LONDON — Fast on the heels of its election victory, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government has taken steps to hone its defense of the interests of the U.K.’s capitalist rulers at home and abroad.
Within days, Foreign Secretary David Lammy was in Israel meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and in the West Bank with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.
The U.K. rulers seek stability in the region to advance their own predatory economic and military interests. Lammy called for an “immediate cease-fire” and condemned the Israeli government for allegedly blocking the delivery of aid to Gaza. He claimed London was working for the release of hostages held by Hamas, while expressing London’s support for the Palestinian Authority government and its “program of reform.”
For over a decade, U.K. military personnel have been stationed in Ramallah in the West Bank to work with Palestinian Authority security services. The previous Conservative government and Washington had backed plans for the Palestinian Authority to take over Gaza once the war ends, a move opposed by Israel.
On his return to London, Lammy announced the U.K.’s renewal of funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and full U.K. cooperation with the International Criminal Court’s looming arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Israeli’s defense minister, on grounds of “war crimes.” Both moves are aimed at increasing pressure on Israel to halt the war before Hamas has been decisively defeated.
The previous Conservative government had launched a legal challenge to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Israeli officials, a challenge Lammy has now ended. Its prime minister, Rishi Sunak, also suspended London’s funding of UNRWA in January after it emerged that its staff had facilitated Hamas’ pogrom on Oct. 7 last year in which 1,200 Jews and others were killed, hundreds more brutalized and hostages seized.
While in opposition, Labour supported Sunak’s deployment of Royal Air Force planes to help defend Israel from an April 14 missile attack by the rulers in Iran. At the same time, Lammy indicated that he intended to impose an arms embargo against Israel. He has so far held off on this.
The U.K. government does not directly send arms to Israel but does issue arms licenses for companies that do. These have already been sharply cut since Oct. 7.
But the Israeli government is concerned about the prospect of a Labour-initiated arms embargo, because British companies ship critical components for its F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, and because of the political impact of London taking such a step.
Since the election, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has upped calls for an arms embargo, while pro-Hamas thugs in the U.K. have attacked arms factories, smashing equipment and harassing workers.
The government’s decision to delay the arms embargo is aimed at giving London greater leverage in its relations with Israel as it defends its wider goals in the region.
Anglo-Qatari cooperation
Lammy traveled to Qatar at the end of July, along with Defense Secretary John Healy, to meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Qatar has “a key role in mediating the conflict in Gaza,” Lammy said. During the visit, Lammy and Healy met with U.K. Armed Forces personnel stationed there. The British rulers have a Royal Air Force base at Al Udeid — also used by Washington — and operate a joint RAF-Qatar air force squadron. The Royal Navy maintains a permanent presence in the Arab-Persian Gulf, with ships docking in Qatar.
Qatar has grown in importance to the British imperialist rulers who once colonized much of the Middle East, but whose power has declined sharply over decades. Qatar is a former British protectorate that gained independence in 1971, but London has maintained a foothold there through a number of U.K.-Qatari “strategic” economic and military agreements. The U.K. military exports center on fighter-bombers, air defense and missiles. The U.K. is one of Qatar’s major trading partners.
Like its predecessors, the Starmer government cares nothing about defending Jews or Israel as a refuge, nor the interests of working people or any oppressed nationality in the region. Its foreign policy starts from the class interests of the U.K.’s propertied rulers amid the social convulsions, rising Jew-hatred and wars that mark capitalism’s world disorder — and British imperialism’s decline.