The gloves come off as two-faced Israel and its lackeys search desperately for friends
As the war in Gaza escalates, Israel’s diplomatic wing is becoming more desperate and careless in its approach to winning friends and influencing people. Having frittered away international goodwill so brutally with its genocide of the Palestinians, its support on the world stage is dwindling, as are friends of the Zionist State’s allies.
When you get senior British diplomats like Mark Smith throwing in the towel in protest over the UK’s continued arms sales to Israel, claiming that the government is complicit in war crimes being committed in Gaza, senior politicians such as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy should sit up and take notice. Smith’s resignation pushed Israel’s partners in crimes against humanity in Westminster a step closer to the International Criminal Court and even the International Court of Justice. The climate today is very different to that twenty years ago when Tony Blair and Jack Straw took the UK to war in Iraq.
Smith served loyally at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and wrote a damning resignation letter that has brought further unwelcome scrutiny for the UK’s foreign policymakers, especially the duplicitous duo Starmer and Lammy. The former diplomat outlined his growing discomfort with the UK’s arms export practices, arguing that the British government’s claims of maintaining one of the most “robust and transparent” arms export licensing regimes in the world are misleading. He stated that his concerns over potential breaches of international humanitarian law had been dismissed by the department, leaving him with no choice but to step down.
“It is with sadness that I resign after a long career in the diplomatic service, however, I can no longer carry out my duties in the knowledge that this Department may be complicit in war crimes,” he wrote. Smith further described the ongoing violence in Gaza as clear and unquestionable examples of war crimes, accusing Israel of committing acts that violate international humanitarian law.
I fear that a vendetta will be launched soon and we will find out much more about Smith, his family and private life in a crude attempt to discredit him.
This is what British intelligence does; it targets once loyal servants of government and sets about dismantling their unstinting service to King and country, feeding the manufactured juicier bits surreptitiously to gullible and willing tabloid journalists.
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A classic example of this is our former man in Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, who was demonised beyond recognition, portrayed variously as a sleaze bag, mentally unstable and figure of ridicule. That was his reward for whistle blowing on the barbaric torture and murder carried out by the late Islam Karimov’s brutal regime in Tashkent. Some might say RIP when mentioning Karimov’s name, but may he burn in Hell for his crimes against humanity, which included boiling dissidents alive. Here’s a reminder of exactly what George W Bush and Blair’s best buddy got up to when Murray finally blew the whistle.
Smith’s resignation has caused a great deal of consternation within the FCDO and beyond, with many questioning the ethical implications of the UK’s involvement in the Israel-Palestine war. His decision follows a series of internal efforts to address these issues, which, according to Smith, were met with indifference or outright dismissal. The resignation letter was posted last week on X by Hind Hassan (@HindHassanNews), a journalist with VICE News, Al Jazeera and Sky News. I would not be surprised that as Britain becomes more complicit in Israel’s heinous war crimes and genocide there will be more resignations to follow.
Senior civil servants and diplomats are frequently honoured by their country, although not all accept them. Murray admitted in September 2022 that he’d turned down an array of “Empire” medals and awards. “I had earlier in my career been asked if I would accept an OBE and said no,” he once recalled. “Anyway, in my audiences [meetings] I told the Queen I was both a republican and a Scottish nationalist. I should state in fairness that she was absolutely fine with that, replied very pleasantly and seemed vaguely amused. Instead of the honour, she gave me personal gifts each time – a letter rack made by Viscount Linley, and a silver Armada dish.” He later auctioned the letter rack to raise funds for Julian Assange, he added.
Honours aside, some of Britain’s most senior diplomats, legal advisers and politicians are seriously worried that far from having glittering awards to look forward to they could face war crime charges at The Hague. Given that they are guilty of continuing to send arms to the genocidal Zionist state, their fears are not unfounded.
The Latin motto of the Diplomatic Corps is “Ex Amicitia Pax”, which means “peace from friendship”. That sounds very cosy until it comes to the nettlebed that is Israeli diplomacy. There’s little evidence of peace — or genuine friendship, come to think of it — on display with those who get too close to Zionist envoys or plenipotentiaries.
Mainstream journalists who have exposed the lies and discrepancies of Israeli diplomats, for example, or are deemed to be supportive of Palestine, are rarely seen or heard of again. There are genuine fears for the future career of top BBC presenter Mishal Husein, who recently hoisted Israeli mouthpiece David Mencer by his petardon the corporation’s flagship “Today” programme.
