Israel.

Johnson responded when he came out fighting in his Saturday Daily Mail column:

If you want an example of the death wish of Western civilisation, I give you the current proposal from members of the British establishment that this country should ban arms sales to Israel.

If you want evidence of government madness, it appears that Foreign Office lawyers are busily canvassing the idea—which has not, as far as I can tell, yet been rejected by the Foreign Secretary himself. He seems to have gone into a kind of purdah on the subject.

The former PM went on to describe any British retreat as “willing the military defeat of Israel and the victory of Hamas:”

Remember that, in order to win this conflict, Hamas only has to survive. All they need at the end is to hang on, rebuild, and go again.

Johnson’s bleak prognosis is a reminder of the promises of Hamas—starting with its founding charter and repeated after the October 7th massacre—to wipe out Israel and Jews alike. Denying Israel victory would see the Islamist terrorists recuperate, rearm, and relaunch their genocidal campaign.

The former Tory leader appears to be going out on a limb by voicing his public concern that

At the moment they can see us melting, and weakening, and in our voices—both in London and Washington—they can hear our growing irresolution.

Compare Johnson’s bullishness to the way U.S. President Joe Biden is calling for an immediate ceasefire, which would amount to surrendering to the genocidal Islamists who broke the previous ceasefire on October 7th. Likewise, assorted European Union member states are finding their own rationales for abandoning Israel.

U.K. foreign secretary Lord David Cameron now echoes Biden and the EU, declaring that British support for Israel is ‘not unconditional’. What restrictions would he impose on Israel in its existential struggle? This coming from the cabinet minister most prone to talking big on backing Ukraine! Deputy PM Oliver Dowden told Sky News that the UK has “one of the toughest arms export systems,” based on legal advice, but it seems his heart wasn’t in it, admitting his “specific concerns” about Israel’s conduct.

It’s also reported that Dowden’s government has received legal advice warning that Israel has broken international law, amplified by the media and legal professions chipping away at the seriousness of the Israeli cause. This draws on the wider international picture, which sees the EU backing off from Israel and echoing the spurious allegations made by South Africa in the international courts. Ireland too has joined in with ‘war crimes’ accusations of its own.

Now more than U.K. 600 lawyers have written to the government saying that it could be breaking international law over a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza—unless it ends arms exports to Israel.

The immediate catalyst for these calls is that three Britons were among the World Central Kitchen (WCK) security workers who died in the strikes: former Royal Marines John Chapman and James “Jim” Henderson, and ex-Rifleman James Kirby. The other casualties were Polish, Australian, Palestinian, and a dual US-Canadian citizen.

According to Jake Wallis Simons, author of Israelophobia: The Newest Version of the Oldest Hatred and What To Do About It, “Israel is being subjected to obscene double standards”.

In other recent conflicts, ‘collateral damage,’ ‘friendly fire,’ and civilian casualties have been treated as unfortunate facts of war. Cameron has form on this, following his support for disastrous British involvement in Libya in 2011. In contrast, Israeli errors are now seen as the result of intentional bloodlust.

Such claims are magnified by media reporting, which uncritically repeats Hamas casualty figures and disclosures from the hospitals it controls. We see coverage of protests calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign, but little of the many Israelis who support his prosecution of the war against Hamas–even if they intend to vote him out further down the line.

It is possible that Israel’s isolation from the West, including the EU, is already taking its toll. Recent hostage negotiations—involving U.S., Israeli, Egyptian, Qatari and Hamas representatives—indicate future scope for a prisoner exchange. But they also coincide with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) being withdrawn from Gaza and a planned invasion of Rafah postponed. In turn, ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have warned Netanyahu that they may quit his coalition if the war ends without first invading Rafah to finish Hamas. Failure to stand with Israel is strengthening the Islamists.

Israeli resolve puts many western politicians to shame. In contrast, Boris Johnson has spelled out what exactly is at stake, when the “good, clever, kindly people in this country are actually willing to take away, from Israel, its means of defending its citizens against Hamas. That is insane.”