Mere days earlier, Heappey likewise admitted that
nine Israeli military aircraft landed in Britain since Operation Al
Aqsa Flood on 7 October last year. Investigations by independent
investigative website Declassified UK show that Royal Air Force
aircraft have flown to
and from Israel in the same period, along with 65 spy plane missions
launched from the UK’s vast, little-known military and intelligence base in Cyprus.
The
purpose of those flights and who and/or what they carried are a state
secret. Freedom of Information requests have been denied, Britain's
Ministry of Defense has refused to comment, and local media is by and
large silent.
Nonetheless, in July 2023,
British ministers admitted that the UK's training of Israeli military
personnel includes battlefield medical assistance, “organizational
design and concepts,” and “defense education.” It is unknown if that
“education” has in any way informed the slaughter of more than 30,000 Palestinians since 7 October.
British military presence in occupied Palestine
Yet,
indications that London has long provided a highly influential guiding
hand to Tel Aviv in its oppression and mass murder of Palestinians are
unambiguous, even if hidden in plain sight. For example, in September 2019, the Israeli air force participated in a joint combat exercise with its British, German, and Italian counterparts.
The
Israelis deployed F-15 warplanes for the purpose, which have been
blitzing Gaza on a virtually daily basis since 7 October,
indiscriminately flattening schools, hospitals, businesses, and homes
and killing untold innocents.
A year earlier, in October 2022, it was quietly admitted in
parliament that London maintains several “permanent military personnel
in Israel,” all posted in the British Embassy in Tel Aviv:
“They
carry out key activities in defense engagement and diplomacy. The
Ministry of Defense supports the HMG Middle East Peace Process Programme
in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel. The program aims to
help protect the political and physical viability of a two-state
solution. We would not disclose the location and numbers of military
personnel for security reasons.”
'Joint activity'
Netanyahu
and other Israeli officials have openly and repeatedly boasted of their
personal role in blocking Palestinian statehood. We are thus left to
ponder what these British operatives are truly concerned about – it
certainly isn’t protecting “the political and physical viability of a
two-state solution,” as that entire project was evidently never
“viable,” by design. It could be those “permanent military personnel”
who are present under the auspices of a highly confidential December 2020 military cooperation agreement inked by London and Tel Aviv.
British
Ministry of Defense officials describe the agreement as an “important
piece of defense diplomacy,” which “strengthens” military ties between
the pair while providing “a mechanism for planning our joint activity.”
Its
contents are nonetheless concealed not only from the public but also
from elected lawmakers. Speculation can only abound that the agreement
compels Britain to defend Israel in the event it is attacked. Such
suspicions are only compounded by the visible presence of the UK’s elite SAS forces in Gaza today.
As a December 2023 investigation by The Cradle revealed,
this apparent deployment is protected from media and public scrutiny by
a dedicated Ministry of Defense-issued D-notice, as are other ominous
indicators Britain is shaping the theater and setting the stage in West
Asia for a full-blown, protracted region-wide war.
This included an as-yet-failed effort to pressure Beirut into
allowing armed British soldiers total, unrestricted freedom of movement
within Lebanon, along with immunity from arrest and prosecution for
committing any crime.
The monarchy's departure from neutrality
At countless protests the
world over in solidarity with Palestinians since last October,
demonstrators have brandished banners and signs imploring US President
Joe Biden to impose a ceasefire in Gaza, if not order Netanyahu to seek
peace. It is a noble demand, yet potentially misdirected. The true power
to halt Tel Aviv’s current push to fulfill Zionism’s genocidal founding
mission may not lie in Washington DC but in London – specifically,
Buckingham Palace.
An
extraordinary and largely unremarked upon development since Israel’s
military assault on Gaza began has been the British monarchy’s shameless
abandonment of “political neutrality” over Israel.
Queen
Elizabeth II, publicly at least, refrained from commenting on current
affairs or appearing to take “sides” on any issue throughout her 70-year
reign. However, her recently coronated son has apparently, without
fanfare, comprehensively shredded that longstanding convention.
King Charles the Zionist
Within hours of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’s eruption, King Charles openly condemned Hamas,
saying he was “profoundly distressed” and “appalled” by the “horrors
inflicted” by the resistance group and its “barbaric acts of terrorism.”
Hamas is not recognized as a terrorist entity by a majority of
countries internationally, while the BBC – which has relentlessly manufactured consent for genocide in Gaza every step of the way – rejects the designation’s use.
In the years immediately prior to taking the throne, Charles made his Zionism abundantly clear,
breaking with his mother’s unspoken policy of not visiting Israel,
secretly attending the funerals of former Israeli leaders Yitzhak Rabin
and Shimon Peres. In the latter instance, in 2016, he also visited the graves of
his grandmother, Princess Alice, and her aunt, Grand Duchess Elisabeth,
in a cemetery on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives, near the world’s largest
Jewish cemetery. Both were Christian Zionists.
The Jerusalem Post approvingly dubbed Charles’
Zionist sympathies and familial connection to the Mount “a problem for
Palestinians,” arguing he has a clear view of “who the city and the
country belong to.” Meanwhile, the Times of Israel has hailed him as “a friend” to Jewry “with special and historic ties to Israel.” One such “tie” was an intimate friendship with Britain’s former chief Rabbi and President of United Jewish Israel Appeal, Jonathan Sacks.