David Cameron dares to criticise Israel
ePolitix
David Cameron has criticised the prime minister for failing to denounce Israel's military tactics in Lebanon as "disproportionate".
The Tory leader's shadow foreign secretary William Hague sparked a furious row when he wrote last week that some of Israel's actions had been disproportionate, with former party treasurer Lord Kalms publicly accusing him of "mouthing the buzzwords of the ignorant armchair critic".
But Cameron has said he stood by Hague and said that Blair should have been readier to be publicly critical both of Israel and of the US.
The famous conversation between the prime minister and President George Bush caught inadvertently by a live microphone at the G8 summit in St Petersburg had shown the Prime Minister to be "nervous and begging and pleading'' in his approach to the president, said the Tory leader.
Instead, Britain should have been using its "diplomatic muscle" from an earlier stage to bring France and the US together in the hunt for a solution to the crisis, said Cameron.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: "Elements of the Israeli response were disproportionate and I think it was right to say that and I think the prime minister should have said that.
"I don't think it should be seen as an unfair criticism of Israel. It is just a statement of the fact.
"Anyone who saw those pictures of the results of the terrible bombing of Qana couldn't, I think, come to any other conclusion than that some elements of the Israeli response were disproportionate.
"Britain is a friend of Israel, yes, and a friend of the US, but in both cases, we should be candid friends and we shouldn't be scared of saying to our friends when we think they are making mistakes or doing the wrong thing. We should be clear and we should say so." Read more
db: It was like being savaged by a dead sheep [to quote D.Healey once more]. Cameron also 'welcomed' the draft resolution finally 'thrashed out' between the US and France yesterday, which he said "sounds like very good news". Of course he is right - but the news is limited to being 'good' for Israel, the US. the UK and any other party seeking to prolong the conflict in the vain hope of destroying Hizbullah.
David Cameron has criticised the prime minister for failing to denounce Israel's military tactics in Lebanon as "disproportionate".
The Tory leader's shadow foreign secretary William Hague sparked a furious row when he wrote last week that some of Israel's actions had been disproportionate, with former party treasurer Lord Kalms publicly accusing him of "mouthing the buzzwords of the ignorant armchair critic".
But Cameron has said he stood by Hague and said that Blair should have been readier to be publicly critical both of Israel and of the US.
The famous conversation between the prime minister and President George Bush caught inadvertently by a live microphone at the G8 summit in St Petersburg had shown the Prime Minister to be "nervous and begging and pleading'' in his approach to the president, said the Tory leader.
Instead, Britain should have been using its "diplomatic muscle" from an earlier stage to bring France and the US together in the hunt for a solution to the crisis, said Cameron.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: "Elements of the Israeli response were disproportionate and I think it was right to say that and I think the prime minister should have said that.
"I don't think it should be seen as an unfair criticism of Israel. It is just a statement of the fact.
"Anyone who saw those pictures of the results of the terrible bombing of Qana couldn't, I think, come to any other conclusion than that some elements of the Israeli response were disproportionate.
"Britain is a friend of Israel, yes, and a friend of the US, but in both cases, we should be candid friends and we shouldn't be scared of saying to our friends when we think they are making mistakes or doing the wrong thing. We should be clear and we should say so." Read more
db: It was like being savaged by a dead sheep [to quote D.Healey once more]. Cameron also 'welcomed' the draft resolution finally 'thrashed out' between the US and France yesterday, which he said "sounds like very good news". Of course he is right - but the news is limited to being 'good' for Israel, the US. the UK and any other party seeking to prolong the conflict in the vain hope of destroying Hizbullah.
posted by exoplanet at 2:33 PM
<< Home