Middle East

Lord Haskel Excerpts

Friday 16th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Haskel]

My Lords, I rarely trouble your Lordships with foreign affairs but I want to add my voice to those urging extreme caution over the threat to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.

I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, that Iran’s nuclear ambitions are a serious threat to Israel—indeed, they are a serious threat to us all—but that is all the more reason for extreme caution. One of our in-house military experts, my noble friend Lord West, has spoken elsewhere about how dangerous the idea is; how even a limited attack could escalate into something that we no longer have the military power to deal with; how faulty intelligence and rhetoric could box us into a position where we have no choice but to participate in some form of strike against Iran. As my noble friend Lord Anderson reminded us, once you start a battle you never know how it will finish—especially in the Middle East, where religion, sectarianism or family loyalties can have a strong and enduring influence, as the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, reminded us.

There will be pressures. I was in the United States during the recent visit of the Israeli Prime Minister. As noble Lords know, I am a long-standing and very staunch friend and supporter of Israel, but even I cringed at the blatant politicking that went on and the partisan show of support in the Republican primaries—support apparently intended to raise the tension over Iran’s nuclear threat. But in the US things are different now. As Martin Kettle pointed out in yesterday’s Guardian, the influence of the neo-cons has gone from the Administration.

Indeed, some of my American friends were very concerned that during the Israeli Prime Minister’s visit the impression was given that this neo-con view was the view of the American Jewish community. But surely what is important to us, as my noble friend Lord Soley implied, is the attitude of the British Jewish community towards Iran. It is concerned but conciliatory. How do we know that? We know it because last year the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, a community think tank—I declare an interest as its honorary president—conducted an attitude survey which, among other things, measured the Jewish community’s attitude towards a threat to Israel from a nuclear-armed Iran.

The survey showed very high levels of concern in the British Jewish community. Most strongly believe that Iran does pose an existential threat to Israel and so are supportive of measures that will protect Israel’s security. However, at the same time most British Jews share a profound wish for this and other Middle East conflicts to be resolved peacefully around the negotiating table rather than on the battlefield. Like the noble Lord, Lord West, they think that the risks involved in that are simply too grave. I will not burden your Lordships with the numbers but they are available on the internet. The Minister’s office should have a copy of this report because he may be interested in the British Jewish community’s attitude towards the settlements, negotiations with Hamas and other matters relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is all there.

As other noble Lords have observed, the Middle East picture is being redrawn as we speak. I agree with other noble Lords that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is part of this. The noble Lord, Lord Hannay, spoke of the Arab awakening. We have to recognise that the awakening phase of the Arab spring is over. We are waiting to see whether the dead hand of the past will continue to strangle the future, as it is doing in Syria. We are anxious to see whether the extremists will drive out the moderates or, as we all hope, there will be some sort of democratic outcome.

As I say, the picture is changing. We would all like a democratic outcome from the Arab uprisings but let us be sure that intelligence rather than politics guides our actions. As we talk, so we gain more intelligence—for example, as regards the existence of chemical and biological weapons, where they are and who controls them. We also gain intelligence on where power lies to make decisions regarding human rights and on the outcome of Kofi Annan’s mission. I welcome the Government’s support for that mission. It has the support of Russia and China, and members of the mission are also seeing regional leaders. Threats of bombing will only harden attitudes, so let us give diplomacy every opportunity to succeed. Let us keep up and increase the pressure through the United Nations both on Syria and Iran and keep trying to persuade China and Russia to modify their policies. Let us continue to work for peace, not war.