The dimensions of England’s all-round support to the Zionist regime.
Examining the Gaza war and the crisis caused by the usurping Zionist regime has caused the Palestinian crisis to be raised as one of the most important regional and international issues. The British government is one of the most important international players in the Zionist-Palestinian conflict, which has played a fundamental role in the formation of this regime and its support over the past seven decades. After the Al-Aqsa storm operation, this country has extended its support to the regime in political and military dimensions.
Ups and downs of London-Tel Aviv relations
England, which is considered the most important colonial power in Asia at the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, played the main role in the establishment of the Zionist regime in the form of the Balfour Declaration in 1917. The British purpose of issuing this declaration was to gain the support of the powerful Jewish diaspora for London’s policies. British Foreign Minister Balfour promised a homeland for the Jews in a letter addressed to Walter Rothschild, one of the famous figures of the Zionist movement. In this letter, it was mentioned that His Majesty’s government is following with interest the establishment of a national homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine and will do its best to make it possible. Although Palestine had a weak government, it was also considered a holy land for the Jews and had a suitable climatic and geographical location.
With the outbreak of World War II, a huge wave of Jews left for Palestine in line with the policy adopted by the British with the support of America to establish an independent Jewish state and strengthen the political foundation of Zionism. So, in addition to the previous migrations, during the 5 years of World War II, from 1939 to 1944, another hundred thousand Jews flocked to this land. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations approved the plan to divide Palestine into two countries, Israel and Palestine, and to administer the city of Quds internationally. This plan was approved by the Zionist leaders, and finally, in May 1948, at the same time as the end of the British protectorate over Palestine, Israel declared its existence by issuing the Charter of Independence.
The British policy towards the Second Arab War and the regime in the 1960s was open support for the Arab sides and covert support for the regime. By selling tanks to the regime, England played an important role in creating a balance between the regime and the Arab army of Egypt led by Abdel Nasser. During the 1967 Six-Day War, Britain provided the regime with intelligence reports on the size and capabilities of the Arab armies. In 1973 and after the Yom Kippur War, like other Western countries, London was affected by the consequences of the oil embargo of oil-producing Arab countries. In 1975, Britain voted against UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, which considered Zionism synonymous with racism.
The 1980s were the years of cold relations between the two sides. At the beginning of this decade, London opposed the regime’s new settlements in the occupied territories. In 1982, with the beginning of the Falkland War, which was accompanied by the death of more than 200 Englishmen, the revelation of the regime’s policy of selling weapons to Argentina caused a cold relationship between the two sides. The result of this cold relationship was the imposition of an arms embargo against the regime in the Lebanon war. Britain continued the arms embargo against the regime until 1994. During this period, London announced that it does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem. After the Oslo agreement in 1993 and the withdrawal of the regime from Gaza and Jericho, the relations between the parties increased.
With the beginning of the new century, relations between Britain and the regime increased. In 2009, the British government raised the issue of labeling goods produced in West Bank settlements. This caused the regime leaders to consider London as a supporter of the “boycott movement”. In February 2010, when fake British passports were used in a Mossad assassination operation against a Hamas leader in Dubai, Matthew Gould, the British ambassador to Israel, was linked to the matter. In 2011, the Anglo-Israel Technology Center was opened at the London Embassy in Tel Aviv. In 2012, bilateral trade increased by 34%. Since this year, the political, economic and military relations of the parties have accelerated.
Increasing economic-military relations in the last decade
The value of business relations between the UK and the regime is estimated at 7 billion pounds, and more than 400 regime technology companies operate in the UK. Military relations between London and Tel Aviv have also been continuously increasing.
In 2009, England admitted that the weapons made in this country were used by the regime in Operation Cast Lead (the 22-day war in Gaza). Since 2010, the two countries have cooperated in the development of drones through the Watchkeeper program, which has been deployed by British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 2015, Britain has also authorized military exports to the regime worth at least 474 million pounds ($601 million), including items such as warplanes, missiles, tanks, small arms, and weapon parts. Military cooperation has expanded to integrate naval, land, air, space, cyber, and electromagnetic capabilities. The Zionist regime considers London’s military support for Amman as a strategic priority due to having the longest border with Jordan.
Since 2017, conducting joint military exercises with the presence of regime fighters and the Royal Air Force has formed a new level of military cooperation between the two sides. Also, although London declared Hezbollah a terrorist organization in February 2019, Tel Aviv wants more pressure from London on the Lebanese government to stop the deployment of Hezbollah personnel in southern Lebanon and increase the group’s missile capabilities. The cooperation between the two sides in the field of cyber security is such that a senior British official in 2019 called it a “first-class partnership”. In December 2020, a defense cooperation agreement between the British Ministry of Defense and the regime’s army headquarters to increase cooperation in medical education.