Annual bilateral trade between the 5th largest economy in the world and the 34th rated global economy exceeds US$3 billion with over 300 known Israeli companies operating in Britain. Much of this trade is in classified military equipment, armaments and security systems notwithstanding that the state of Israel is the only undeclared nuclear entity, globally, and has built huge secret nuclear arsenals that are outside the inspection of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Plus the unpalatable fact that Israel is in gross breach of UNSCR2334 that demands withdrawal of all Israeli citizens from illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories.
In other words, the United Kingdom collaborates closely with a nuclear-armed state that is vastly superior to the UK in terms of its nuclear weaponry and other WMD including its ‘second strike’ capability afforded by a fleet of German-built, Dolphin-Class submarines armed with Cruise missiles boasting a range in excess of 1500kms. This enables them to reach Copenhagen from Genoa on the Mediterranean and virtually every other state in Europe both East, West and North. That includes Britain, Germany, France, Holland, Spain, Austria, Poland, Italy, Ukraine and Switzerland etc. All are now within range of Israel’s SLCMs.
However, there are other important considerations from the Israeli perspective apart from its hugely profitable bilateral trade with the UK. Israeli owned companies are major suppliers of generic drugs to Britain’s National Health Service, without which the NHS would be in serious difficulty.
Apart from these military and commercial considerations, there is a still more important aspect – a political one. Virtually the entire ruling Conservative party are paid-up members of the Friends of Israel lobby, including apparently the Prime Minister. This gives the Israeli government a unique entry into the corridors of power in Westminster to an extent that a former Conservative Minister allegedly had secret talks with her counterpart in Tel Aviv without the knowledge of the UK government and, reportedly tried to offer funding to the IDF in a completely unauthorised effort to collaborate with the Israeli authorities. The Prime Minister had no option but to require her immediate resignation. Some years’ prior to that, a Conservative Defence Minister was obliged to resign for also indulging in improper negotiations with a foreign government. This latter politician has, of course, now been instrumental in his new role in concluding post-Brexit trade links with the Israeli state ahead of negotiations with the rest of the world.
Of course, the state of Israel is a non- member of NATO. It is also a non-member of the EU. It is not a party to the IAEA. It is not a party to the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. It is neither a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention or the BWC. In other words, it is outside many of the most important international treaties and conventions to which virtually the whole world is a committed party.
Why then has the British Government been so anxious to sign a post-Brexit trade deal with one of the most potentially dangerous regimes in the world – a regime that even holds the United Nations Security Council in contempt but which, of course, has US President Donald Trump’s family in the White House as mentors, and funders and arms suppliers courtesy of the US Congress?
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Hans Stehling (pen name) is an analyst based in the UK. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
