For Britain, Israel is mostly a strategic liability – but a very close ally in stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
Now that Israel is locked in a war with Iran and Britain is rushing to send a handful of RAF jets to the region, that relationship needs careful managing.
The UK cannot afford to offer Israel unnecessary help and suffer reputation guilt by association with its campaign in Gaza – there is plenty for the RAF to do aside from that.
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has said that the aircraft may be used to defend the UK’s allies – in other words, shoot down Iranian missiles heading to Tel Aviv.
Helping Israel stop the erratic and malevolent Iranian regime from making the A Bomb is smart. Being seen to do so, and protecting Israel against the consequences, is not.
Iran has threatened to attack any US ally that defends Israel. The US has already helped shoot down ballistic missiles fired by Tehran in retaliation for the ongoing, and widespread, Israeli attacks on its air defences, missile systems, military leadership and nuclear programme.
The US has a vast array of military assets very close to Iran that are vulnerable to attack across the Persian (Arabian) Gulf with air force and navy bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, and Oman.
As a Nato member, the UK joining the defence of these locations would be good politics and part of the UK’s obligations to the alliance under the Article 5 mutual defence agreement.
But Reeves was opaque over what the RAF’s handful of aircraft, likely based out of Akrotiri in Cyrus, would be doing.
Asked whether the UK would come to Israel’s aid if asked, the chancellor told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “We have, in the past, supported Israel when there have been missiles coming in.
“I’m not going to comment on what might happen in the future, but so far, we haven’t been involved, and we’re sending in assets to both protect ourselves and also potentially to support our allies.”
Let’s be very clear. Israel is prosecuting a campaign against the population of Gaza with the intent, according to Israeli cabinet ministers, to empty the enclave of 2.5 million people. It is simultaneously campaigning on the West Bank, illegally taking land from Palestinians there, setting up colonies, and imposing a system of grand apartheid on the non-Jewish population.
The UK has attracted widespread criticism for its reluctant and tardy criticism of these operations and continues to operate a spy plane over Gaza while supplying small amounts of military equipment to Israel. This is a very bad look, a moral failure that could lead to blowback in the form of violence against the UK.
In April last year, the former head of MI6, Sir Alex Younger, told a Commons committee: “You cannot pretend that the international environment, our foreign policy or the way in which the west is perceived are not significant drivers of all of this”.
This is obvious. It should be obvious, too, to the British government that the very limited military capacity that the UK has will make no difference at all to the defence of Israel.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s forces were able to fly 200 planes in their first attacks on Iran this week. There’s no way the UK can get that many into the air under any circumstances.
Israel has, according to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Military Balance 2025, 240 fighter-bombers. The UK has 113. Israel has more attack helicopters (Apaches mostly) 38 vs 31, and the RAF has only nine aerial tankers compared to Israel’s 14.
Israel also has the kinds of air defence capabilities that the UK could only dream of; these include the Iron Dome systems, so effective against Hamas missiles. It also has the David’s Sling, which has a range of about 185 miles, that can take down short and medium-range missiles like Iron Dome by smashing into them mid-flight.
Meanwhile, its Arrow 2 defence system can hit incoming missiles 30 miles away at very high altitude, while Arrow 3 has a range of 1,500 miles and can shoot down missiles in space.
The UK and US do have a very important listening station in Akrotiri, which is also a busy airfield for planes flying over Gaza, and the whole of the Middle East. It is within range of Iranian missiles and would need defending by the UK’s extra jets and other assets.
Iran is likely to try to strangle oil traffic through the Gulf. The UK used to help patrol the region, but the Royal Navy has been steadily reducing its presence there.
Meanwhile, Britain runs the UK Maritime Trade Operations service, which advises shipping in the regions of the Gulf and Red Sea about security threats.
It has stepped up its warnings to shipping in the Gulf and has reported the jamming of navigation systems and ramming attacks by small, unknown vessels, before Israel’s sorties against Tehran. These operations are clearly ongoing rehearsals and training by Iranian forces.
So, there is plenty for Britain to do without suffering the reputational damage of helping Israel with military aid it hardly needs right now. It’s geopolitical dirty linen.
