Our leaders are too eager to revisit the UK’s one-time role as police officer to the world. This isn’t the way to do foreign affairsto defend Israel against Iran at the weekend was an emphatic intervention in the war in Gaza. It was more than Britain has done for Ukraine. And while the war in Ukraine does at least have implications, albeit distant, for Britain’s long-term defence, Israel’s dispute with Gaza has none. It is not Britain’s business.
The war in Gaza is a tragedy for all concerned. It arose from history, geography, politics and religion, from a longstanding conflict. It is a classic of what modern strategists such as Sir Rupert Smith have called “wars among the peoples”. These are not confrontations of weaponry against weaponry. The “utility of war” has shifted to one of people against people, of cities, crowds, streets, houses.
What the explosive testimony of a minister reveals about Britain’s war in Afghanistan – and its rogue special forces | Frank LedwidgeThese wars rarely concern outsiders. As now in Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Myanmar, they concern authority over territory. Yet they acquire an awful appeal to vain outsiders. They drewand tried to draw him into Syria. They embedded Tony Blair for years in Afghanistan and Iraq.
There is no question of the widespread involvement of Russia, China and Iran in local conflicts that inevitably break out across the world. It can be seen in Syria and Gaza, and from central Africa to Latin America. There is every reason for western nations to discuss how to react to this, as there is for them to seek peace in Israel. Intervening to prolong war cannot be the way to do it.