© unknownUK's chief of defense staff, General Sir Nick Carter on visit to Israel, April 2019
As violence escalates in Israel and Palestine, we take readers through the expanding military relationship between the UK and Israel,
which has been erased by the British media. The deepening alliance involves
UK military training of Israel for combat, joint exercises, arms deals, as well as intelligence cooperation.The UK's new military strategy, released in March,
states clearly that
"Israel remains a key strategic partner".Months before the importance of the relationship was spelled out, the military chiefs of the two states signed a cooperation agreement "to formalise and enhance our defence relationship, and support the growing Israel-UK partnership",
according to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). Following the agreement, Britain's ambassador to Israel, Neil Wigan,
tweeted he was "delighted", saying it would "further deepen our military cooperation".
What is in that agreement is secret and has not even been formally acknowledged by the UK government. But Israel lobby group Bicom (the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre) has
written that the two militaries are
"integrating their multi-domain capabilities in maritime, land, air, space, and cyber and electromagnetic".This is an extraordinary development and follows recent visits to Israel by two UK chiefs of the defence staff, General Sir Nick
Carter in 2019 and his predecessor, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart
Peach in 2017.
Comment: The Goldstone Report concluded that both Israel and the Palestinians had committed war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity. The most obvious question people were asking was the effect of this report on the International Criminal Court. Israel then, as now, claimed the ICC had no jurisdiction over Israel as it was a non-signatory to the Rome Statute.
As the US president at the time, Obama would have been privy to this Israeli-Palestinian Authority arrangement.
Click on this Wikileaks website link to view the cables.