Starmer chooses ‘confess-and-avoid’ as UK arms keep feeding Israel’s genocide

Alameen Templeton

Forgive us for the confusion. Al Mayadeen is still reporting the UK’s attorney general, Richard Hermer, has announced the UK needs to ensure the arms it’s exporting to Israel are not being used in its Gaza genocide.

That sounds like the flow of death between London and Tel Aviv is about to come to grinding halt, doesn’t it?

But the British talent for splitting hairs, shifting goalposts and realigning expectations like writhing sand ripples in a Sahara sandstorm should never be under-estimated.

After all, the UK-Irish “Good Friday” peace talks started at the same time South Africa’s Codesa negotiations got under way in the Nineties and they’re still on-going.

The bottom line

Take it from me: the English won’t be leaving Northern Ireland any time soon.

Unfortunately, the same can be said for the axe that’s supposedly poised to fall upon the torrent of British arms flowing to Tel Aviv: the axe will not be falling any time soon.

Indeed, the continuing UK weapons torrent is only outmatched by US arms supplies and the blood flowing out of Gaza.

The Telegraph, the barking-mad megaphone of Britain’s Conservative Party, is Tuesday reporting that, since October 7 last year, 100 additional arms export licences were added to the list of 247 total licences that existed before the genocide started.

Now, it says, “Pro-Gaza MPs have attacked the attorney general over his refusal to confirm a ban on arms sales to Israel.

“Richard Hermer KC has told Foreign Office officials that he will not approve a decision to ban some weapons sales until they can say for certain which could be used to break international law.”

No blanket ban

So, the goalposts have danced again. Initially, it was thought Hermer was saying Britain would have to ensure Israel was not committing genocide if it wanted to continue exporting arms to Tel Aviv.

Now, he’s saying Palestinian supporters will have to first prove each and every weapon or weapons component being sold to Israel is causing genocide before he’ll act.

So, it’s going to be a case-by-case struggle if opponents to the genocide want to end the flow. There’s not going to be any blanket ban.

But, at least that seems to be a step away from denying the genocide has happened and is continuing to happen, as home affairs minister Suella Braverman and Downing Street stubbornly insisted until the Conservatives’ inevitable election ouster.

That would be a hard act to pull off, particularly after Mark Smith, Britain’s top weapons examiner for Arabia, resigned earlier this month, warning Israel was “openly, blatantly and in open sight” committing atrocities in Gaza.

Under the Conservatives, a significant chunk of Britain’s legal fraternity – including top legal academics, judges and lords – had insisted genocide was unfolding in Gaza and the UK was complicit in it because of its continuing arms sales to Israel.

‘OK, genocide is happening, but can you PROVE, this particular nut and bolt is causing it?’

So, Labour, under the leadership of Israeli sympathiser, Kier Starmer, finds itself in a hard place – its supporters want the genocide to end, but the establishment is determined it must continue.

Starmer can’t afford to tell the plain truth to his followers: the establishment always gets its way in England.

So, he has to play a rearguard game of confess-and-avoid, of delay-and-deny: “Well, okay, genocide is happening, but are you sure, no, no, can you PROVE, this particular screw, this nut and bolt, that detonator cap, this white phosphor grenade is causing the genocide? After all, Israel says that these latest supplies will be used against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which is far away from the Gaza genocide. And Israel is a trusted ally while Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation that must be stopped.”

It could be said the Irish have a better chance of seeing the British kicked out of Northern Ireland than the Gazans have of seeing a little mercy coming from London.