And the future career of Kamali Melbourne is a cause for concern after ex-Israeli PM Naftali Bennet screamed at the Sky Presenter — watch it here — because of worries about Palestinian babies. Earlier, former Israeli envoy Danny Danon called for Sky TVto sack presenter Belle Donati after she dared to draw comparisons between the Holocaust and Gaza during this interview.
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In Scotland, meanwhile, there’s quite a brouhaha unfolding over a secret meeting between a junior Israeli diplomat and a high-flying Scottish minister with high ambitions and previous form of surreptitious meetings with Israeli “diplomats”. The latest meeting was never meant to be publicised, because who wants to be seen rubbing shoulders with Zionists just days before more Israeli war crimes are being planned?
Step forward Angus Robertson, for it was he.
Scotland’s External Affairs Secretary is a bit of a fanboy of Tel Aviv and was more than happy to stand alongside Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to the UK, Daniela Grudsky, sporting what looked like an Israel-Scotland pin flag in his lapel.
“Angus nearly sh*t himself when he saw the photograph go out on the X platform,” my mole in the Scottish parliament in Holyrood told me. “He’d understood that his meeting with Ms Grudsky was under the radar and private.” According to Grudsky, the pair discussed the release of Israeli hostages and that Israel was “looking forward to cooperating” with Scotland in areas including culture and renewables.
I cannot believe that the deputy ambassador thought publishing the tweet was nothing more than an innocent, friendly gesture. It could, in the end, cost Robertson his position as calls for his resignation increased over the weekend.
While dropping bombs indiscriminately on innocent Palestinians, Israel obviously planted this bombshell on X, lit the fuse and waited, with glee no doubt, for the explosive fallout. It took only a few minutes before it arrived. Now many senior politicians in the governing SNP are calling for Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney to sack Robertson, who already disgraced himself and the party in the eyes of many in the 2017 Al Jazeera documentary “The Lobby”.
Former First Minister Alex Salmond, now leader of the rival Alba Party, called for Robertson to be sacked. “If you’re going to make serious representations, you make them direct to the Israeli Government and make them public…” said Salmond in a video on the Alba website.
“If I was still First Minister, I’d just sack him.”
Despite the political storm, Swinney defended the face-to-face meeting with the Israeli government representative. However, if he thought that his problems would be over having done so… along came another obsequious politician, Glasgow MSP John Mason, who used the Robertson saga to promote his own pro-Israel interests.
Did Mason think Swinney would support him? If so, he was wrong. Yesterday he was expelled by Swinney because of his tweets and undiluted support for Israel. Mason was stripped of the party whip after “completely unacceptable” social media posts about the conflict in Gaza. He said, for example, that Israel’s actions in Gaza did not amount to “genocide”.
“To flippantly dismiss the death of more than 40,000 Palestinians is completely unacceptable,” said a spokesperson for SNP Chief Whip. “There can be no room in the SNP for this kind of intolerance. The Chief Whip has today withdrawn the whip from John Mason MSP with immediate effect, pending internal Parliamentary Group due process.”
The party is planning a meeting to discuss the issue, with a recommendation of a fixed period suspension, for what they described as an “utterly abhorrent comment”. Mason was suspended the day after it emerged that at least 40,000 Palestinians have now been killed by Israel in Gaza. That grim statistic, however, is probably a serious underestimate, with at least another 10,000 Palestinians missing, presumed dead, under the rubble of their homes and other civilian infrastructure destroyed by the apartheid state. By late April this year, it was estimated that Israel had dropped more than 70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza, surpassing the bombing of Dresden, Hamburg and London combined during World War Two.
Meanwhile, as the Middle East crisis deepens and the Israeli military looks increasingly beleaguered in Gaza, the fallout from the Zionist State’s belligerence is affecting friend and foe alike. If Mark Smith’s resignation letter does anything at all, more resignations and, indeed, prosecutions should follow. Cheering on and condoning Israel’s genocide from the sidelines, as successive British politicians have done, is one thing. Open complicity in its murderous campaign is another. Israel’s impunity must end, and so must the lack of accountability for its lackeys in Westminster and Holyrood.
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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.