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Contenders for Boris Johnson's crown stress fealty to Israel

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Jonathan Cook
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As foreign secretary, she has been outspoken in condemning Russia's invasion, calling it an "illegal occupation". She has backed Britons going to fight against Russia. She has loudly supported sending weapons to help Ukraine defend itself. And she has suggested that the assets of Russian nationals frozen by the UK should be transferred to Ukraine.

Of course, Truss wishes to extend none of those supposedly principled positions supporting Ukrainians against Russian aggression to Palestinians facing Israeli aggression.

It is inconceivable that she would ever approve of sending arms to Palestinians so they could defend themselves from Israeli attack. Quite the contrary. Truss's government has increased arms sales to Israel to record levels even as Israel chokes Gaza and Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem steal ever more Palestinian land.

It is also unthinkable that Truss would agree to freeze Israeli assets in the UK and use them to help reconstruct long-suffering Gaza. Or that she would back Britons going to fight with the Palestinian resistance against Israel's suffocating blockade of Gaza.

For Trump, the move was intended to pander to his electoral base of US evangelicals. They wish to shore up Jewish control of the region to bring about an end times in which Christians alone rise to be with God.

Now Truss appears ready to emulate Trump.

In her letter, the foreign minister also promises to "cement" Britain's ties with Israel by expediting a Free Trade Agreement being drafted by the government. Truss has said "closer trade" is a priority.

Human rights groups like Amnesty International have warned against Britain hastily negotiating such an agreement, saying it may "incentivise Israel's system of apartheid", help Israel expand its illegal settlements and give a stamp of approval to Israeli efforts to annex Palestinian land under occupation.

Truss vows too a further crackdown on the international boycott movement, backing a US-style bill to prevent public bodies, including local councils, from joining the BDS campaign to divest funds from Israel for its illegal activities in the occupied territories.

She says BDS causes "needless division". Presumably the division that concerns her is antagonising Israel's aggressive lobbyists in the UK, not fuelling tensions with Palestinians, their supporters and human rights groups.

Given inaction by western governments, solidarity expressed through boycotts is effectively the only non-violent way for individuals and organisations to punish Israel - whether for its continuing crimes against ordinary Palestinians, or its efforts to steal and colonise their land, or its moves to frustrate the emergence of a Palestinian state.

By outlawing peaceful resistance to Israel's belligerent occupation, Truss would leave Palestinians and their supporters with a stark choice: either promote violent forms of resistance, or sit quietly while Israel inflicts death by a thousand cuts on Palestinian statehood and any hopes of peace.

Global power dynamics

Truss makes clear that she will characterise any effort to hold Israel to account as "antisemitism". She intends to silence criticism of Israel for its human rights abuses at the United Nations, one of the very few international forums where Israel faces scrutiny.

And she promises to toughen the UK's stance towards Iran, the only counterweight to Israel's military dominance in the Middle East.

Sunak is barely less extravagant in his advocacy for Israel. He too extols the Free Trade Agreement, calls for intensified intelligence cooperation with Israel against Iran, promises to outlaw boycotts, and grossly mischaracterises the Abraham Accords - signed by some Gulf states to further isolate the Palestinians- as a "new era of peace".

Whether it is Truss or Sunak who replaces Johnson, each is already committed to championing Israel against the Palestinians and crushing dissent at home.

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Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. He is the 2011 winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are "Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East" (Pluto Press) and "Disappearing Palestine: (more...)
 

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