A senior Israeli official accused Britain of being “hell-bent on destroying” a relationship that has saved British lives after London moved to ban West Bank settlement goods the day after Israeli intelligence warned of an imminent Iranian-backed threat to RAF Fairford.

The article attributes the deterioration to domestic political pressures on both sides: Netanyahu’s electoral need to project strength against a “pro-Palestinian” Britain, and Labour’s need under new prime minister Andy Burnham to placate hard-left and Muslim-voter constituencies that have already cost the party seats and toppled Keir Starmer.

It concludes that the mutual political incentives risk locking the two governments into a reinforcing cycle of escalation unless the forthcoming Israeli elections produce a change of course.

On October 1 the UK’s Daily Telegraph quoted a senior Israeli official accusing the British government of being “hell-bent on destroying a relationship that has saved countless British lives.”

Strong language.  What sequence of events could have led him to this conclusion?

Early in September Israeli intelligence warned MI5, Britain’s secret service, that an Iranian-backed attack was imminent on an air base in England used by the US Air Force.  The very next day Ed Miliband, the UK foreign secretary, announced plans to ban the import of goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

In the early hours of September 27, armed police intercepted three suspicious vans near RAF Fairford in England.  Fairford is an airbase used by the US Air Force.  Five British men in their twenties were arrested.  The men were later released on bail while the investigation continued.  Former counter-terrorism police officers have since speculated that the incident was a “hostile reconnaissance operation”, intended as a “dry-run” for a more sinister attack.

Britain’s prime minister, Andy Burnham, said there were “strong indications” that Iran........

© Eurasia Review