Correspondance with the Government……

‘From time to time I like to hear the first hand account of our country’s standing in the world.  The only place from which to get the answers is the Government Ministers themselves.  It’s not a regular habit so I do not feel I am harrassing our Ministers an a daily basis, but for this particular issue I felt I needed to seek clarification’

By Email:

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

William Hague MP

Dear Mr. Hague

I am writing to express my concerns with the UKs foreign policy and for clarification with regard to its implementation.

The recent issues with Russia, Ukraine and Crimea have led to sanctions being imposed against individuals, including the freezing of bank accounts and limiting travel. There may be other sanctions of which I am unaware but your Government have chosen, quite reasonably, to take some action. A similar state of affairs exists regarding the issues with Syria.

What concerns me is the apparent lack of action when Israel breaches international laws and ignores UN resolutions. The “mainstream” media is undoubtedly biased in the reporting of events in Israel and Palestine and appears to give the impression that Israel acts in a democratic manner, whereas the Palestinians are portrayed as the aggressor and, worse still, that they are some kind of “terrorist” organisation. To anybody with deeper knowledge of the Palestinians position and, based on international laws, it is Israel which is the aggressor, building settlements in occupied territories and applying inhumane and degrading treatment of Palestinians at the checkpoints that they are forced to use, treating them as second class citizens in what is their country.   In contrast, the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are connected by roadways built exclusively for the Israelis, connecting the illegal settlements, further dividing Palestinian land and protected by electrified fences.

When one hears of the horror a Palestinian lady in labour being made to wait at a checkpoint for many hours, only to have her ID papers thrown back into her face, leading to the death of her child which she gave birth to on the roadside. Israelis are simply waved through in their specially constructed roads and one cannot reach any conclusion other than a deliberate action by Israel to further de-humanise the Palestinian people who have already lost 78% of their historical homeland, within living memory of the older residents.

We hear little, if any, sanctions being put in place against Israel. Your Government is proactively involved in arms trading with Israel. It could be British bullets that kill innocent children on a frequent basis. No action is taken against Israel despite UN resolutions telling them they are in breach of international law, and Britain plays a positive roll in supporting the Israelis

One who is suspicious of diplomatic relations can be led to only one conclusion; there are no specific rules by which diplomacy is applied. It as a cabal of nations and you are either “in favour” or “a pariah”. As the eloquent George W. Bush put it, “You are either with us or you are against us”. The convenience of “al Qaeda”, the invisible, non geographical “terrorists” are wheeled out to place the blame upon whenever an incongruent enemy is needed. I do not condone the killing of innocent civilians under any circumstances and that includes the hundreds of thousands of civilian lives, or collateral damage caused by our involvement in the conflicts of the Middle East. “Mission accomplished” is how David Cameron described Afghanistan recently. I have two questions regarding “mission accomplished”; first what mission has been accomplished and was that mission objective we set out to achieve in the originally. By my recollection America began indiscriminately dropping bombs in the mountains to “smoke him [Osama bin Laden] out, followed by a ground invasion to destroy the “al Qaeda” training camps (if one considers some monkey bars and a sheet of camouflage to crawl under a “training camp”).

Put simply, can the Minister explain why some nations are allowed to ignore international laws without redress, whilst others, and there are many, seem to carry one regardless, often with our support. Who decides which regimes we are happy to do business with and which are left out “in the cold”.

If the Minister feels unable to reflect upon these issues and explain the incongruities, I respectfully request that he finds someone who can explain the Government’s logic, up to and including the Prime Minister who is the Commander in Chief of our armed forces.

Yours sincerely

Mr. Stephen P. Walker.

 

‘Ill keep you posted when I get a reply…….’