As a former Middle East Minister I remained engaged with the region and have been truly horrified by the recent terrorist attacks on 7th October. that’s led to so much death and destruction as well as the taking of hostages.
There are, of course, serious issues and complex unanswered questions of politics, security and governance that sit behind recent events that must be addressed in due course.
I do agree Israel has the right to defend itself but publicly spoke against any ground invasion when there are clearly no plans to address the grow humanitarian crisis nor clarity in who will provide the leadership in Gaza now that Hamas have lost any claim to represent the Palestinian people.
I am pleased President Biden will visit Israel as this will offer more time for these urgent issues to be addressed and prevent this conflict from escalating into the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Southern Lebanon. We do need to listen to Martin Griffiths the UN’s Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator in recognising the urgency of preventing a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and I’m pleased our Prime Minister is speaking with Israel and neighbouring countries, specifically Egypt about how to get humanitarian aid in.
The International Communities objective is clear, we must neutralise Hamas to ensure security and lasting peace in the Middle East. But how this should be achieved will require more thought beyond the understandable urge for vengeance by launching a full ground invasion of Gaza. As we enter unchartered territory it’s even more important that we think both operationally and strategically ahead.
Stepping back from this issue, the world has entered an ever volatile, dangerous and unpredictable chapter with increasingly too many alarms ringing on the ‘global order dashboard’ for the West to cope with without adding a major conflict in the Middle East.
There are no easy solutions here. But any mission to remove Hamas must ensure the people of Gaza feel liberated from, not robbed of, their leadership. How that vacuum of governance is filled cannot be achieved by Israel alone. It should involve all its neighbours – Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar–and indeed the wider international community. There must also be a strategy to counter Iran’s poisonous proxy influence who have clearly been bank rolling Hamas and other terrorist groups in the region.
I hope all countries in the Middle East and beyond will distance themselves from Hamas’ terrorist actions as we all seek to support ordinary Palestinians who deserve better.
Understandably this has been called Israel’s 9/11. But following those attacks on America back in 2001, we now appreciate gave operational and strategic errors were made – however well intentioned – in the name of defeating terrorism, that led to significant escalation and radicalization. We must learn from history. How the next few days and weeks play out could have severe repercussions for years to come.
Given our own history and connectivity to the region, in the grand theatre of Middle East diplomacy, the UK leverages quite a unique position to explore both the short and long term options and I will be encouraging the UK government to do just this.
