You have no right to know why you're proud of the troops
Keir Starmer gave an odd speech this week. Visiting British troops at the Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Akrotiri, Cyprus. He said:
Thank you on behalf of so many citizens back in the UK who would love to be able to stand here and see you and say thank you. Thank you on behalf of the whole country.
But he also noted that:
Quite a bit of what goes on here can’t necessarily be talked about … We’re not saying it to the whole world for reasons that are obvious to you.
The elephant in the room that Starmer is avoiding is that the base is staging UK missions over Gaza and sending arms to Israel. His government issued a D-Notice. It urges the press not to report on this work that Britons are, apparently, both unaware of and thankful for. D-notices are not legally enforceable. But, the British press are a compliant crowd. So, they’re quite effective. You can only read about these operations in specialist publications, like Declassified UK, and in the foreign press.
Here’s what we do know:
On October 27 2023, it leaked that the Special Air Service (SAS) had deployed to RAF Akrotiri for operations in Gaza.
The following day the UK military sent out a D-Notice.
The UK Government is censoring MPs' requests for information about activities at the base.
The UK and U.S. military are supplying weapons and equipment to Israel via RAF bases.
The RAF has flown hundreds of reconnaissance missions over Gaza. It reportedly sends Israel targeting data collected on these flights.
In the past year, Israel flew only 20% of the reconnaissance missions over Gaza. The UK flew a whopping 47% on their behalf.
Casualty estimates of Israel’s “war” in Gaza vary from 44,805 (2% of the total population in the Gaza Strip) to 186,000 (7.9%).
Many NGOs and countries have called Israel’s actions a genocide. Notably, these include: Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, and the governments of South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Mexico, Chile, Palestine, Cuba, & Bolivia.
Britons, Starmer would have it, are proud of these troops because they’re doing something that Britons have no right to know about. Is he right?
In the broadest sense? Sure. Brits take pride in the troops and have done so since polls began. They have a "lions led by donkeys" attitude to the armed forces. The troops are well-liked (+59% net trust). Their leaders are hated (-74% net trust for government ministers).
Are Brits proud of the work happening at RAF Akrotiri specifically though? Absolutely not. British polls show strong support for a Gaza ceasefire. 73% are for it, 8% against. 55% support halting arms sales to Israel, 13% oppose. Every polling indicator is trending against Israel. 70% of Brits think that Israel is committing war crimes. Most young people in the UK do not believe that Israel should exist.
Britons know what Israel is doing in Gaza. They have seen the burning flesh with the intravenous drip still attached. They have heard the girls crying. They have seen the boy trapped under rubble, the boy with the hollow head, the child with no head at all. They have seen the children in pieces in plastic bags carried by their parents. They have seen how the blood pools at the bottom.
Keir Starmer and David Lammy are naïve. A D-Notice won't keep the stench of the mass grave off their suits for long.