Cameron backs Hague's criticisms of Israel

David Cameron returned from the first part of his summer holiday today and was interviewed on Radio Five.  He used the opportunity to talk about the A-list and to give strong backing to William Hague's recent criticisms of Israel:

"Elements of the Israeli response were disproportionate and I think it was right to say that and I think the prime minister should have said that.  I don't think it should be seen as an unfair criticism of Israel. It is just a statement of the fact.  Anyone who saw those pictures of the results of the terrible bombing of Qana couldn't, I think, come to any other conclusion than that some elements of the Israeli response were disproportionate.  Britain is a friend of Israel, yes, and a friend of the US, but in both cases, we should be candid friends and we shouldn't be scared of saying to our friends when we think they are making mistakes or doing the wrong thing. We should be clear and we should say so."

Once again David Cameron finds him out-of-step with leaders of the Anglosphere.  The pro-Israeli positions of Tony Blair and George W Bush are well known.  Friday's New York Sun noted that Australia and Canada were also solidly on Israel's side:

"The European Union may refuse to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. But when Mr. Howard was asked whether he planned to take Hezbollah off his government's terrorist list, he replied, "No chance, full stop. No chance at all." The Australian reports that "a defiant John Howard has personally told Australian Muslim leaders that the federal Government will not budge on its support for the disarming of Hezbollah" and that the prime minister "rejected demands by the Muslim leaders for the Government to support an immediate and unconditional ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah." A Muslim leader told the paper that Mr. Howard "said in a war like this when the fighters are hiding behind the civilians, then civilians are bound to die."

"In Canada - the El Dorado of America's liberals - the country's leaders have been no less stalwart. The foreign affairs minister, Peter MacKay, called Hezbollah a "cancer" and a "terrorist army" and said the Conservative government believes "it is not a difficult choice between a democratic state that was attacked by terrorists and cold-blooded killers." He told the Commons foreign affairs committee that there "cannot be simply a temporary solution to allow for the rearmament of the terrorist body and simply begin the violence again.  Prime Minister Harper, in remarks that outraged diplomats at the United Nations, called Israel's air strikes a "measured" response to Hezbollah's terrorist attacks. When a Canadian serving as a U.N.peacekeeper was killed, Secretary General Annan immediately accused Israel of deliberately targeting the peacekeeper. Mr. Harper responded that he doubted it was deliberate and instead questioned why the U.N. hadn't withdrawn their peacekeepers beforehand. When seven Canadians were killed by an Israeli air strike Mr. Harper again refused to blame Israel, saying "We are not going to give in to the temptation of some to single out Israel, which was the victim of the initial attack."

Comments

[Martin]

You can delete this message once you've noticed it but I believe the link to this thread is supposed to read, "Cameron backs Hague's criticisms of Israel." Not Cameron backs Israel's criticisms of Israel." Not trying to be a smart arse just thought i'd point it out.

[Prodicus]

"Anyone who saw those pictures of the results of the terrible bombing of Qana couldn't, I think, come to any other conclusion than that some elements of the Israeli response were disproportionate."

Eh? Where has he been? More to the point, what's he been reading?

Get a grip, Dave.

(I am trying not to become alarmed by this ignorance. No - forget that. I am alarmed.)

[northwest]

I'm delighted he has broken his holiday to say something eminently sensible that nearly all of the british people agree with, and is right.

You can't win this war without winning a hearts and minds campaign, and you can't win that without speaking out when children are bombed. His words were very carefully selected, and I'm delighted he's said this.

[Chad]

Notting Hill dwelling cheese-eating surrender monkey.

In short, Dave's gone LibDem on defence.

I'm sure he thinks this is a obvious spin to keep the LibDems onside, so OK Dave, if you are indeed a candid friend, surely you need to detail not just what you think your friend is doing wrong, but how you think they should have behaved (to make the response 'proportional')?

Otherwise,at a time when Israel is under a barrage of rocket attacks, it receives a phone call from Notting Hill telling them they are misbehaving? I'm sure they appreciate the 'constructive' thought!

[Disillusioned]

When a British Labour Prime Minister is in agreement with Conservative friends in the USA, Canada and Australia and the leader of the Conservative Party in Britain is in disagreement with such allies, instead backing corrupt bureaucrats in the EU and UN there’s something seriously wrong. By siding with the EU over the US, Australia and Canada Cameron is an embarrassment internationally. Unless this is a one-off I know my support for Cameron is pretty tenuous.

It’s depressing how silent Israel’s critics are on her provokers in Hezbollah, Iran and Syria. Their inability to grasp the basic fact that Israel’s enemies are operating from areas with a high concentration of civilians, rendering Israel’s aim of minimising civilian casualties difficult is frustrating. And their muted criticism of Hezbollah and Iran is outright disgusting. The only thing disproportionate meanwhile is the unfair criticism of Israel.

Littlejohn, although lacking the eloquence of the excellent Melanie Philips made some good points in a recent article;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/newscomment.html?in_article_id=399003&in_page_id=1787